I recently read an article entitled Time to Brag in the National Post online written by Gordon K. McIvor former president of The Couchiching Institute, The Canadian Club and the National Executive Forum on Public Property. Among other issues (well known to all of us in the industry), in the article Mr. McIvor writes about the continuing decline of US visitations to Canada: "The number of Americans visiting Canada continues to follow a declining trend, with overnight visits down by 22% from where we stood prior to 9/11. Some experts in the tourism industry have estimated the annual lost opportunity costs to be in the billions of dollars..." He goes on to call for the formation of a new tourism organizaton: "Canada needs a new national coalition of all tourism and recreational organizations so that their collective interests can be marketed south of the border." And while he does mention the work of the CTC and TIAC ("In spite of some admirable efforts by the Canadian Tourism Commission, now operating out of Vancouver, and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, a co-ordinated national response to this dramatic downturn has been tepid at best."), it is evident that he has not researched his topic enough.
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I have been following the CTC's and TIAC's efforts on behalf of Canadian Tourism for almost ten years now, and while I may not agree with all initiatives (be it research, or marketing or issues to address), I can assure Mr McIvor that these two organizations do more than any other to keep tourism strong in Canada. Mr. McIvor may not know that in order to better market Canada in the US what we need is not another national tourism organization or coalition. We need a bigger marketing investment coupled with stronger partnerships among the three levels of DMO's (the CTC, Provinces and Cities) in order to achieve sinergies (Mr. McIvor may not be aware that the CTC's budget is quite limited, given the size of the tourism sector in both physical and economic terms as well as the size of global competitors' budgets). I would love to see a Canada Keep Exploring Television Ad during the Super Bowl. However, at $2.6 Million per 30 second spot (not counting production costs), the CTC cannot even dream about it (or can it? - perhaps it's time to dream and make it happen for Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 - air 1 spot per quarter). Yes I would like to see canadian marketing and advertising as big as the country. But I do not in any way want to see a third national tourism organization (or coalition). I hope no one has taken this suggestion seriously.
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We need to strengthen TIAC for it to be more effective, yes (in this Mr. McIvor may be correct in terms of the government seeing Tourism as a fragmented sector with many different voices); and we need to find ways to increase the CTC's reach, yes (e.g. purchasing power vis a vis international media, particularly US Television). And we need perhaps more cooperation among all actors in the industry to send a clear message to all tourism businesses large and small in order to get their support so that the industry can speak as one. We need to market the industry to the industry. Many businesses in the tourism sector may not even be aware of the issues affecting them. But that's another topic....
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hasta la vista,
Jaime
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