{"id":777653,"date":"2026-07-03T12:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T12:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/777653\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T12:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T12:59:13","slug":"calgary-stampede-kicks-off-with-credit-cards-rarin-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/777653\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary Stampede kicks off with credit cards rarin&#8217; to go"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">CALGARY \u2014 The Calgary Stampede kicks off today and visitors\u2019 credit cards are already rarin\u2019 to go. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 10-day salute to cowboy culture begins with a parade through downtown and features pancake breakfasts, corporate shindigs, midway rides, carnival games, concerts and daily rodeo competitions. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Mastercard Economics Institute looked at last year\u2019s spending data and estimated that the festival generated an 18 per cent uplift for local businesses compared to a no-Stampede baseline. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Restaurants saw the biggest bump, with a 29 per cent rise in spending, and retailers also saw a lift the day before the event as folks looked to rustle up last-minute hats, boots and other western duds. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Spending on accommodations built early, concentrated on hotel bookings downtown during the first few days of the event. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Preliminary Mastercard data also points to an uptick in international visits this year over last. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThe Calgary Stampede is a great example of how a cultural moment can also be a major economic catalyst,\u201d said Benjamin Jacob, a senior vice-president at Mastercard Canada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cFor local businesses, success during Stampede is not just about being busy, it is about being ready.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Calgary Chamber of Commerce says Stampede generated $644 million in local economic activity last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 3, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2014 The Calgary Stampede kicks off today and visitors\u2019 credit cards are already rarin\u2019 to go. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[45,49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-777653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}