It could take another three years for Ontario’s tourism industry to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, a major new study says. A report from The Tourism Industry Association of Ontario and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, released today, calls for sweeping changes, including keeping the Ontario staycation tax credit, boosting cannabis tourism, providing better train and rapid transit service, giving indigenous tourism a push, and boosting affordable housing for workers. The study says tourism businesses in Canada’s most populous province are generating less than two-thirds (64%) of the revenues they saw in 2019, and that 70% have taken on debt Read more
hospitality
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
Canadian hotels are in the beginning of a “dramatic turnaround,” says Don Cleary, the president of Marriott Hotels Canada. I sat down with Cleary at the Ritz Carlton hotel in downtown Toronto today to talk about everything from the travel rebound to hotel renovations and labour shortages. We’re not back to early 2019 times just yet, but he says there’s definitely progress being made. “We’re beginning to see some encouraging signs,” Cleary said. “We are not out of the woods at all, but the last three to four weeks have been a dramatic turnaround. It’s like a light switch was Read more
