Industry Committee on Dec. 7th, 2009

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Thank you, Mr. Warkentin.

We'll go on to Mr. Garneau and Mr. Bains, who I believe will be sharing some time.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Brampton South, ON]

Thank you. I'll be sharing my time with Mr. Garneau.

I want to echo the comments made by Mr. Wallace, and again I want to congratulate the CTC for receiving the marketer of the year award. Actually, I forgot to mention that in my earlier remarks. I think it's quite an accomplishment and it's well received by everyone in the industry, so congratulations once again on that.

Earlier Mr. Lake mentioned very passionately a decision made in the immigration department and he explained the rationale for it, but I think his comments clearly highlighted and demonstrated the impact it has not only in immigration, for example, but across many departments. These decisions are very widespread, and departments don't necessarily work in silos.

To that effect, I think the government has acknowledged and recognized that there needs to be a clear tourism strategy at the federal level, and they've identified and are starting to work on this process. The minister briefly spoke about this as well.

I think it's appropriate again to ask this question, which I asked in the context of the visa issue but I think it's appropriate in this context as well: have you been consulted on that strategy? Has your input been sought?

One of the issues, for example--and Mr. Pollard, you mentioned this to me when we spoke--is air service agreements. These are not done with any strategy in mind, or with CTC in mind, or with other areas in mind where we can actually try to align our goals and objectives in a way to maximize the potential for the industry. The idea behind a strategy is to avoid mistakes like that or to be able to line up our ducks to get the best set of ideas and strategies in place.

Can you guys comment, first of all, on any involvement with regard to the federal tourism strategy and the kind of input you've given to that process and the consultation aspect of it?

[Anthony Pollard]

I think we've been very fortunate over the course of the last few years. There was a period of time when there wasn't a minister designated with responsibility for travel, tourism, etc., and I have to give full credit to Mr. Ritz, who was minister prior to Minister Ablonczy, in terms of being very accessible and consulting regularly, seeking our views.

I can remember years ago when cabinet documents in Ottawa didn't have a communications strategy, and back about 15 years ago, PCO said that all cabinet documents must now have that. What we're trying to do is be able to say that when a piece of legislation or policy, or whatever you want to call it, is being advanced, you look at it through a tourism lens and ask what the impact of it will be. That's what we're seeing, more and more, taking place now.

I'll let my colleague Mr. Jones speak to it a little bit more, but the consultative process is working quite well. I'm sorry that Mr. Masse isn't here. There are things that we are being consulted on extensively and we think that's very useful.

[Christopher Jones]

I would echo those sentiments that there has been significant consultation between the Minister of State and us. For example, their office arranged for our meeting with the Prime Minister last June, which lasted about an hour. There was a round table with tourism stakeholders. We were invited to appear before the federal-provincial-territorial tourism ministers meeting in September.

I think there has been extensive consultation. The process is not to be faulted at the moment. I think it's been pretty healthy.

[Michele McKenzie]

I'd like to add that the CTC also has been very involved in working with our colleagues at Industry Canada, who have taken a strong lead in terms of the whole-of-government approach. It's been a very robust working relationship.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Brampton South, ON]

Has any timeline been given for when the strategy will be finalized in terms of the consultation? It's great to be consulted, but eventually there needs to be some--

[Christopher Jones]

Well, I don't speak for the government, but I get the sense that they're meeting with line departments and trying to line up commitments on different things. The ADS piece was a big piece that solved one part of that issue.

I want to add something, though. I don't want to make it sound like it's all perfect. There have been issues, such as the cancellation of the visitor rebate program, on which there wasn't consultation, and we would have liked to see it. So it's not completely rosy, but on balance, it has been very good.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Your industry has seen recessions come and go. Usually tourism drops and then it picks up again, all other things being equal. But in this one, we've talked about fuel prices going up, we've talked about the value of the loonie, and we've talked about more difficulty at border crossings. Are you considering that the permanent new reality, or are you hoping those things are going to be fixed and things will go back to where they used to be?

[Anthony Pollard]

I can speak for the hotel side, Mr. Garneau. We look at it in terms of bookings, and we see how they fell off almost overnight. Yet we see now that the group bookings, the business bookings for the third and fourth quarters next year, are starting to come back a little bit.

Are we optimistic? Yes. What attracts my attention a lot more is when I see a GDP growth rate of 3.5% projected for British Columbia next year. That gets me quite excited.

Are there things beyond our control? Yes. By nature, the business all of us at this table are in is to see the bottle half full, not half empty. I don't know, maybe they have the wrong guy in the job here. But at the end of the day, yes, I think we've bottomed out. If we keep learning from all these things, I think that's the important thing. You, as parliamentarians, are listening to us today, and that's a good story right there.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Thank you very much, Mr. Garneau.

As someone once said, every time something happens and something goes wrong, you learn something. You just don't want to learn too much at once.

We'll go on to Mr. Lake.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Thank you.

I want to follow up on a line of questioning a couple of us had regarding the border issue, specifically on the kind of advertising you might be doing in the areas on the American side of the border.

I was watching TV, and I was kind of surprised to see one day a commercial about passports. I was thinking that it was a Government of Canada commercial. At the end I found out that it was actually a commercial, I think, put out by an American organization advertising the need for passports. Of course, they recognize that it is important for them to educate Canadians about that.

Are we or any of your organizations doing any kind of advertising in Buffalo or Detroit or those areas that might be strong sources of border tourism to inform them of the need for a passport? Is there any benefit to an advertising campaign like that?

[Michele McKenzie]

We've not been involved in a passport campaign that has targeted certain areas. What we have done is work with the authorities in the U.S. We have taken their passport promotion road team into trade shows so that they're with us in our booths. We take American passport applications at the Canada tourism booth at major trade shows throughout the U.S. Especially when we're going after the main convention market, that has been quite effective.

What we have not done is run a “get a passport” campaign in some of those border cities. We've been working more with local chambers of commerce to try to understand what some of the barriers are. We have not seen any evidence that a marketing campaign of that nature would effectively overcome some of the barriers to getting passports that some people have.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Many of you have talked about the declining numbers of U.S. visitors coming to Canada. One thing I'm curious about is where the numbers are increasing or where the future looks brighter in terms of people coming to Canada. And obviously we've talked about the situation with China and the recent agreement made there. But from where else are we seeing increasing numbers of visitors coming?

[Michele McKenzie]

You're seeing increases coming from some of these new and emerging markets. Mexico has been our shining-light market. And we are working diligently with DFAIT and all of our partners in that market to bring that business back. We know that business is there. We're focused on the emerging markets of India, Brazil, and China, where we're seeing the most growth.

That's not to say the other markets are not important for Canada. The U.K. has about a million visitors a year coming to Canada. It's the largest international market other than the U.S. So we don't want to turn our back on any of these markets, as well. But they are not experiencing that same rate of growth.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Does anyone else want to comment on that, too? Or do you just agree with that?

[Christopher Jones]

The marketing in Canada is more left to the Canadian Tourism Commission; TIAC doesn't get too involved in that.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Okay.

[Michele McKenzie]

There's something I'd probably add to that, though. We should not paint the U.S. with one brush. There are many different markets in the U.S. Certainly the air traveller who comes to Canada spends about twice what the average auto traveller does when coming to Canada. It's a very lucrative market. We've had great success in markets such as New York, California, and Chicago this year, and we intend to stay invested there. It's a great market.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

In terms of a typical international visitor coming to Canada--and I'm thinking probably more of a non-American--what is their typical profile in terms of their visit? Do they come to one place and spend two weeks in one place? Do they hop on a train and travel one whole region of the country? Or do they go from one side to the other? What is a typical visitor? Or are there categories of typical visitors?

[Michele McKenzie]

It really depends on the market, because different markets have different interests in coming to Canada. But I think the theme is that there is no typical visit anymore. Perhaps there was more of that in days gone by, when there was a predominance toward group travel from the international markets and from the touring travel that would come by car from the U.S.

It was mentioned earlier that group travel demand has gone down; independent travel demand has gone up. People are very interested in building their own packages, building their own itineraries, and taking their own tours. We no longer see people landing in Vancouver and thinking they can visit all of Canada in a week, thankfully.

But typically, what we see is that people will come to Canada, they'll visit one area of Canada, and that will inspire them to come back. So if we can get them here, we know we can get multiple trips.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lake.

We'll now continue with Mr. Bouchard.

[Robert Bouchard, Bloc, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

My question is for Ms. McKenzie.

You talked about airports. We know that, at the airports, foreign visitors have to go through customs. I visited two places this summer, including Cranbrook, British Columbia, a town that was given a customs post in 2008. I also went to Mont-Tremblant, in Quebec, another town that was granted a customs post in 2007, I believe. I saw the vitality that there was in those new destinations.

The government is very restrictive in adding customs posts to receive foreign visitors. They focus particularly on the airports in the major cities such as Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. I'm sure there are some elsewhere, but they are mainly in the major centres.

In my riding, there are plans for a customs post to attract tourists because of the specific characteristics there. Do you think that plans for new tourist destinations aimed at new markets, foreign visitors, would help develop the tourism industry, or should this be focused instead in centres such as those we currently have?

[Michele McKenzie]

Thank you.

The opportunity we have in Canada to develop new destinations is immense, and the extent to which we can do that will help make us more competitive. We know that our customers like to travel from point to point as much as possible. If they don't have to transfer through an airport, that's the ideal situation. So the extent to which new destinations can open with point-to-point air service, our customers are telling us that would be desirable. Whether that can practically be delivered in all cases is a different question, but that's where customer demand is.

We've been working with CBSA to improve the sense of welcome at borders, wherever they are located in Canada, and we're doing that in advance of the winter games. We've worked with them to brand the arrivals halls in a number of airports across the country. We're working with them on rolling out a service program called “first face” about delivering those services in as friendly a manner as possible.

Those are very important security services for Canada, but we want to put a bit more focus on being friendly, and the reception from CBSA has been very positive. So that's where our focus has been to date.

[Robert Bouchard, Bloc, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Do you have a study showing that you support this, that this path should be taken? Have you made any submissions to find new destinations and for the government to be more open to opening new customs posts in certain airports to receive foreign visitors?

[Michele McKenzie]

We have research to support that. I can provide research that shows where the customer demand is going, and it would support new destinations for Canada.