Economy

There’s a new charity golf tournament coming to Ottawa this summer, but if you’re what they call a weekend hacker, forget it. This tourney is geared toward more devoted disciples of the game.

The Ottawa business community hit the links recently in support of The Ottawa Hospital Foundation at the sixth annual Golf Quest 4 Clinical Trials.

Clouds of smoke and smog might have obscured the view but didn’t deter too many adrenaline-seekers from ziplining across the Ottawa River this weekend, operators say.

While the head of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada warns that businesses are struggling to stay afloat under a pile of debt and a lack of overseas visitors, at least one local tourism operator seems to be bucking the trend.

A growing wave of intensification near LRT stations in Ottawa’s east end is poised to continue with a plan to build a hotel near the Taylor Creek Business Park in Orléans.

For the 16th year, members of MCA Ottawa will swap their tools of the trade for golf clubs to add to the $635,000 that has been donated to date to the Ottawa Food Bank.

Small businesses and tourism operators in Ottawa are seeing visitors cancel tours and avoid sightseeing around the city amid lingering clouds of smoke and poor air quality from wildfires burning in Ontario and Quebec. 

Ross Meredith, the general manager of the Westin Ottawa and the Delta Ottawa City Centre hotels, said he thinks it will “probably take a few years” for the Ottawa tourism sector to see pre-COVID levels of overseas visitor spending.

As director of communications for Ottawa Tourism, Jantine Van Kregten spent 20 years showing off the best of the capital city.