City of Thunder Bay Media release
February 1, 2017 – The City of Thunder Bay’s Special Events Developer, Paul Burke, 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 official (federal, provincial, municipal) who greatly impacted sport tourism in their community in 2016.
Major sports championships and events were held in Thunder Bay thanks to Burke and his team, 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 had over 11,000 people attending the two-day festival.
The Police-Fire Games this past summer was 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.
Winners will be announced on March 21 in Ottawa during the 11th PRESTIGE Awards gala luncheon part of the CSTA’s annual Sport Events Congress.
