Evidence of meeting #8 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was countries.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
I'll try and tackle all four of your points very quickly.
The first is Canada in the minds of foreigners. Just so the members are aware, we've just gone through a rebranding of Canada. That exercise took over a year. It was very consultative with our foreign customers, and so on. “Canada--Keep Exploring” is our brand. Our industry accepts this new brand extremely well. It's something the provinces, the municipalities, and the industry can all really link into. “Canada--Keep Exploring” talks about a whole bunch of benefits, and if any member wants to contact us later about those benefits, we'd be pleased to share.
In rebranding Canada we've been all over the map in the past. We were changing our brand every year; we didn't have a brand. We told the world at one time that the world needs more Canada; the rest of the world said that was too chauvinistic and we were bragging too much, so we had brands that didn't even work in foreign countries. Now we have a brand. We need the money to put behind the brand, and then we can be successful.
As well, we have to be innovative. The world looks at travel now over the Internet, through technology. We're all the same now in that Internet world. We are looking at taking our brand and using it in Explorer Quotient so people can go in and see what type of explorer they are on the Internet, and then ask to find out more information. Then the trips we put to them are exactly what meet their needs, so we're doing this very innovatively.
Those are a couple of ideas we've put our minds to. It's a big challenge, but it needs resources and obviously consistency in brand.
Why was it high in 2002? It was because we were growing. Every year from 1995 onward, particularly after open skies and the air access, we kept growing. After 2001 there was a bit of a downturn because the whole world froze for about 60 days in the third and fourth quarters, but in 2002 there was some pent-up demand from the U.S. and they wanted to stay, so that's why we were high. It had nothing to do with whether it was a better Calgary Stampede or anything like that; it was just the effects of 2001. Then, after 2002, it started to slide, and there's a whole range of reasons--
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
Are you? Okay. I'm sorry about that.
You asked four questions and didn't give me....
Bloc
Paule Brunelle Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Mr. Pollard, you said that, with the rise in the dollar, costs are higher and it is a challenge to attract Americans. You told us that we had to focus on added value and on service. I have two thoughts on that. Tell me what you think.
First, it seems to me that, in order to focus on service, employees must be well paid, must have decent working conditions and must be committed to the business.
Second, a few years ago, I got a surprise. There I was in Marseille in the middle of the summer, with the temperature at 30 °C. A local worker recognized my accent. He told me that he had had the trip of his life snowmobiling in Quebec in the middle of the winter. That got me thinking that people from all over, not just Americans, are ready to spend money on travel.
We could have a different kind of tourism, innovative projects, adventure tourism. It could be eco-tourism, because of our open spaces.
Do you not think that that might be the start of a solution?
President, Hotel Association of Canada
I would say yes, very much so. When you mention ecotourism, let me just say that my association has a program called Green Key, which is used as a rating system for hotels right across the country. It determines environmental performance and makes recommendations to them. In fact, we're now in discussions with Americans who actually want to be able to use our program south of the border. Anything pertaining to the environment is the number one issue. We've been providing this now for the better part of seven or eight years.
You hit the nail on the head, Madame, when you said that people are looking for an experience. That's what people want now. When we get 25 centimetres of snow, yes, in a way I wish I was in the Bahamas today too. I would have been on time today, as well. The reality is that people don't just want to lie on the beach any more; they want to do something. They want to see and do different things.
When you mentioned that in Marseilles people wanted to come over here and go snowmobiling, we're very much focusing on that. Not only does the old way of doing business not work because of changing economic conditions, but the fact is that we also have to become a lot more clever and provide you, when you're travelling, with something that's very different. You know, it used to be you would get into the station wagon and go across Canada for three weeks, and that was the summer holiday. Those days are gone; the average holiday now is three days.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
I would just add that Canada has what the world is looking for. We've always presented ourselves as a value destination. We aren't a cheap destination. We never were presenting ourselves that way.
An Anholt study showed that Canada was third in the world as the most desired destination to go to. How are we doing in performance? We're twelfth. So there's a gap there. We were seventh in the world as the most visited destination; we're now twelfth. We've slipped five positions. But the Anholt study said that Canada, in the minds of world citizens, was the third most desired destination in the world for people to visit. So we have the opportunity. We just need to invest in that opportunity.
Liberal
Raymond Simard Liberal Saint Boniface, MB
Thank you very much.
When we were in Asia a couple of years ago and we asked our people there what they thought of Canada just in terms in branding--this was an economic mission--we were hoping they would talk about technology and that kind of thing, but it was basically about pure water, clearness, mountains, snow. It was all about tourism. I'm just wondering if that vision of Canada has changed. Is that still what people think about our country?
The second question is this. In 2002, when we had our best season ever, let's say, did we have a surplus, or was there still a deficit or a lower deficit than seven-some billion dollars?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
All northern hemisphere countries have a travel deficit. We were $1.7 billion. We've been as low as $500 million. But we've always had a travel deficit.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
So in answer to that question, we were as low, at one time, as $500 million, but now we will be at $8 billion, which is a new record.
People still think of Canada as a vast, open country, with lots of nature, snow, a safe, secure destination, so they still think of us in those terms, but we're trying to broaden their experience about moose, Mounties, and mountains. We're trying to change that perception: keep exploring, because there's so much more. Whether it's the vineyards of Niagara Falls or dogsledding in the north, we have so much more to offer than those three icons.
December 4th, 2007 / 10:50 a.m.
Liberal
Raymond Simard Liberal Saint Boniface, MB
The other thing we keep hearing is that cultural tourism is on the increase, and by that I'm talking about multicultural experiences, for instance. People are looking for something different. I know in Manitoba, for instance, there's Folklorama, where you have every community putting on a show, and it is just packed.
First of all, is that true? Is it on the increase? Are you focusing on that in terms of developing these events?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
As my colleague Chris said earlier, cultural tourism is one of our strengths. We are a mosaic of different cultures and countries that have resided in Canada--so the face of Canada. And one of the challenges we talk about at the tourism level is this. If you're welcomed by an Asian at a Canadian hotel, is that the way you want to present? Is that a Canadian? Of course, we've said yes. Whether it's aboriginal or Asian communities, that is Canada. That's who we are. So that's why we have an advantage over other destinations in the world, because we can welcome you with a face you're familiar with.
Conservative
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
I would like to pick up on the questions around multiculturalism and on Mr. Pollard's comments about gateway marketing.
I really like the notion of “Canada--Keep exploring”. I think it does reinforce the image people have of Canada. But I would like to just ask you, for example, if you're marketing Toronto, which is my community, as a gateway, do you piggyback that “keep exploring” on top of a multicultural component?
On Sunday night I went to see a flamenco dance company that's been operating in Toronto over 25 years. They've won international awards. I think people don't understand the level of sophistication of our multicultural nature. It's not just ethnic foods; it's really multicultural Canadian culture.
How are you folks approaching this? Because I think it is one of our incredible strengths.
Either or both of you?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
No, that's fine.
President, Hotel Association of Canada
He complained earlier that I stole his time.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
I thought she was directing it to you.
Keep exploring.... One of the real assets here is that Americans have a north-south relationship with Canada. In other words, people in Washington State or California know British Columbia very well, but they don't know central or eastern Canada or the north. And people in New York know Atlantic Canada or Quebec. We're trying to keep exploring, so we'll have a better east-west connection with Canada.
Take Toronto as an example. A lot of people have said yes, I've been to Canada; I've been to Toronto. That's it? If you think Canada is Toronto, then you're missing so much more. Toronto is much more than maybe your visit to a Broadway play. It could be a trip down to Niagara Falls for a wine tour. It could be shopping in a sophisticated city with great food and cuisine. It could be the zoo there or the CN Tower. There's so much to keep exploring in Toronto, and we need to do a better job of communicating to all of our visitors, not only Canada in an east-west way and not just north-south, but also in the community itself, the diversity that exists, especially in Toronto.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
What do you need from the federal government to do that? I was really pleased that you're really pushing Internet communications, because obviously that's how most people are booking today, or at least it seems to me most people are booking. But what do you need from the federal government to be able to push that further?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
If there's anything we could leave you within the short time we have available, it is to remember access to Canada. That means we need people to know about our country, which means increased marketing. Then we need to make them feel welcome at our borders. We need the infrastructure there to do that. We need open skies agreements with airlines so that we have access to Canada, and we need to make them feel welcome when they're here, whether it's GST or harmonizing the GST and the PST. Harmonization would be a huge help to our industry, and I know everybody is in favour of harmonizing GST and PST. This seems like a slam dunk. Why don't we just do it? It would be a big boon to our industry if that happened as well.
So it's about access to Canada. Think of it as the border, airport costs, making airlines more accessible, and getting into the minds of foreign visitors with our marketing message.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Nash.
Thank you very much, gentlemen, for being with us here this morning. We appreciate your presentations and the discussion. They were very substantive. You provided some very good recommendations. We look forward to working with you as the study progresses, and thank you very much for being here. We appreciate your time.
The meeting is adjourned.