Because the tourism industry is a very fragmented one and employment is spread over hundreds of thousands of businesses, from large hotels to small burger joints along Ontario's Highway 400, to beds & breakfasts in Cape Breton to soft adventure outfitters in the Yukon and so on, it's an easy industry to ignore. It's not like a big automotive plant closing and laying off 2,000 people at a time which gets the attention of unions, the media and consequently the politicians and society at large. In tourism there are thousands of jobs lost when small kayak rentals operators, small receptive operators, restaurants, and others fold. Many thousands more go unreported as lost jobs because businesses froze hiring this summer and thousands of young people who otherwise would have been employed in the industry were not. The lack of jobs concentration makes it difficult for the media to write stories about the problem. And of course, we could also do better integrating all the voices of tourism across the country (Join the Canadian Tourism Community social networking site).
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Notwithstanding the above, the industry made the front page of today's Globe and Mail. The natonal paper reports that "Cross-border travel hits lowest levels on record. New passport rules prompt 26% drop in same-day trips from U.S. to Canada in June." But that's just part of the story. According to StatCan's International Travel: Advance Information Bulletin for June 2009, just about every market, primary or otherwise, was down in June and most are down significantly for the period Jan to June. And this after what was perhaps the worst May on record as well. If the year continues going this way, 2009 may see half the numbers of tourists Canada had in 1999! While it is undeniable that the last ten years have seen numerous challenges for the Canadian tourism industry, in my opinion, there are other reasons why the numbers of visitors continue to tank, one being the lack of impactful, creative marketing and advertising. The reasons for this are debatable and one reason must be, of course, a lack of sufficient resources, but another, again in my opinion, is the lack of risk taking to make our marketing and advertising break through the clutter. I believe provincial and national tourism marketing is hindered by a playing it safe mentality so as to not create any controversy (I again think of advertising in America's Super Bowl). If I sound frustrated is because I am. I believe Canada can do much better selling itself to the world (and to ourselves). And when marketers like Rod Harris leave a DMO (or are ousted), it gives me less confidence in the powers that be. By any measure of success in marketing, Rod Harris is indisputably is one of the best tourism marketers in the world (but I think even he was limited by the political considerations that sometimes - like it or not - come into play in Canadian Tourism marketing).
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On a final note, I am happy to report that of all our European markets, the ONLY one that is showing growth in the period from January to June 2009 is SPAIN. Gracias amigos españoles , Olé.
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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.
The Canadá en Español Network
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