Finance committee  Through the chair, as I said earlier, we are looking for every way that we can build forward. We're trying not to use language of building back, but of building forward and doing things in a different way. Doing things that are better for the environment, will reduce our carbon footprint, will be more sustainable and will produce socio-economic benefits for our people and for our communities are top of mind for our industry.

Finance committee  I would like to say that, within the tourism industry, we're looking at ways in which we can do things differently. The opportunity for us to kind of lead the way when it comes to more sustainable practices, practices that lead to a smaller carbon footprint overall, is certainly at the top of our agenda, and it's something that we are working with our global partners on through the World Travel & Tourism Council and the UNWTO.

Finance committee  Thank you for that question. Of course, offering a unique taste of a place is something a lot of our members are very proud of. As an industry, we are grappling with rising costs across the board, whether they are the rising food costs, rising costs of insurance or other costs related to the supply chain.

Finance committee  Yes, and, in fact, within our proposal we are asking for a significant increase to Destination Canada's budget over the next five years so that we can communicate to the world that Canada is open for business again.

Finance committee  Through the chair, I can say that our forecasts predict that domestic spending should recover by the end of 2024, but international spending from visitation will not recover until the end of 2025 at this time.

Finance committee  At the end of 2022, we should be at $80 billion, so we will be a solid 24% short of that 2019 high mark. We are anticipating it is going to take us until the end of 2025 to get back to that high mark of $105 billion. If we can do the things I talked about in my opening remarks, we would like to see and work towards getting to a really robust $134 billion by 2030.

Finance committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair and Committee members, I would like to thank you for inviting me today. My name is Beth Potter and I am the President and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. Before my remarks, I acknowledge that we are gathered here today on the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin nation.

International Trade committee  I certainly do. I think you can look at how we process people through our borders and at the ability to make a declaration verbally, which we've been doing for years at the land borders, with people coming into the country and declaring verbally how much they are bringing back into the country.

International Trade committee  We are in the process of finalizing our budget recommendations going forward, but certainly we would like to see Destination Canada receive some additional funds specifically to re-engage the U.S. traveller, whether that's a day traveller coming across, a leisure traveller or a business traveller.

International Trade committee  Certainly we are seeing domestic tourism coming back and coming back faster than international travel is. It is still down across the country by about 16%. One of the things we found was that when our borders were closed, Canadians were exploring their own country and discovering places within the country that they didn't really realize were there.

International Trade committee  Contrary to popular belief, hotels aren't filled to 100% of the rooms they have. They are filled to the capacity of customers they can service. A hotel may be operating at only 60% or 70%. That's why it's been very difficult to get bookings in some parts of the country.

International Trade committee  I would just add that having only one version of the tool is not helpful given the multiple languages we encounter with international visitors coming in or from an accessibility standpoint, whether for seniors or for others. Always having an alternative method of communicating and sharing the information that's being asked for is something we need to have regardless of which way we go forward.

International Trade committee  Again, I don't have that number.

International Trade committee  It's 50%.

International Trade committee  We certainly know that the farther somebody travels to Canada, the longer they stay and the more they spend.