Canada Tourism Org. to Again Focus on the U.S.
by Chris Ryall /Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper recently announced a significant $30 million CAD contribution from the federal government to Destination Canada, Canada’s national tourism marketing organization.
The organization recently changed its name to Destination Canada; it was formerly called the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC).
The $30 million CAD boost will be allocated to a Connecting America three-year campaign running from 2015 to 2018. The goal is to attract an additional 680,000 American visitors to Canada over the three-year period.
The campaign returns Destination Canada’s focus on the U.S. Many in Canada’s travel industry were highly critical of the then CTC’s decision to cut its U.S. marketing significantly in 2011.
The additional funds will help the Destination Canada partner with tour operators, travel agents, private sector companies, and other Canadian provinces and territories to promote Canada through a series of trade and consumer marketing programs.
Competition
“Our Government understands that the Canadian tourism sector is competing with all countries in the world for traveler’s dollars,” said Prime Minister Harper in a statement.
“We are proud of the significant support we have provided to the tourism sector to date under the Federal Tourism Strategy,” he added. “The new campaign [announced last month] will help attract more U.S. travelers to Canada, generating jobs, opportunities and prosperity across the country.”
A welcome development
Returning the marketing focus back to the U.S. was welcomed by many in the industry including Tony Pollard, president of the Hotel Association of Canada (HAC).
“This announcement demonstrates the government’s commitment to the tourism industry in Canada,” Pollard said.
In 2011, the then CTC decided to shift marketing funds to emerging markets like Brazil, India and China where it felt it could make more of an impact than competing with the highly competitive U.S. market.
Canadian tourism suppliers were not happy with the decision and many experienced a huge drop in their largest visitor market—visitation from the U.S. is currently down 24 % from what it was a decade ago.
With the new focus on the U.S. and consumer marketing campaigns to be rolled out by Destination Canada and its tourism partners, U.S. based travel agents can expect to see more Canadian tour packages being offered by tour operators in the coming years.
Good timing
During the press conference with the prime minister, David Goldstein, Destination Canada president and CEO, outlined reasons why the timing is right for the new campaign.
Goldstein said Americans are beginning to travel again, post-recession. The number of Americans who own passports has doubled since 2002, there’s now more air access between Canada and the U.S., and there’s been more results from the Beyond the Border plan, he added.
(The Beyond the Border plan is a shared, U.S.-Canada, approach to security in which both countries work together to address threats within, at, and away from both borders, while expediting lawful trade and travel.)
Attractive exchange rate
The falling Canadian dollar, which has been hovering around 0.80 cents to the U.S. dollar in recent months, makes it even more attractive for Americans to travel to Canada now.
Goldstein hopes Destination Canada—with the $30 million CAD in funds—can more than double that amount from matching funds from the private sector and provinces.
Canada’s provinces and territories all conduct their own marketing campaigns in the U.S. and Destination Canada hopes to partner with many of them.
“Thanks to today’s announcement, we can enrich that growth and have the fuel to fire on all pistons,” said Goldstein. “The timing is right for Connecting America because the fundamentals are strong.”