{"id":782042,"date":"2026-07-05T15:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T15:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/782042\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T15:49:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T15:49:00","slug":"festivalgoers-rarin-to-spend-as-calgary-stampede-kicks-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/782042\/","title":{"rendered":"Festivalgoers rarin\u2019 to spend as Calgary Stampede kicks off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a style=\"display:block\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/2SB67BZWKNBJHEL4IL5H2G544E.jpg?auth=870f7c28be055799bf8c25b564fff166c436d060717d043e65c8a32319dfe8ba&amp;width=600&amp;height=400&amp;quality=80&amp;smart=true\" aria-haspopup=\"true\" data-photo-viewer-index=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"figcap-text\">Visitors explore the midway on the final day of last year&#8217;s Calgary Stampede, on July 13.Jeff McIntosh\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The Calgary Stampede kicks off today and visitors\u2019 credit cards are already rarin\u2019 to go. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">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-article-body__text text-pr-5\">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-article-body__text mv-16 l-inset text-pb-8\" data-sophi-feature=\"interstitial\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/canada\/alberta\/article-calgary-stampede-parade-kingsbury-sarault\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Calgary Stampede set to kick off Friday with parade<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">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-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Spending on accommodations built early, concentrated on hotel bookings downtown during the first few days of the event. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Preliminary Mastercard data also points to an uptick in international visits this year over last. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\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-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cFor local businesses, success during Stampede is not just about being busy, it is about being ready.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The Calgary Chamber of Commerce says Stampede generated $644-million in local economic activity last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Visitors explore the midway on the final day of last year&#8217;s Calgary Stampede,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,2798,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-782042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782042","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=782042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}