The economic impact assessment of the 2004 Nokia Brier, held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan from March 6 - 14th was released today by the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance (CSTA).

The CSTA conducted the study in partnership with the Canadian Tourism Commission, Tourism Saskatoon, and the Canadian Curling Association. To conduct the assessment, the CSTA used the Sport Tourism Economic Assessment Model (STEAM) which measures the economic benefits of a sport event on a community. Approximately 595 on-site surveys were conducted and collated at the event, representing a confidence level of +/- 3.5%, 19 times out of 20. The survey was conducted using the Techneos^® Entryware™ Pro System, which features the Entryware™ Designer software program for preparing the questionnaires as well as Entryware™ for Palm OS^® running on handheld PDA's for data collection.