Finishing touches are being applied to the Calgary Stampede, and even amid international economic uncertainty, city officials are confident that the 2025 edition will bring the bank back home.
On the eve of Sneak-a-Peek, Mayor Jyoti Gondek joined Calgary Stampede (CS) CEO, Joel Cowley, in giving a behind-the-scenes tour of the grounds that they estimate will be home to a second year of astonishing attendance.
“Stampede means that jobs are created, that businesses are supported, that hotel rooms are filled and that patios are packed,” said Mayor Gondek.
With already high sales in items like rodeo tickets, Cowley said that 2025 could be another record-breaking event, following last year’s 1.47 million attendees. During which, less than half of all visitors came from out of town.
“It’s that 27 per cent from outside of Calgary that stay in hotel rooms, and even restaurants, and rent cars, and travel in taxis,” he said.
“They bring money to Calgary that otherwise wouldn’t be here.”
That same year, 73 per cent of all visitors were from the Calgary area. Cowley said that the CS annually employs roughly 4,000 local workers and that the event simply wouldn’t be what it is today without them.
“We owe the core of our success to the community,” he said.
“We take great pride in hosting a community celebration where everyone has a shared experience and feels a sense of belonging.”
However, President and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Deborah Yedlin, said that local will take on a new meaning this Stampede, one where internal tourism could be favoured under today’s fickle economy.
“People are spending local, and local means national,” she said.
Unsteady trade relations equal more tourists in Calgary: Yedlin
Since the threat and later implementation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, a survey by the Angus Reid Institute found that roughly four in five Canadians planned to purchase locally-made goods over imported ones. Yedlin said that this trend could transfer into Stampede attendance.
“I think that we’re going to see more people from across the country coming to see what it’s all about,” she said.
“Instead of going somewhere else, they are going to be coming to Calgary, and then going on from here to other parts of the province, and probably into other parts of Western Canada.”
According to Tourism Calgary, Q1 of 2025 revealed that U.S. visitor spending increased by 4.5 per cent compared to the year-over-year average. CEO Alisha Reynolds said that while Canadians may be staying in the country, she anticipates seeing an influx of Americans.
“We’ll always have strong ties with our friends in the U.S, and of course, our doors are always open,” she said.
Just recently, the Rotary Convention brought 16,000 visitors to the city. Just before that, in May, Reynolds said that the G7 Summit played a role in Calgary hotels reporting a combined occupancy rate of 73 per cent — a 13-year record-breaking sum.
With another 200 festivals set to happen this summer, Reynolds cited the Conference Board of Canada’s forecast that the city will see 8.7 million visitors in 2025, and that 40 per cent of those will come and go between May and September.
While most events range in the thousands to tens of thousands, Stampede attendance is no stranger to being considerably more than a million. Cowley said that the renovated BMO Centre has created more room on the grounds and that the CS is not concerned about their ability to host crowds.
“We feel confident we have space or people where they can go, sit down, and rest, relax, recharge, and stay in the park as long as they like,” he said.
