Tourism Winnipeg defends FIFA fan experience, tournament a success

Winnipeg FIFAtournament has been a raging success for the city's tourism industry, officials tell CBC News.

• Winnipeg disappoints FIFA fans in world spotlight

Fans and some business managers in Winnipeg had expressed concern about how the city was presented throughout the international event.Chantal Sturk-Nadeau, senior vice president of Tourism Winnipeg, said Friday that she's only heard positive feedback.

"When I look at all aspects of tourism and who our partners are, they're all very very happy,"Sturk-Nadeau said.

Fans are out and about

All of the city's attractions including museums, the zoo and tours are seeing more people than usual, so are businesses like restaurants, she said.

Hotels have been booked solid since January,Sturk-Nadeau said, they knew this would be a success for the industry before the guests even arrived, thanks in big part to Winnipeg hosting the American women's team.

Tourism Winnipeg provided hotels with visitorguides and lists of eventsand their staff received tailored training to be able to deal with the influx of visitors.

Different events, different expectations

Sturk-Nadeau said part of the problem withnaysayersmight be that there are locals that are comparing some very different events.

For events such as the Grey Cup, the CFL makes calls about how the event is presented in the city. For the Pan Am Games, the city had to work within that organization's guidelines for host cities. So too is the case with the FIFA tournament, Sturk-Nadeau said.

FIFA has made the decision to keep the tourist events localized to the stadium area.

If the increase in business and sold-out soccer games aren't a success to some,Sturk-Nadeau said they have also been receiving positive comments at the matches.

"That's the impression we're getting, and I'm not just saying that. I think we had one person say at the stadium, 'well I don't know where the ATM is.' And they were mad. Well, okay that's one out of the hundreds we had that day," she said.

First Nations absent from FIFA website

The Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg isn't happy the FIFA website makes no mention of First Nations.

The website has a three-paragraph description of Winnipeg's history on its site, where the city is featured as one of the destinations. But it doesn't mention First Nations.

"It's fascinating they wouldn't acknowledge or recognize our community here," said Damon Johnston, the president of the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg. "We're known as the aboriginal capital of Canada."

Johnston said it was a lost opportunity. Now, the council is offering impromptu lessons to tourists at The Forks including explaining the significance of Oodena Circle at The Forks, a monument for6,000 years of aboriginal history in the area.

Elenora Kazatzis is in town from Sydney, Australia.

She said she wishes Australia, which has a large indigenous population, had similar monuments.

"We're not that lucky back home, even though we have over 200 different aboriginal communities," she said. "Things like this, this spiritual meditation area is just absolutely wonderful."

Johnston said he wished FIFA would have acknowledged the city's First Nations heritage.

FIFA officials released the following statement Friday night: