Canada’s new federal tourism minister says Canadian tourism officials need to keep marketing Canadian domestic travel.
It’s a nice thought. And he’s right. But domestic tourism can’t possibly take the place of international visitors.
A recent story in the Globe and Mail noted that visitors to Ontario’s hip Prince Edward County spend an average of $74 per day. Visitors spend more than $400 per day, which is more than five times as much.
This is an issue all around the world, and all across Canada. Locals who drive to a destination, say, from Calgary to Banff, might buy a family lunch or take the gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain. That brings money into the economy, for sure. It’s welcome. It’s important.
But it doesn’t come close to what a couple from California or a family from Japan or France might spend on hotels, tours, food and attractions over two or three days.
“During the darkest days of the pandemic, Destination Canada, which normally takes its money and markets Canada to the rest of the world, took that money and marketed inside Canada, to travel,” Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault told CBC News the other day. “I think to at least [the third quarter] of 2022, we’re going to have to see more of that.”
Domestic travellers make up 78 per cent of tourism spending in Canada. But international visitors spend an average of $1,047 per trip, more than four times what domestic travellers spend, the CBC story noted.
“Unfortunately, domestic travel won’t replace international travel, both in terms of number of visitors and in terms of revenues,” Frederic Dimanche, director of the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Ryerson University in Toronto, told me in an email. “In addition, many Canadians will choose to get away and travel to their favoured sun-destinations in winter and spring.
“This will probably contribute to increasing the negative balance of payment (more Canadians spending abroad than international visitors spending in Canada), and it won’t help some Canadian operators who typically rely on international business,” he said.
Canadian tourism businesses also face a labour shortage, one Dimanche thinks will deepen.
“The challenge is that it is not only front-line workers who are leaving the sector. Experienced supervisors and managers are also leaving. This will result in an expertise and quality gap that may take years to recover from. Canada has very few university-level hospitality and tourism management schools… and an increasing number of young graduates are starting their careers in other sectors.”
“Domestic travel is a crucial step to getting our industry back up and running but [it] will not be able to fill the revenue gap from the halt of international travel,” Beth Potter, president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, told CBC News.
Potter said the tourism sector has shrunk by more than 50% since the start of the pandemic, falling from a $105 billion-a-year industry before the pandemic to one worth about $53 billion now. That represents a drop of 40% in domestic spending and a remarkable 87% in spending by international visitors, the CBC noted.
“Unfortunately, domestic travel won’t replace international travel, both in terms of number of visitors and in terms of revenues,” Dimanche said. “In addition, many Canadians will choose to get away and travel to their favoured sun-destinations in winter and spring. This will probably contribute to increasing the negative balance of payment (more Canadians spending abroad than international visitors spending in Canada), and it won’t help some Canadian operators who typically rely on international business
“Destination Canada is investing money into domestic travel with good reason “ he said. “But even for domestic travel, Canadians will have to overcome their fear of travelling, which has been a major stumbling block for the recovery of the travel sector.
“However, Destination Canada should do well to maintain ‘top of mind awareness’ and market Canada as a (relatively) safe destination for Americans and Europeans, their major markets,” he said. “People will be eager to travel again and countries that continue to communicate will be in travel agents’, tour operators’, and consumers’ minds.”
If the tourism sector can be kept alive a while longer, Canada may be due for a tourism renaissance, Susie Grynol, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of Canada, told the CBC.
“We will have so much demand for Canada that our single biggest challenge will be labour and making sure we can service all of this demand.”
