Travel Manitoba President and CEO Colin Ferguson traveled north visiting Thompson recently.  He met with city representatives, local businesses and various organizations to talk about the economic impact of the tourism industry.  Ferguson says the size of the tourism industry in Manitoba on an annual basis is 1.6 billion dollars, so that 1.6 billion which is shared by hotel owners, restaurants, some ticketing attractions, fishing camps, fishing guides and all the rest is a pretty significant number.

Ferguson adds the province has adopted their sustainable funding model which sees four percent of that 1.6 billion dollars going to Travel Manitoba which is a drastic increase from the previous model.