Not surprisingly Mexican inbound tourism to Canada was down 39.4% in July compared to July of last year. This decline was directly related to Canada's imposition of visa restrictions on Mexican visitors on July 15. It will take some time for Mexican numbers to recover to pre-visa requirements. My best guess is two to three years provided we continue to market Canada in a creative, engaging and effective way to Mexicans, positioning the country as a premium destination. (There is a faint hope that the Government of Canada will implement reforms to the Refugee System in which case visa requirements for Mexicans might be lifted - at least that's what I infer from Prime Minister Harper's remarks after last August's NAFTA Summit in Guadalajara). Even with the visa issue, Mexico surpassed Japan by almost 30,000 visitors in the period from Jan to July.
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So that's Mexico. But what about the rest of the world? Well, according to StatCan's International Travel: Advance Information Service Bulletin for July 2009, all markets where down, some significantly in July. Spain was an exception with growth of 1.5% (Greece and the Philippines also showed growth)
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Compared to July 2008 these are the dismal figures for July 2009:
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UK - down 19.5%
France - down 5.1%
Germany - down 1.5%
Australia - down 4.8%
Japan - down 35.4 %
China - down 17.8%
Hong Kong - down 24.5%
India - down 7.9%
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For the period between January and July 2009 only the Philippines and SPAIN show growth. I am not sure why the Philippines shows growth, but for the first 7 months of this year Phillipines is up 13.5% (40,197). It may be mostly VFRs (visiting friends and family), but it would be interesting to find out what kind of visitors come from that country. As for SPAIN, it showed growth of 2.3% for the same period (40,075 visitors). For some time now, I have been saying that SPAIN can be a great market for Canada. I believe that with the right investment in marketing and trade relations, we could easily reach 200,000 to a quarter million Spaniards visiting Canada every year (just look up how many Spaniards visit New York City annually to get a better grasp on that country's potential). Spaniards, as you may know, do not require a visa to visit Canada as tourists (and it's very unlikely they will ever need one). When it comes to airlift, there aren't many direct flights between Spain and Canada, but there are multiple connections from Europe.
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And the USA? Well, it just continues to slide. Visits from the US where down 11.3% in July compared to July 2008 (biggest declines were seen from same day Americans visitors (-24.6%) and Americans coming by bus (-23.8%)
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Wishing you all a recovering Fall season and a come-back-from-behind 2010.
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Jaime Horwitz
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