Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Vice-Chair, members of the committee, it's a pleasure to join you today and be part of this important study. This was a suggestion the president made when he appeared before the parliamentary tourism caucus. We appreciate the opportunity we are given to discuss with you the impact of music and music festivals on the tourism industry.
Again for the record, my name is David Goldstein. I'm the President and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. TIAC represents the full cross-section of Canada's travel and tourism sector, including major music festivals such as the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, Ottawa Bluesfest, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and Osheaga as well as other clubs and restaurants and venues of all sizes that host music events.
Our sector generates annual revenues of $84 billion. We employ over 600,000 people and are in every riding of the country, and we've left you information today on the impact in your riding. And most notably, over 204,000 of those employed are under 25 years old, making us the sector that is the largest employer of young Canadians. Canada's most important services sector, export, is where we generate $17.4 billion worth of international revenue.
Our mission at TIAC is to grow Canada's competitiveness as a global destination. Specifically we are working to boost Canada's international visitation growth rate from 1.5% in 2012 to meeting the global average of 5%. A recent Deloitte report states that every one percent increase in international visitation generates $817 million more in general exports. So our 5% objective would mean an additional $1.4 billion in general exports.
How do we get to 5%? TIAC is working within the federal tourism strategy to address the policy barriers, such as marketing investment, access investment, and tourism product like music events. And we are working to encourage more U.S. visitation, in particular, who are key consumers of Canadian music festivals. In fact, a recent study of Ontario statistics show that almost half of U.S. visitors to that province came for arts and cultural events.
Cultural events, including concerts and music festivals, are major draws for Canadian visitors. In 2012, 3.5 million international visitors attended cultural events. On average these visitors spend $768 per trip, meaning these events contribute at least $2.6 million to the economy every year. That is on top of the immense domestic spending and spin-off impacts.
Members of this committee can easily envision the economic benefits from a major festival like the Montreal Jazz Fest, or Mark's excellent product here in town. The Montreal Jazz Festival brought in $72 million in tourism alone. But even smaller-scale festivals in smaller markets can have a major impact. Furthermore, as festivals grow and expand, so does the capacity to showcase and fund Canadian music.
Music Canada, who has already appeared at this committee, says that the limited size of Canada's domestic market means that some of the greatest opportunities for growth and development lie abroad. The same is true for the travel and tourism sector in Canada. However, small gains in quarter-to-quarter growth are masking a very disturbing over-reliance of our Canadian domestic market on tourism. Currently 80% of travel revenue is derived from Canadians travelling within Canada, up 65% from only a decade ago.
American visitors are particularly enthusiastic participants in Canada's cultural scene, with almost 2.5 million attending events in 2012, up 13% from the previous year. When compared to the overall visitation rate of only 2.5%, it becomes clear that music and culture are leading drivers for American visitation.
Since 2002, Canada has lost almost 3.5 million overnight visits from the U.S. Fortunately, many of the structural barriers facing the U.S. market have lifted, making this an ideal time to re-engage. Our currency is stabilizing below par, U.S. passport ownership has doubled and now sits at over 120 million Americans, the border is thinning, the American economy is rebounding, and the U.S. outbound travel to overseas destinations is up.
This brings me back to the question of how music events will play a part in increasing visitation by 5%. TIAC has a whole-of-government approach to increasing tourism's competitiveness which includes advocating for government support for marketing, access and product. Music festivals are among the most compelling tourism products that spark economic growth in all regions of the country. Therefore, TIAC recommends that the committee support festival funding in partnership with the industry and other levels of government, including a broader approach in getting back into the U.S. market leading up to 2017, and we would add that any such initiative be done on a partnership basis with the private sector. Part of the metric should be delivering incremental international visitation to Canada.
I thank you very much, again, for the opportunity to be here. The Chair and Mr. Dykstra will remember my previous life in the broadcasting business where I spent a lot of time at the heritage committee. It's been a while since I've been here and I'm happy to be back especially with regard to a subject that is of great interest not only on a local level but on an national level as well.