Paul Burke, the City of Thunder Bay’s Special Events Developer, is a finalist in the Sport Tourism Champion category for the 2017 Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance (CSTA) PRESTIGE Awards.
The award recognizes the outstanding contributions of an elected or paid federal, provincial or municipal official who greatly impacted sport tourism in their community in 2016.
Winners will be announced at a luncheon at the Westin Ottawa on March 21.
In a Feb. 1 City of Thunder Bay news release, Burke and his team is credited for luring major sports championships and events to the city, such as the Rogers Hometown Hockey event held at Prince Arthur’s Landing and the Can-Am Police-Fire Games.
The Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour in last January at Prince Arthur’s Landing drew more than 11,000 people to the two-day festival.
The Police-Fire Games this past summer was considered as one of the largest multi-sport events ever held in Thunder Bay attracting 571 competitors from 18 U.S. states and seven Canadian provinces as well as Australia, England and Ukraine.
There were 544 volunteers and over 100 sponsors involved.
The finalists in all eight award categories were selected from nominees across the country, representing a wide spectrum of the sport tourism industry.
The 24 finalists are from seven different provinces and 20 cities/communities. The events recognized range from local to national to major international championships and tournaments. The awards also honour outstanding volunteers and organizations, who work to bid, host and stage sport events across Canada.
