Toronto Tourism spreading the Palabra about Toronto and the U-20 World Cup

I had the pleasure to have dinner with specialty media from Mexico who were in Toronto to write about the city in the context of the upcoming FIFA U-20 World Cup. I joined the group as a guest of Toronto Tourism, the DMO hosting the visit, and we had a very good time chatting about the great city of Toronto and the party atmosphere people experience when a World Cup takes place anywhere in the world, let alone if it takes place here, albeit a junior World Cup. We talked about the new stadium, Toronto's festivals, our Hispanic communities, cultural life in the city (concerts, night life). What became clear is that there is a lot of curiosity about Toronto and Canada in Mexico. It also became clear that there's a need for more specific information in our destination marketing communications. People (trade and the public) want to know more specifically what there is to do, to see, where to eat, where to dance, etcetera. I was pleased to hear from Jaime Orizaga, President of InverTour - a travel trade publication, that Canada could very well receive one million Mexican tourists annually given the number that visit the United States. My own calculation gives me a figure of 750,000 Mexican visitors (doable by 2012), but we're both in agreement that our current levels around 210,000 are still low given the great potential. The other visitors were Brenda Liz Nuñez of trade publication Turistampa and Omar Abrego, a fantastic photographer/reporter of national Mexican newspaper El Universal. They were accompanied by Magdalena Bermea, Manager Public Relations, CTC Mexico and Michele Simpson of Tourism Toronto. Dinner at the CN Tower's 360 restaurant was delicious and the view, well, the view on a clear evening, nothing short of spectacular.

Jaime

Speaking of lists and Wonders

Saturday June 9, 2007. The Toronto Star newspaper published its own 7 Wonders of Canada list: "Seven Great Structures that Made a Nation: The Confederation Bridge, The Transcontinental Railway, The Quebec Citadelle, Expo 67 in Montreal, The Rideau Canal, The CN Tower and the Sr. Lawrence Seaway." The CBC's and now this Toronto Star list remind me of one of tourism marketing's key success factors: icons. Sometimes, the destinaton itself is an icon, like Paris or New York, but more often than not it is a specific place or attraction that is the icon, the must see place that travellers feel they must go to, e.g. The Louvre, The Eiffel Tower, The Alhambra, The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Chichen-Itza. Except for Niagara Falls, Canada does not really have these strong brands. However, we do have many places that over time can become iconic must visit places. In the skiing world, Whistler may already be iconic the way Vail or Aspen were in the 70's and 80's. I have a list of Canada's top attractions in one of Canadá en Español's websites, TuristiCanada.com. There are 22, but I think I can find at least another 20. Among these top attractions, we have: the CN Tower, Alberta's Rockies, The Bay of Fundy, Parliament Hill, Stanley Park, Old Quebec City, and the Northern Lights in the Yukon. The purpose of this list is to begin to iconize attractions for the Hispanic travelling public. Over time we must develop many "must see" locations in order to better compete on the world's tourism stage.

Jaime

The CBC's Seven Wonders announced

In the end the CBC asked a panel of judges to choose Canada's Seven Wonders. I was under the impression that the people were to select them. So much for a democratic excercise. The "experts" chose (in no particular order): Quebec City, The Rockies, Pier 21, Prarie Skies, Niagara Falls, The Igloo and The Canoe. If Thunder Bay's the Sleeping Giant got the most votes by the people, it should have made the list. It however did get "the People's Choice" designation.

I think the list is quite interesting, but I am not entirely pleased with it. Internally, i.e. for Canadians, it is quite appropriate I think. The Canoe and the Igloo being very representative of Canada. Niagara Falls of course had to be there as the most important natural wonder in the country. From a tourism perspective, Niagara Falls is THE Wonder. Quebec City, definitely! Great choice, 400 hundred years in the making. The Rockies, wonderful. Pier 21, absolutely, an icon of what this open arms country is all about. Prairie skies? I don't know. It seems like a politically correct choice. Nothing against those awesome skies, but perhaps the Bay of Fundy should have been the other wonder or the Northern Lights or Tofino or the CN Tower for that matter. Well, at least the excercise got many Canadians to pay attention to the numerous wonders available to them. As for international marketing, well, not very commercial choices except for Quebec, the Rockies and The Falls, n'est pas?
Jaime

US easing Passport rules for the summer

A note in the Mexican paper Reforma and another in the Globe and Mail today June 8th indicate that the US is preparing to ease passport rules for this upcoming summer season. It seems that lawmakers and Homeland security have been in discussions prompted by hundreds of thousands of Americans upset at the fact that they cannot get passports in time for the summer holidays. The changes reported would allow Americans to re-enter their country with proof of application to get a passport plus government issued id. Hopefully this will mean more American visitors to Canada this summer and not more confusion in the marketplace regarding the WHTI passport rules.

Jaime

Looks like another Good Year for the Mexican Inbound Market to Canada

Statcan has released its International Travel Advance information for the month of March. Mexico was once again ahead of Germany in the number of visitors to Canada in the month of March. While Germany is still overall ahead of Mexico on an annual basis, I won't be surprised if los turistas mexicanos surpass their German counterparts on an annual basis by 2009. Mexico was up 52.7% over March 2006. Impressive as this is, it is not surprising and unexpected. One must remember that Easter falls either in March or in April and sometimes overlaps both months. In 2006, Easter fell in April so that month saw an 82% growth over April 05 because Easter fell in March that year. This year Easter Holidays for Mexicans began at the end of March so many tourists flew to Canada on March 30th or 31st. Schools are closed for two weeks in Mexico during Easter Holidays, so many travelers take off the second week. This means that this year there will also be a spike in growth in April (hopefully another 50% or more). In absolute numbers, Canada received 47,367 Mexican visitors from Jan to April 2006. In the first 3 months of this year - Jan thru March 37,497 Mexicans travelled to this country. It will be a couple of months before we know the final numbers for April 2007, but I am confident they will look good. The summer is looking good for Canadian tourism businesses that serve Hispanic visitors. Spain, still small in absolute numbers was up 38.3% from March last year and South America (excluding Brazil) was up 28.2%. Germany, by the way was also up in March but only by 9.4% German visitors from Jan thru March numbered 38,835 only 1,338 more than Mexicans. Sadly the US numbers continue to drop. Overall visitations from the US were down 12.3% for March, 14.1 % for the first 3 months of the year. (see International Travel Statcan)

Jaime

www.demexicoacanada.travel

www.canadaenespanol.ca

Centennial College of Toronto officially launches the Cultural & Heritage Tourism Institute

It was with great anticipation that I attended the first ever symposium on Cultural & Heritage Tourism at Toronto's Centennial College yesterday as part of the official launch of the Culture & Heritage Institute at the School of Hospitality. I have been involved a little bit in this initiative as part of the Institute's advisory committee so it was a pleasure to be able to participate in one of the concurrent sessions (mine being "Exploring the Digital wave in Cultural & Heritage Tourism"). The symposium's organizers did a stellar job of putting together a wide range of experts in various areas related to culture and heritage tourism. The keynote speakers were also of very high calibre: Randy Williams, President of TIAC - AITC, Dr. Lidia Varbanova, Founder of the Center for Intercultural & Social Development (Montréal) and Manager, LabFor Culture.org), David Whitaker, President Tourism Toronto and Rita Davies, Executive Director of Culture, City of Toronto.

The one day symposium included workshop sessions on the following topics as they relate to Cultural and Heritage Tourism: Marketing/Interpreting Sites and Assets; Cultural Intelligence; Exploring the Digital Wave in CHT; Integrity, credibility and sustainability; Creative Cities - a strategic approach for communities; Culture & Youth: "Canadian Identity."

Dean Shyam Ranganathan's of the School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culture deserves much of the credit for being the driving force to create (I believe) the first institution soleley dedicated to this growing area of travel. His staff deserves kudos for their hard work putting together the symposium. The Cultural & Heritage Institute will offer a broad range of courses and programs of study will be offered, including: Career specialization in HTA Diploma for Cultural and Heritage Tourism Management; A joint university-college degree program in cultural heritage tourism studies; Courses and programs to be offered by distance education for inbound and outbound tourism operators; A certificate program in tour escorting and guiding A post-diploma in applied cultural heritage tourism management; General interest courses specific to cultural heritage resources management. At a time when we hear a lot about the need for qualified tourism professionals, it is a very positive development to know about this new educational and training institute. It deserves the support of all tourism industry players, not only in Ontario but also across the country.

I look forward to next year's symposium.

Jaime