Saskatoon stood to gain millions of dollars from Junos: Tourism CEO

The cancellations of the 2020 Juno Awards along with a number of other events have come as a blow to the tourism industry in Saskatchewan, especially in Saskatoon where the annual Junos music awards show was set to happen.

The CEO of Tourism Saskatoon estimates that the economic impact to the city would have been about $9 million.

“Every indication was that we had achieved that with extended hotel room blocks and (bookings),” Todd Brandt said while speaking with Gormley on Friday.

Making the last-minute decision and announcement to cancel the event was anything but easy.

“To have to pull the plug so close to the event was really gut-wrenching, not just for ourselves, but certainly for the whole … staff team that were here in Saskatoon,” Brandt said.

Brandt said he’s also worried about the many people in the service sector who were set to work the week’s events.

“They are much more financially sensitive, and for them not to be able to work multiple events this weekend, you know that hurts,” he said.

“A lot of people are not taking a paycheque home this weekend because we’re not hosting the Junos, and there’s no chance of recovering that.”

He’s also worried about other events in the city that were either cancelled or potentially could be cancelled, calling the Junos “the tip of the iceberg.”

“We’re in discussions right now with the International Crop Sciences Congress, which would have brought another $2.5 million of economic impact,” he said.

“That’s likely to be postponed or cancelled.”

It’s set to run June 21-25 at the city’s Prairieland Park.

“There are so many other smaller events,” he said. “We’ve lost the Canadian Association of Health Services that was coming in. Obviously they need to be on station. We appreciate that.”

Brandt hopes that if virus concerns and social-distancing directives last into the summer, the city doesn’t see more cancelled events.

“We’re in discussions with meeting planners in Canada and some international groups as well on, ‘What is the best scenario? What is your booking time? And can we just bump you by a few months?’ which is a lot easier for us to manage,” he said.

Still, there will be economic fallout from COVID-19, he said.

“The reality is there’s lost business,” Brandt said. “Room rights are ephemeral; once you sold one, you never get that back … 15,000 people (in Saskatoon) are employed in tourism.”