Progress on EU Open Skies Spells Promise for Canada
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The 32nd installment of Rendez-vous Canada is about to begin, running from May 24 - 28 in Vancouver, B.C.
Over an intensive five days, nearly 580 of Canada's largest tourism businesses and marketing organizations and 413 international tourism buyers (from more than 10 countries) will hold about 20,000 appointments and book upwards of $350 million in sales for Canadian tourism operators.
Hosted every May in a different Canadian city, Rendez-vous Canada is the industry's premier marketplace. This year the host province and city will welcome buyers from Canada's major markets including Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the U.S. and Canada.
Rendez-vous Canada is a contract marketplace. The key to the success of Rendez-vous Canada is the program of pre-scheduled, computerized 12-minute appointments which brings together Buyers, Sellers and DMOs over a four-day period. Participation in the event is by invitation only.
The Canadian Tourism Commission holds the Official Mark for Rendez-vous Canada and has been responsible for the event since 1977. As of 1998, Rendez-vous Canada has been staged by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) in cooperation with the Canadian tourism industry including provincial, territorial and municipal/regional tourism authorities and the private sector. Author: TOURISM staffOrganization: Canadian Tourism CommissionE-mail: tourism@ctc-cct.ca
Destination Osoyoos has unveiled a major new three-year Tourism Market Development Plan for 2008 that sets bold new goals designed to increase tourism and make Osoyoos an even more popular year-round resort area for visitors from across Canada and around the world. Read more...
A new satellite visitor centre, which was recently opened by Tourism Vancouver in the downtown Vancouver Art Gallery plaza, is the first of 12 that will be ready in time for the 2010 Olympics and Paralympic Games, reports the Vancouver Sun's Bruce Constantineau. These centres are expected to help hundreds of thousands of tourists in the 12 months surrounding the 2010 Games.
The 2.4-metre-by-3.7-metre structure provides travel information and is equipped to sell tourism products currently available at Tourism Vancouver's permanent visitor centre, Constantineau says.
The permanent centre normally serves about 300,000 tourists a year, but the addition of the satellite centres is expected to boost that total to about one million visitors.
Tourism BC is funding the $500,000 capital cost of the project -- with each structure worth about $40,000 -- while Tourism Vancouver will cover the operating costs.
Tourism Vancouver vice-president Janet Carson said the second satellite centre will open at the Pacific Coliseum for the ISU Four Continents figure skating championships in February 2009.
The others will open near Games venues like Hillcrest Arena, GM Place and the UBC sports centre between late 2009 and early 2010. Carson said tourism officials will also work with the City of Vancouver to identify any high-traffic pedestrian corridors that could benefit from a visitor centre during the games.
The centres will be staffed by about 300 volunteers and 50 employees during the Games. About 30 staff members will be co-op students on paid internships from Capilano College's tourism management program.
After the games are over, the visitor centres will be redeployed to communities throughout B.C. for use as seasonal visitor centres. Author: TOURISM staffOrganization: Canadian Tourism CommissionE-mail: tourism@ctc-cct.ca
(CBC News) - The number of foreign visitors to Canada in March was the lowest since record-keeping began in 1972, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.About 2.26 million visits to this country were recorded that month, down 12.6 per cent from the same month a year earlier.
A big drop in American visitors was behind the decline. Only 730,000 same-day car trips were made by U.S. motorists in March. That was down 2.5 per cent from the month before and a 24 per cent plunge from a year ago as the price of gas, a high Canadian dollar and a weak U.S. economy kept Americans close to home.
The number of overseas visits fell by three per cent to 384,000.
"Travel declined in eight of Canada's top 12 overseas markets, with the strongest decreases in travel from Mexico, Germany and Hong Kong," said Statistics Canada.
Canadians, on the other hand, were showing no reluctance to travel, as the number of out-of-country trips rose in every category.
Canadians made 2.1 million same-day car trips to the U.S. in March, up 1.5 per cent from February and an increase of 9.5 per cent from year-ago levels.
The total number of trips to the U.S. rose to 3.8 million.
"The level of Canadian travel to the United States observed in the past six months has been the highest since 1998," Statistics Canada reported.
Overnight plane trips to the U.S. hit a new record high for the fourth month in a row.
Travel by Canadians to countries other than the U.S. also hit a record high.
Tourism offers the only sustainable development opportunity for many developing and least developed countries, and should be part of mainstream government policy, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said at a recent United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), according to the International Travel Daily News.
Tourism is one of the top exports for many countries. Last year, international tourism arrivals topped the 900-million mark and generated US$730 billion. Since 2000, developing countries have led international tourism growth and reached a current market share of 40%: In that time, tourism to the 50 least developed countries grew by 110%, and by 20% in developed countries.
UNWTO recommends that government work with local communities and other stakeholders to develop tourism, and that sustainable tourism be incorporated into broader development policy. Author: TOURISM staffOrganization: Canadian Tourism CommissionE-mail: tourism@ctc-cct.ca
