06/10/2017 1 Minute Read

WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup helps break Thunder Bay, Canada airport passenger record

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – The staging of the XXVIII WBSC Baseball World Cup® 2017 in Thunder Bay, Canada, helped break the all-time monthly passenger record at the Thunder Bay International Airport (TBIAA) in August.

WBSC Baseball World Cups generate millions in economic and tourist activity for hosts

International fans and teams concentrated their arrivals in late August, ahead of the 1 September start of the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup, helping to generate a historical high in monthly volume (81,003 passengers) at the TBIAA, according to TBIAA President & CEO Ed Schmidtke. Thunder Bay’s total metropolitan population is approximately 120,000.

Said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari: “WBSC welcomes this glowing report and congratulates the Thunder Bay International Airport, the city of Thunder Bay and the Province of Ontario for their successful leveraging of the U-18 Baseball World Cup. International baseball properties like the Baseball World Cups continue to be an increasingly powerful vehicle for stimulating local economic activity for our hosts and global exposure for our sponsorship partners.”

TBIAA as well as Air Canada were official regional sponsors of the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2017.

The final economic impact of the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup is expected to be in the multi-millions $CAD for Thunder Bay and the Ontario province, when the report is released.

In 2016, the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup staged in Iwaki, Japan, generated $USD 8.0 million in economic activity for Iwaki and the Fukushima prefecture, according to official government reports.

The WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup 2016 in Monterrey, Mexico, was cited by the State of Nuevo Leon as a contributing factor in drawing a record number of tourists to the state in 2016.