{"id":919448,"date":"2026-07-13T01:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T06:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/13\/kelowna-businesses-score-big-during-memorial-cup\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T01:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T06:17:20","slug":"kelowna-businesses-score-big-during-memorial-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/13\/kelowna-businesses-score-big-during-memorial-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelowna businesses score big during Memorial Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tourism Kelowna also reported a record 30,000 visitors to its visitor information centre in May, a figure officials largely attribute to the Memorial Cup.<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Posted June 1, 2026 10:58 pm<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\tThe City of Kelowna has officially wrapped up its hosting duties for the 2026 Memorial Cup. As Klaudia Van Emmerik reports, while the hockey tournament has come to an end, the city is celebrating some big wins for the local economy \u2013 Jun 1, 2026<\/span>
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While the Kitchener Rangers may have captured the Memorial Cup<\/a> championship on Sunday, Kelowna<\/a> emerged as a winner off the ice.<\/p>\n

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Thousands of visitors descended on the Central Okanagan city during the 10-day tournament, providing an early boost to tourism and local businesses ahead of the peak summer season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely felt like summer came early,\u201d said Omar D\u2019Souza, owner of Parlour Ice Cream. \u201cWe\u2019re only at the end of May, and it already felt like peak summertime on a lot of days.\u201d<\/p>\n

The owners of The Train Station Pub also reported a significant increase in business during the hockey event.<\/p>\n

\u201cForty per cent, it was fantastic,\u201d said Rhonda Lindsay, the pub\u2019s co-owner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a way to really showcase Kelowna, the way we want it showcased and help people understand what Kelowna has to offer. We don\u2019t just have two months of good weather, we\u2019re a place to visit year-round.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Although the crowds have largely dispersed and downtown has returned to a quieter pace, the city estimates they left behind at least $23 million in economic impact, possibly more based on previous Memorial Cup events elsewhere.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was more in the range of $40 million,\u201d said Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas. \u201cWe know that the CHL, in conjunction with the city and also Tourism Kelowna, will study this and we will have the numbers back sometime early into the fall to let us know exactly where this sits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tourism Kelowna also reported a record 30,000 visitors to its visitor information centre in May, a figure officials largely attribute to the Memorial Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fantastic to see the contingents from places like Kitchener,\u201d said Cassandra Zerebeski, the CEO of Tourism Kelowna. \u201cYou had families travelling together along with friends and relatives visiting the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For local businesses that rely on tourism, the tournament\u2019s success is being viewed as a big score.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for going after it,\u201d Lindsay said, reacting to the city\u2019s efforts to host the event. \u201cThis is what Kelowna needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dyas said there are a number of major events coming to Kelowna in the next few months.<\/p>\n

He added that the city is currently in negotiations to bring another major event to the city this fall but was unable to say what event only to describe it as significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough our economic prosperity, what we\u2019re trying to look at doing is establishing opportunities that are available during shoulder seasons,\u201d Dyas said.<\/p>\n

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Tourism Kelowna also reported a record 30,000 visitors to its visitor information centre in May, a figure officials largely attribute to the Memorial Cup. Posted June 1, 2026 10:58 pm 2 min read 2:10 Kelowna sees economic boost from Memorial Cup The City of Kelowna has officially wrapped up its hosting duties for the 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":919449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2487,150972],"tags":[12102,150971],"class_list":["post-919448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-businesses","category-kelowna","tag-businesses","tag-kelowna"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}