Canada's economy is in good shape relatively to other industrialized countries - particularly the United States. The recovery will continue this quarter and good growth is expected for 2010. However, employment will lag growth in other sectors. The Canadian dollar will stay strong perhaps fluctuating between $0.85 and $1. This last point is the most important to remember from Don Drummond's economic overview at OTS '09 because it means that our tourism product will not be as competitive relative to other destinations. A strong dollar will also allow Canadians to travel more abroad impacting the growing travel deficit.
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Peter Yesawich gave a very intersting and helpful update from the Ypartnership sureveys (travel habits-intentions of Americans and Canadians) . Some key points: we are currently in a very price sensitive era. Even the affluent are price sensitive (though 66% of affluent, high-end travellers are still shopping for value not price). Yesawich mentioned the importance and proliferation of meta search engines, a topic that is somewhat outdated, since sites like Kayak are maturing and a significant sector of eTourism is moving towards travel inspiration and trip planning (that's not to say that price comparison shopping is going away anytime soon - or ever).
Canada trails Europe by a wide margin when it comes to places Americans would like to go to.
Intergenerational travel is growing, e.g. grandparents taking the grandkids on a Holiday.
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Mr Chris Rodriguez, Chair of VisitBritain gave an eloquent presentation about tourism marketing, DMO's (Destination Marketing Organizations) and DMMO's (Destination Marketing and Management Organizations - see comments). Mr. Rodrigues made several good points that may not be new, but are worth remembering. A destination must first make sure that it's attractive to the locals before trying to attract international visitors. Making the best better is not easy. DMO's and, more importantly DMMO's need to focus on common goals, cooperation and a strong understanding of partnership. For DMMO's to work well, leadership is key.
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Michelle McKenzie and Robin Garrett gave good presentations about converting brand equity into sales. Ms. McKenzie provided an overview and update of the LocalsKnow campaign, which had over 4,000 spots uploaded and over 800 deals. If I recall correctly, I think she said there were over two million page views and over 400,000 visits to the site during the summer campaign. I would have liked to learn, though, how much money the whole campaign cost and how much money in bookings was generated?
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Ms Garrett spoke about Ontario's accomplishments during the past year and the success of the There's No Place Like This campaign (made special mention of Justin Hines' appearance on the campaign). She also talked about Ontario's international marketing. Basically Ontario is aligned with the CTC when it comes to international markets.
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Speaking of markets, both Ontario and the CTC are working to open up the Indian and Brazil markets in addition to the other overseas countries they already market to. I made a comment at the session with TIAC's president Randy Williams and TIAO's president Bill Allen that the imposition of visa restrictions on Mexican visitors is a red flag vis a vis emerging markets and how much they can grow. Ontario and the CTC can do a great job of marketing Canada to Indians and Brazilians creating demand for travel to Canada, but visa processing is the responsibility of Immigration and Citizenship Canada (and CBSA). Indians and Brazilians who want to come to Canada must apply for a visitor's visa. There's a limit of how many visas can be processed at any given time.
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I personally believe that there are still many international opportunities for Canada in countries where Canada does not require a visa, including the United States. I would look at Italy and Spain in particular. Spain is the only European country that's showing any growth in inbound tourism to Canada this year (and one of only two countries overall).
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Jaime Horwitz MBA
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