The Canadian tourism industry, which accounts for one in ten jobs across the country, is expected to recover to 2019 levels a year earlier than previously forecast. In a study that will no doubt produce smiles on the faces of airline, hotel and restaurant workers from coast to coast and boost the number of jobs, Destination Canada’s new Fall Tourism Outlook says the country’s tourism sector is growing stronger and was given a boost by the recent lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. The study says leisure travel in Canada is now expected to recover to 2019 levels by 2024, one year Read more
Destination Canada
Canadian hotels are pretty much back to 2019 occupancy levels, and Google searches for Canada are higher than they were prior to the pandemic. Destination Canada’s quarterly report, issued today, finds that travel has strongly rebounded in the country. “Buoyed by hotel occupancy in regions exceeding their 2019 levels and lifts in urban areas closing in on their pre-pandemic performance, average hotel occupancy in June 2022 for Canada stood 1% below its 2019 level,” the report said. “Travel to Canada is in demand, with Google search from international markets exceeding 2019 levels.” Destination Canada said domestic air connectivity has improved Read more
Domestic leisure travel in Canada will soon be back to pre-pandemic levels, says a new report from Destination Canada. But international and domestic business travel aren’t expected to recover for a few more years. Here’s a synopsis of the report. As of spring 2022, with borders open to fully vaccinated travellers and health measures less restrictive in all parts of the country, revenues are forecast to grow to between $80 billion and $85 billion in 2022. Recovery will be uneven, with resort communities performing well, while rural and urban centres that are more dependent on international guests and business travellers Read more
Tourism in Canada isn’t expected to rebound until late 2025 or early 2026, says the head of Destination Canada. Speaking at the marketing agency’s annual general meeting, held virtually on Thursday, Destination Canada President and CEO Marsha Walden said it will take that long for tourism expenditures to reach 2019 levels. Walden said Destination Canada anticipates total tourism revenues in Canada will reach $78 billion next year. That’s a 51% increase over 2021 but well below the $105 billion Canada raked in for 2019. “At the depth of the crisis almost every segment of our industry came to a complete Read more
If there’s any city in the U.S. that needs the coronavirus to go away faster than Las Vegas, I can’t imagine which one it would be. But the reports out of Sin City appear rather bleak these days. My friends at TravelPulse in the U.S. today reported that some in Vegas “would go so far as to say the situation is dire.” “When the Las Vegas Sands reported a second-quarter earnings loss of almost $1 billion earlier this month, Sands President and COO Rob Goldstein said on the call: ‘We’re in a world of hurt here in terms of Las Read more
