The Canadian Sports Tourism Alliance is praising Windsor for hosting the 2016 FINA World Swimming Championships last December.
A report was presented to Windsor City Council Monday night pointing to an economic impact of close to $36-million.
City Councillor Irek Kusmierczyk questioned the report's figures wanting a third part audit stating the alliance is "pro-sports".
But Alliance Economic Impact Consultant Tony Fisher stands by the figures saying they came from surveys completed by people attending the event.
Fisher says when smaller cities host big events, it becomes the big name in town and doesn't have to compete with other attractions.
"Our model was built for us by the Conference Board of Canada," says Fisher. "It is in my mind it is one of the most reputable models out there, especially with as we redid it with the Steam 2.0 update, I think that makes it very very credible."
Fisher says the figures came from the people attending the event itself.
"We did the 590 surveys, that's how many people completed the on-site survey at FINA," explained Fisher. "We also did 200 surveys at the aquatic conference as well, these are actual numbers from actual respondents so it is not that we are guessing what people spent, we know what they spent because we asked them."
The city budget for the event was about $3-million with senior levels of government pitching in another $6-million.
Fisher points out the event was actually under budget.