A 10-day rodeo, exhibition, and festival—the Calgary Stampede is a favourite amongst Albertans and Canadians alike, so its return on July 9th, 2021, was a welcome one. It also corresponded with easing restrictions across the province that helped everyone from retailers to restaurant owners take advantage of the crowds, resulting in some positive consumer spending behaviour.
How did people spend during the Calgary Stampede?
A boost in spirits and a boost in consumer spending was in order with the return of the Calgary Stampede in Alberta on July 9th. The week brought back some of our favourite events and brought crowds back to small businesses throughout Calgary and the province as a whole.
Settling into their hotels.
Fans of the Calgary Stampede flocked to the city to be closed to the festivities. Our data suggests that hotels in the area enjoyed a 90% spend increase as a result, which helped to make up for earlier in the year when restrictions impacted their sales.
Easing restrictions also helped the rest of the hotels across the province experience a respectable 42% increase in consumer spending as people rushed to enjoy the return of other activities, they had been missing like tourist attractions and indoor dining.
Bearing down with beer and barbecue.
Bars and restaurants in Calgary also enjoyed the extra visitors who came to enjoy the Stampede. They saw a 51% increase in consumer spend over last year as they filled their patios and treated their guests to the indoor dining experience they’ve been missing.
The province saw a respectable increase of 27% in consumer spending as they also enjoyed easing restrictions on indoor dining and relatively clear skies to allow for full patios.
Showing their support with shopping.
Increased capacities in retail stores and the Calgary Stampede’s market helped to give a boost to apparel sales across the city by 42% over last year.
The rest of the province also enjoyed some shopping as they entered stage two of their reopening plan with 31% consumer spend increase, which corresponded with a boost in capacity limits to 1/3 of their occupancy.
Taking in sights across the province.
The Stampede wasn’t the only busy tourist attraction in the province as July 1st also marked the return of other attractions like museums, comedy clubs, and amusement parks.
All of these categories saw a lift across the province this week with tourist attractions seeing an 80% increase in consumer spending, theaters and clubs seeing an 897% increase, and amusement parks seeing a 326% increase.
The Calgary Stampede marked a shift in Alberta’s COVID-19 restrictions that help consumers and business owners alike kick off the summer with some familiar events and activities that got spending moving in the right direction.
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Moneris spending reports measure spending in Canada across a range of categories by analyzing credit and debit card transaction data. The figures and percentages cited are derived from aggregated transaction volumes being processed by Moneris in the applicable categories, as compared to transaction volume from the prior year unless otherwise stated
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