'Come and see': Sask. Tourism Week seeks to highlight travel sector

Here's the impact of tourism week in Sask. WATCH: It's Tourism Week in Saskatchewan. Hear some of the efforts underway to draw visitors to the province.

Coinciding with tourism week in Canada, Saskatchewan Tourism Week 2023 is bringing the province’s vibrant and diverse tourism sector to the forefront from April 24-30.

According to Tourism Saskatchewan, tourism in the province generates around $2 billion in annual travel spending and employs 70,000 Saskatchewan residents with full and part-time jobs.

Jonathan Potts, the CEO of Tourism Saskatchewan, said the significance of the week is greater following the pandemic.

“It’s been a tough go for the industry,” Potts said during an interview with CTV Morning Live.

“We’re coming back strong and we’ve got 3,000 businesses across the province that support the communities that they’re in, that give everybody here and people from around the country and world something great to do and this is a time to celebrate that,” Potts said.

Potts said prior to the pandemic Tourism Saskatchewan was around a $2.4 billion industry and by 2030 they are aiming to be a $3.6 billion industry.

“We’ve got a lot to offer and we’ve got the capacity to take more people in and we want to do everything we can to help the industry get there,” Potts said on growing tourism in Saskatchewan.

Potts said in May they have a travel team heading to Quebec City to meet with those in the industry from around the world to tell them some of the great stories about Saskatchewan with the goal to get more people coming to the province from across the globe.

“We’ve got another event in Saskatoon in September called Go Media, where there will be writers from across North America coming and checking out Saskatchewan,” she said.

Potts said those writers will be going on familiarization tours before they write stories or create videos and documentaries about Saskatchewan.

“We have so much of what people want,” Potts said.

“They want those open spaces and they want fresh air, the Northern Lights, really there are so many things that we take for granted in Saskatchewan that are actually in demand around the world and people will pay good money to come and see.”