Thank you for inviting me to join you today.
My name is Susie Grynol, and I am the president and CEO of the Hotel Association of Canada.
Three years ago, tourism was in a total lockdown. Our industry was devastated. We lost a million workers in the first two months of COVID.
Since reopening, our sector has experienced a dramatic leisure demand renaissance. Domestic spending has already surpassed 2019 levels. U.S. bookings are up 111%, and Europe and Asia search patterns are up 132% and 114% respectively, while business travel and major events continue to lag behind prepandemic levels.
The problem is that we can't service the demand we have today or our future growth. We simply can't keep up, and we are turning guests away every day. That's because when you shut down an entire sector for two years and it loses its most precious asset, its people, it becomes very difficult to reopen and operate effectively.
This summer our industry will be short a staggering 360,000 workers. That's exponentially higher than any other sector. Today, in our off-season, 47% of Canadian hotels are pulling rooms off the market because they don't have the staff needed to maintain service standards. This has real impact. A 100-room hotel in one of your ridings that's short just nine employees stands to lose over $700,000 a year. They can't reinvest into their organization or recover the losses they experienced during COVID.
As a result of COVID shutdowns, Canada also lost major international events, fell behind in creating new hotel capacity, and dropped from fifth to 13th in our global competitiveness ranking. Top competitors like France, Australia and Spain are aggressively investing in the billions to capitalize on the global travel market, which is at an all-time high.
What can Canada do to address our reopening challenges and maximize our growth potential? Mr. Chair, we have three recommendations. The first is labour, the second is investment, and the third is a coordinated government approach.
On labour, we are doing everything possible to attract and reattract workers and repair the damage done through COVID layoffs when travel was shut down. Our members have increased pay, enhanced benefits and adopted new flexible ways of working, but these efforts won't be enough.
Our growth will need to come from immigration, so our number one ask of government is that our in-demand positions be prioritized for processing in both our temporary and permanent immigration streams, including consideration for seasonal peak periods. In addition, we should be better supporting new Canadians to find work in high-growth sectors like tourism and hospitality.
Our association ran a bridge program with the federal government doing exactly this for Syrian refugees before the pandemic. It was a significant success, according to the government's own report, and it could be resurrected with little effort and minimal funding to support the many Ukrainians who have arrived in Canada since the war. This program should be invested in immediately to support our critical labour shortage.
Our second recommendation is investment in tourism products and experiences. In this year's budget, we were delighted to see the investment of $108 million for local tourism projects and $50 million to attract high-value business events, but we can and must go further. The government has an opportunity to coinvest in new tourism attractions and experiences so that we can capitalize on the strong international interest in Canada. We need to keep marketing our Canadian brand to the world, and we need to ensure that we have enough experiences and hotel capacity to support this growth.
Finally, we are eagerly awaiting the announcement of the government's tourism growth strategy, where we assume rebuilding our workforce will be a central element, as it was not included in the federal budget. This strategy also has to include a coordinating body that would bring together multiple government departments to address our critical issues like labour.
This should be led by the Minister of Tourism and include IRCC, ESDC, International Trade, Finance and Treasury Board. This ask doesn't cost any money, but it is essential that we get the right representatives around the table with a mandate to help us solve our deepest COVID-related challenges.
Tourism is Canada's largest service export. We employ Canadians in every region and riding across this country. We proved through COVID-19 that we are resilient, and, given the opportunity, we can lead a remarkable recovery.
Members of the committee, the opportunity before us is historic, but the potential will not last forever. We need to act boldly and quickly to secure the next 10 years for Canadians and for our tourism industry.
Thank you.