Being the host city once again for the Robotics Regional Event should prove lucrative for North Bay.
The March 29th and 30th event is expected to attract about 1,000 high school students, their mentors and family members.
Mayor Al McDonald says the event will easily generate more than $1 million in economic activity in the city.
“There is a formula that you use where it’s the number of people times x and it gives you the number,” McDonald said.
“But it will be well over a million dollars in that period of time.”
McDonald says the visitors will be staying at hotels, eating at restaurants and gassing up.
They may also do some shopping.
The Mayor adds the robotics event is one of the largest sports tourism events the city welcomes.
McDonald says nowadays North Bay strategically goes after events that take place mid-week or near the end of the week to help fill up hotels when they are otherwise quiet.
“There are lots of events in North Bay where the hotels are sold out,” McDonald said.
“So it doesn’t make sense for us to bring in another event at the same time. So this one (the robotics) and the ringette during March Break take place during the week and they help fill up the hotels and we get that vacancy rate up.”
Although the championship is set for a Friday and Saturday at the end of March, the participants are expected to start arriving Wednesday and Thursday because they need to test their robots and have them inspected.
With the competition taking place at Nipissing University, McDonald expects both Nipissing and Canadore will showcase what they can offer the students as they consider a post-secondary education.