The Rideau Canal is frozen and packed with skaters, which is a good sign for Ottawa’s tourism sector this year, according to the Conference Board of Canada.
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The Rideau Canal is frozen and packed with skaters, which is a good sign for Ottawa’s tourism sector this year, according to the Conference Board of Canada.
In its 2025 economic outlook for the Ottawa-Gatineau region released last week, the Conference Board predicted that tourism is expected to boom in the region with a snowy and cold start to the year, especially when compared to the past two seasons.
“In 2023, we didn’t see the Rideau (Canal Skateway) open at all and then last season was the second-shortest season on record,” the Conference Board’s lead economist Richard Forbes told OBJ last week. “The short season, it really hurt tourism numbers. This year so far has been pretty frigid and the skateway has been booming over the last couple of weeks.”
Strong tourism could be especially important for the city’s economy this year, according to Forbes. While the Conference Board initially projected an economic turnaround for the region in 2025 due to interest rate cuts and lowered inflation, uncertainty around tariffs between the U.S. and Canada could lead consumers to once again tighten their purse strings and hunker down.
However, if domestic travellers know they can visit Ottawa for a weekend to enjoy free winter activities like the skateway, Forbes said it’s a boon for the rest of the economy.
“We’ll see a lot of businesses benefiting from that; hotels, restaurants, especially with the GST holiday break until the middle of February,” he said. “We see a benefit to food services and accommodations and that ends up trickling down into more jobs created for the city and then ends up trickling down even more into retail sales and other parts of the city. There’s a lot of spillover effects from greater tourism numbers.”
Tourism also got a boost over the holiday season with the world junior hockey championship in December generating around $50 million in additional spending for the local economy, according to numbers from Ottawa Tourism.
While winter has always been a big draw for travellers to Ottawa, Forbes said summer is still the biggest tourism season for the city. And a strong winter, he said, could mean an even stronger summer.
“When the year starts so well, businesses have the capacity to hire more employees and they have more money to put into their business,” he said. “As the season goes into spring and summer, they actually have more ability to provide services. A couple years ago, a lot of restaurants and hotels were having a hard time finding workers. So the really strong start to the year really snowballs.”
While it’s hard to predict how long the cold weather will last, Jerome Miousse, director of public affairs for Ottawa Tourism, told OBJ that the early statistics are showing good signs.
“November, December and January have been looking good,” he said. “Numbers are slightly up from last year. We’re still hoping to slowly get back to 2019 numbers, which were a record year for us.”
With winter weather less and less reliable each year, Miousse said tourism operators, as well as festivals like Winterlude, have diversified their attractions to be less reliant on weather. But the canal remains an unquestionable draw for tourists.
Canadian Heritage, which runs Winterlude, recently reported that last year’s festivities attracted 500,000 people. While still below the 600,000 visitors the festival saw pre-pandemic, Miousse said it’s a good sign.
“We’re hoping now that their diversified offer, both indoors and outdoors, will help get those numbers back to what we had pre-pandemic,” he said.
He added, “To be honest, the last two seasons were difficult. So it’s great seeing people out there. It’s good for the businesses in town. And it’s a bucket list item for a lot of Canadians. So we’re very happy to be able to welcome them in Ottawa for that signature winter experience.”
The cold winter season, especially with Winterlude in full swing, is an attraction not just for leisure tourists, but business travellers as well.
Business travel has yet to recover from the hit it took during the pandemic, but the promise of the canal and other winter activities makes the city more attractive for conferences and meetings, Nina Kressler, president and CEO of the Rogers Centre Ottawa, told OBJ in an email.
“Winterlude, with its unique blend of ice sculptures, outdoor activities, and cultural events, offers a compelling reason for conference organizers and attendees to choose Ottawa,” she said.
“Including having the Rideau Canal Skateway, just steps from the Rogers Centre Ottawa, a unique experience delegates can only receive in our city. The festival not only showcases the beauty and vibrancy our city has to offer during the winter months but also enhances the appeal of business events held here during that period.”
She added, “We believe that by continuing to promote and support our wide array of attractions, we can further boost business travel and contribute to the overall economic health of our city. The Rogers Centre Ottawa remains committed to working with our partners in the tourism and hospitality sectors to ensure that Ottawa remains a top choice for business travellers year-round.”
