The Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend ranks first in Canada among a list of 50 global races for its economic impact, according to a new report.
In the “Marathons 50 2025” report by Brandirectory, the Ottawa Race Weekend ranked 18th out of the 50 races from around the globe with the greatest economic impact on their respective cities, generating US$78 million or about $109 million for Ottawa.
The Ottawa event ranked above Toronto at 24, Vancouver at 35, Calgary at 38 and Montreal at 41.
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The top three races were the Bank of America Chicago Marathon (US$627 million), TCS New York City Marathon (US$622 million) and BMW Berlin Marathon (US$505 million).
Mike Vieira, executive director of Run Ottawa, the organization in charge of the race, said the Ottawa Race Weekend has been an “underappreciated gem” when it comes to being an economic driver for the city.
“We punch above our weight. Internationally, there’s some pretty big players out there. We’re not the biggest city in the world or the (destination with the most cachet), but we’re helping drive the local economy in a way and have been doing so for almost 50 years,” he told OBJ on Tuesday.
Marathons go hand-in-hand with tourist destinations such as Ottawa, Vieira added, meaning that one complements the other.
“If you have a city that’s a neat tourist attraction and you have something like a marathon or a major race weekend, it has a multiplier effect, where both of these factors really sort of drive more tourism to the event … It’s a really cool feather in our hat,” he said.
This year’s race, May 24-25, will host almost 37,000 people, with about half coming from out of town. Vieira said an out-of-town participant is someone coming from about 100 kilometres away from the centre of Ottawa.
“There’s huge proportions (of participants) from Montreal, Quebec, Toronto and southern Ontario. That’s our main catchment. We’re less international but we still get a couple thousand people from outside Canada,” he said.
A large portion of the economic impact comes from spending near the downtown core, where the races take place.
Vieira said Run Ottawa has partnered with HTG Sports, a sports events management company, to facilitate accommodation bookings for participants. He said HTG has confirmed about 3,000 room nights for hotels in the downtown core.
“(Participants) are not only a patron of Ottawa Race Weekend itself, they’re doing the hotels, dining out, bringing their family, doing the whole tours thing in the downtown area. They’re also coming to the (Running and Fitness) Expo and spending money on merchandise for the race,” he said.
The race weekend will be hosting a bigger expo, moving from the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne Park to Carleton University’s Fieldhouse and bringing together a number of retailers and vendors.
“Even at a bigger space, we’re sort of bursting at the seams. We have vendors out in the parking lot now. It’s really neat. There will be everything that you could want, from gear to supplements,” he said.
“Like any race weekend, we’re expecting the city to come out and enjoy and cheer for their friends and family,” he said.
