Measuring Tourism Impacts in IMPLAN Canada

INTRODUCTION

As a vital pillar of Canada’s service sector, tourism drives billions of dollars in revenue and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs across both bustling urban hubs and rural communities. However, because tourism is defined by the consumer (the traveler) rather than a single production line, capturing its true footprint within the Canadian economy requires a more nuanced modeling approach. 

Using IMPLAN Canada, researchers and economic developers can isolate visitor spending across diverse industries—ranging from accommodation and food services to local retail and transportation—and trace how those dollars ripple through regional supply chains. By aligning localized Canadian economic data with input-output modeling, IMPLAN transforms raw visitor data into actionable metrics, quantifying the direct, indirect, and induced impacts on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), labor income, and tax revenue nationwide. 

Let’s take a closer look at measuring tourism impacts in IMPLAN Canada! 

In particular we will cover:

• Tourism Modeling: An overview of how to capture the economic footprint of visitor spending using IMPLAN Canada.
• Case Study: Analysis of the projected economic impact of the new Montérégie Arena.
• Industry Mapping: Strategies for identifying and aggregating relevant industries to ensure accurate tourism modeling.
• Project Setup: Guidance on configuring regions, using custom aggregation schemes, and scaling event data.
• Impact Metrics: A detailed breakdown of results, including GDP contributions, labor income, job creation, and tax revenue.

TOURISM PROJECT OVERVIEW

The highly anticipated operations of the newly constructed Montérégie Arena are officially set to launch in 2028, just in time for the puck drop at the beginning of the new hockey season. As the proud home of the Montérégie Quebec Fleur-de-lis, the arena is poised to become a major cultural and economic anchor for the community. The start of the hockey season acts as a powerful driver of increased economic activity throughout the Montérégie region, as thousands of fans flocking to the games stimulate a wide range of local businesses. This seasonal surge injects vital revenue into the regional economy through heightened restaurant and recreation spending, increased demand for local transportation, and a significant boost in accommodation bookings for traveling fans, solidifying the Fleur-de-lis as a cornerstone of Montérégie's community vitality and regional commerce. 

Since the stadium will be opening in 2028, this means that tourists from outside of Montérégie, Quebec will be coming to the region to cheer on their respective hockey teams. Investors estimate that about 25,000 people from outside of Montérégie, Quebec will travel into the region per year, and spend money at various places throughout the economy. Researchers at an investment firm found average amounts that tourists will spend in the region while they visit for hockey games (values adjusted for inflation in 2028 CAD).

AGGREGATION SCHEMES IN IMPLAN CANADA

The first thing we need to do when trying to measure the economic impact of tourism in IMPLAN is determine which industries will be impacted as a result of this influx of new tourists visiting a region. We know how tourists will spend their money, as well as how much will be spent. There are 236 industries in the IMPLAN Canada model, so choosing the correct industries to run events is a key step in setting up a tourism analysis in IMPLAN. 

In any IMPLAN project, the first step is selecting the appropriate IMPLAN Aggregation Scheme. An Industry Aggregation refers to the combining of detailed Industries to form a larger group. IMPLAN comes with pre-built Industry Aggregations, such as the 236 IMPLAN Canada industries, the 528 U.S Industries, or the IMPLAN 2 Digit NAICS 528 industries.  Outside of these pre-built aggregations, IMPLAN also offers the flexibility to build your own industry aggregation. Our visitor spending analysis highlights why you may want to do this.

Let’s take a deeper dive into the 5 industries where tourists will spend their money in Montérégie, Quebec: 

When analyzing tourism impacts in IMPLAN Canada, researchers frequently encounter some ambiguity within their data: visitor spending rarely falls neatly into a single, isolated economic sector. Because tourism is a multi-faceted demand driver rather than a standalone industry, visitor dollars are naturally distributed across a wide range of sub-sectors. In both retail (such as gift shops, general merchandise, and specialty food stores) and transportation (such as transit systems and taxi services), spending is spread across multiple granular IMPLAN Canada sectors. Evaluating these disaggregated industries individually can obscure the overall footprint of visitor spending, introduce unnecessary analytical noise, or not capture the entirety of visitor spending impacts in the region.  

To solve this, creating a custom aggregation scheme in IMPLAN Canada is the most effective approach. By consolidating relevant retail sectors into a unified "Tourism Retail" industry and grouping distinct transit and mobility options into a combined "Tourism Transportation" industry, analysts construct a streamlined framework tailored specifically to tourist behavior. This custom grouping prevents the misallocation of visitor expenditures, simplifies data inputs, and delivers a far cleaner, more accurate picture of how tourist dollars ripple through Canadian supply chains, job markets, and GDP.

HOW DO YOU SET UP A TOURISM PROJECT IN IMPLAN CANADA? 

Regions 

Since the new hockey arena is located in Montérégie, Quebec, this is the region where the increased level of tourism will occur. This is the region we want to select for our analysis. Because we created a custom aggregation scheme to account for all the possible industries where spending may occur, we’ll want to make sure that we are using the correct aggregation scheme. The aggregation scheme for the project can be found in the bottom right hand corner of the Regions Map View.  

Note: You MUST start a project from the Projects tab on your IMPLAN home screen when using a custom aggregation scheme. You will select “New Project”, the base Industry Set, and then select the custom aggregation scheme that you created to get started.

Impacts 

Since we’ve identified the Industries in which tourists will spend their money, in terms of 2028 dollars, we can now set up our project in IMPLAN. Each spending category will constitute a separate Industry Event. In the custom aggregation that is used in this analysis, the category spend will fall under the following categories: 

• Hotels: Industry 207 - Traveller Accommodations
• Food and Drink: Industry 209 - Food Services and Drinking Places
• Transportation (custom industry): Industry 2 - Transportation
• Retail Shopping (custom industry): Industry 1 -  Retail
• Recreation: Industry 205 - Amusement and recreation industries

The spending data that we received from researchers at the investment was at the individual per person spend level, but we know that 25,000 people will be traveling to the region. We can utilize the scaling feature in IMPLAN to account for all of the visitors that will travel into the region due to IMPLAN’s linear nature. Since every event included in this analysis needs to be scaled, we can scale the Region, which will multiply each event by the scale factor. 
 

Results 

Hockey-driven tourism serves as a significant driver for the local economy. In total, these activities generate over $15.25 million ($15,254,858.55) in overall economic output, anchored primarily by $13.64 million in direct visitor and operational spending, alongside $948,780 in indirect business output and $669,963 in induced economic activity. This economic stimulation directly supports 163.04 jobs—155.70 of which are direct positions—and injects $6.74 million ($6,739,122.87) in total labor income back into the local workforce. Overall, hockey tourism adds $7.52 million ($7,518,924.30) in Value Added to the region’s GDP, with $6.60 million stemming directly from primary tourism activities. 

Beyond output and employment, hockey tourism generates substantial tax contributions across multiple levels of government. The total federal tax impact reaches $1.24 million, driven mainly by $1.11 million in direct revenues, while provincial tax contributions total $549,258.96. Additionally, the labor generated supports $509,650.21 toward the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) and $2,009.79 toward the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), culminating in $1.05 million in general government revenue—even when accounting for a net -$1.25 million line item in local tax results due to direct regional tax structure adjustments. 
 

The economic output data for analyzing increased tourism in Montérégie, Quebec (2026 CAD dollars) demonstrates that visiting hockey fans and participants drive substantial revenue across local hospitality and service sectors, with spending concentrated in key areas:

• Food Services & Drinking Places: Serves as the top economic driver, leading all sectors with $5.11 million in total output ($5.06M direct).
• Traveler Accommodation: Generates $3.78 million in total output ($3.78M direct), reflecting heavy lodging demand from visiting teams and spectators.
• Transportation: Captures $1.88 million in overall output ($1.86M direct) for transit and travel services.
• Retail Trade: Yields $1.54 million in total output ($1.42M direct) through local shopping expenditures.
• Amusement & Recreation Industries: Produces $1.53 million in total output ($1.51M direct) tied directly to event venues and entertainment.

Beyond these primary tourism spend categories, the influx of hockey visitors generates secondary indirect and induced economic ripple effects across regional supply chains, benefiting auxiliary industries such as meat and dairy product manufacturing, repair construction, and real estate services. 

Note: Results are reported in 2026 CAD to provide stakeholders with a clear view of current purchasing power. While input costs were calculated in 2028 CAD to reflect inflation when the new arena opens and tourism begins, converting the final results to current-year dollars makes the financial impact easier to evaluate today and anchors the results in today's purchasing power.

CONCLUSION 

Ultimately, evaluating visitor spending across lodging, dining, transit, retail, and recreation within IMPLAN Canada transforms raw tourist expenditures into a complete picture of economic value. By using localized Canadian data to capture the direct, indirect, and induced ripple effects—such as supply chain demand, job creation, GDP growth, and tax revenue—analysts can measure the true multiplier effect of visitor dollars. 

This data-driven approach equips policymakers, destination marketing organizations, and local leaders with the evidence needed to justify tourism investments, guide regional development, and build resilient local economies.

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Written July 28th, 2026