The tourism industry is growing in the Weyburn-Big Muddy area, and Tourism Saskatchewan plays a large role in how that growth continues, industry members found out at the recent biannual meeting held in Estevan for Tourism Saskatchewan.

The provincial organization holds meetings twice a year, and for the first time one of those meetings was held in the southeast. Weyburn's tourism coordinator Donna Hastings attended the meeting, as she is also the chair of the Southeast Regional Tourism Association.

Asked what the benefit is of Tourism Saskatchewan to Weyburn, Hastings listed a number of ways they are helpful to the city's tourism efforts, including providing a grant and information for use not only by the city but by tourism-related businesses throughout the Weyburn region.

"The biggest thing is they're a wealth of information. As Weyburn is a member of the Southeast Regional Tourism Association, we're automatically a member of Tourism Saskatchewan. They have all their information brochures at our visitor information centre," she said.

For example, if someone wanted to get information on goose hunting in the Weyburn area, the Tourism Saskatchewan web site has the information as far as dates for the hunting season, what kind of accommodations are available, and information is given about the City of Weyburn's annual hunter hospitality evenings.

When the city wants to advertise for tourism, such as of the upcoming Summer Games and Wheat Festival, Tourism Saskatchewan provides matching grant dollars to assist with advertising costs on a 60-40 cost split, with the local municipality or organization paying 60 per cent. The Southeast association also produces a vacation guide, with some funding provided by Tourism Saskatchewan.

In addition, training of hospitality industry personnel is provided through the Saskatchewan Best program, offered by the Saskatchewan Tourism Education Council (STEC), said Bruce Eaton, board chair of Tourism Saskatchewan.

In an interview following the annual meeting, Eaton noted the importance of tourism to the province was seen in the recent provincial budget, as Tourism Saskatchewan maintained its budget amount of $7.1 million without any cuts. While there is this funding from the province, the group is autonomous from the government, said Eaton, and the budget is topped up close to $10 million with contributions from the industry. In turn, Tourism Sask. helps those in member communities to develop a tourism plan for that community.

"The southeast is certainly a growing area of the province," noted Eaton.

The statistics of employment, revenue and businesses related to tourism, provided by Tourism Saskatchewan, show tourism is a growing concern in the Weyburn-Big Muddy area.

In terms of jobs, there were 672 tourism-related jobs as of August of 2002, an increase of 21.3 per cent from August of 1997, and up 32.8 per cent from 1994.

Tourism-related businesses and events in Weyburn-Big Muddy numbered 60 as of 2002, which is up 1.7 per cent from 1994. This does not include restaurants and gas stations.

Looking at tourism revenues, travellers spent approximately $13 million directly in the Weyburn-Big Muddy area in 2001, an increase of 7.4 per cent from 1997, and up 19.3 per cent from 1994.