Finance Committee on Oct. 20th, 2014

[David McKenna]

The empirical evidence of—

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Where do most tourists, go?

[David McKenna]

I'll try not to be vain, because I think it's the Canadian Rockies. Most of the clients we're working with overseas speak of their interest in coming to the Canadian Rockies. They want to see Niagara Falls. Interestingly, Prince Edward Island scores very highly as well.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

And Toronto, I'm sure, would also—

[David McKenna]

Toronto...for most people, Toronto and—

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Nathan Cullen]

Nice try.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Nathan Cullen]

Rob Ford really brought it up.

[David McKenna]

When Rob Ford was doing his thing, it scored quite highly.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

That's just it. That was one of the points I was going to get to. He was a bit of a draw for people, wasn't he?

[David McKenna]

He was. He created interest, and some interest in Canada as a whole, to learn what we're all about here.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Yes, and the next step of this point is that the traditional way of looking at this business may not be a good model going forward. When we go back to Mr. Van Kesteren's example of Chatham and how they pretty much shut down their own industry, how do we get that back? We've got to think outside the box. Is that not the case?

[David McKenna]

We definitely do have to think outside the box. The box currently is much different from what it was even 10 years ago. The path to purchase is no longer a straight line when people would find a brochure and buy. It is now a circular path to purchase, where at every point someone can hijack or get in between you and your client. Really, it's about a digital world, a mobile world. It's about making sure that our content as Canadians is out in the world and that we tell our stories.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

By virtue of getting onto one of the websites and being able to book a trip quickly as opposed to the traditional way of going through a travel agent or planning it yourself and going through the maps and all that sort of thing, has that benefited Canada at all, would you say?

[David McKenna]

It's a very good question. I think it has, because more people have more access to find out about Canada than in the old traditional ways.

I have a short story. When we opened Taiwan as a source destination market, Brewster went in there with CP Air, CP Hotels, and VIA Rail. That's how you had to open a new market. These days we really don't. We just need to have our compelling images, and then by using travel agents in those areas, tour operators, and what we call RTOs, regional tourism operators, or in-market tour operators here in Canada, help bring those people through. It's a very different path to purchase now.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Again, I'm focusing on Toronto because I'm from there, but you go through Pearson airport, for example. How well does Pearson airport, as an institution, market itself? It does play a role in the tourism industry. Rather than having people just pass through, does it showcase Toronto or the GTA or southern Ontario in an adequate way in your estimation?

[David McKenna]

I'm probably going to get into trouble for this, but my opinion is it doesn't do enough. It's my main bent right now. Some of the presentations I've been making across the country on product development is that when people are coming in from overseas, before they get to customs, why don't we have something that talks about our country and starts getting people involved in the experience, rather than having them focus on getting through customs and picking up their bags, that sort of thing?

We have a great opportunity there to do much better.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Yes.

Calgary airport, for example, on the arrival deck has totem poles and bears and a cowboy theme and everything. Toronto doesn't really have any of that to showcase what Toronto really is, does it? It's a shame.

[David McKenna]

It is a bit of a shame. There are some pictures of some of the things you can do in the surrounding area. I did a walk-through today. Calgary is known.... Yes, we do have a lot of those displays on the baggage carousels, but the white hat volunteers say howdy to every visitor. That's what resonates with people. At international arrivals in Vancouver you walk along an incredibly long hallway which looks like a rainforest. It's absolutely gorgeous. Those things work.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

About a year ago The Economist did a feature on the power of diasporas. Canada is a land of immigrants. We have people from everywhere in the world. How much of an advantage...or are we missing the boat on tapping into our diaspora communities to encourage people who come from various countries around the world to come and visit, to come and visit family, to stay, to talk about the tales they're taking back to people in their own countries to encourage others to come to Canada?

[David McKenna]

We love working with the immigrant communities. They're so proud to be Canadians. It's fantastic because they do bring their friends and family to show them particularly where they were sworn in as Canadians. It's an incredibly emotional and powerful piece. I think there is a great opportunity to work with some of those community associations to encourage that type of behaviour.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Do we put a lot of resources into the immigrant ethnocultural groups to get them talking about Canada to those people in the countries they come from? Yes, they are very proud to be Canadian.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Dave Van Kesteren]

Mr. McKenna, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Mr. Adler's time is up. We need to go to Mr. Shipley, and maybe Mr. Shipley will want to continue that question.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

I'll let Mark finish his questions.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Okay.

Could you talk a bit more about the work you're doing with the immigrant communities?