A top Air Canada executive says business travel in Canada could reach pre-2019 levels by the end of this year. There’s also encouraging news about a Canadian leisure travel rebound.
In an interview with Reuters, Air Canada Chief Commercial Officer Lucie Guillemette said Canada could even be close to pre-pandemic business travel numbers by Labour Day.
“We’re actually very encouraged,” she said this week. “We’re certainly not close to 2019 levels yet, but we are thinking, based on what we’re seeing, most probably by the time we hit Labour Day, or get into 2023 it should be quite close.”
That’s a much rosier picture than the airline painted earlier this year, when it suggested it might reach 75% to 80% of 2019 business travel levels by 2023.
Guillemette’s optimism appears to be well-founded. A recent report from the World Travel and Tourism Council found that the GDP from the travel and tourism sector in Canada could reach $157 billion CAD next year. That’s just 0.8% lower than in 2019.
A study released by MasterCard on Wednesday of this week found that global business flight bookings in March exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the first time. Canada had 17% fewer business flight bookings in March compared to 2017, but that’s still a reasonable recovery, and a faster one than many pundits predicted a year or two ago.
Mastercard said that, for North American travellers, Canada is the number two travel destination, behind Mexico and ahead of the United States. Worldwide, Canada was ranked the 10th most desirable spot for global travellers.
