Canada has set ambitious goals for tourism post-pandemic and a new strategy to reach them, but experts say geopolitical challenges, domestic travel costs and climate change will make it difficult to reach them.
Canada’s goal is to return to the top 10 global tourist destinations in the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Development Index after dropping to 13th place in 2021. Canada was 11th in the 2024 index, but the federal government has a goal of seventh place by 2030.
He also wants to increase annual tourism receipts from $140 billion to $160 billion and increase the tourism sector’s contribution to Canada’s GDP by 40 per cent.
But experts say that won’t be easy.
“The index doesn’t measure the number of tourists coming to the country,” said Frederic Dimanche, dean of the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Toronto Metropolitan University.
“The criteria used include those relating to safety, security and the quality of air transport, rail and other travel infrastructure. They also relate to the country’s tourist attractions, natural and cultural resources.”
“Canada has to improve itself, but it also depends on how well other countries are doing,” Dimanche added.
Destination Canada, the crown corporation tasked with reaching Canada’s tourism goals, released a new strategy in June on what needs to be done to reach the targets.
Strategies include identifying key target demographics, how to brand Canada, how to attract more business events and conventions, how to increase the labour supply, and how to do all of this with environmental sustainability in mind.
One of the target markets is East Asia, including China.
Canada-China tensions weigh on tourism
Relations between Canada and China remain tense, with China not yet adding Canada back to its list of approved tours.
“We know we’ve lost a lot of business from China,” Dimanche said. “Some operators have been affected significantly. So if we can change that, that would be good, but it’s not really something we can control.”
Wars and conflicts overseas also affect commercial air routes to Canada and their availability and pricing. So, while the numbers show that domestic travel has fully recovered since the pandemic and the number of Canadians going abroad has increased, the number of foreigners visiting Canada has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
“While international travel demand has recovered among Canadian households, international tourist arrivals to Canada have not returned to the same extent,” said Claire Fan, an RBC economist who wrote a recent report on the struggles facing Canada’s tourism industry.
“We found that there is still a 10 percent difference, and most of that is coming from tourists outside East Asia, including China, Japan and South Korea,” Mr Hwang said.
Tour operators say they’ve seen evidence of this firsthand.
“I don’t think the Asian market has fully recovered yet,” said Etienne Cameron, co-owner of Lady Dive Tours, an Ottawa-based company that runs “amphibious bus” tours.
He said Canada’s absence from China’s approved list continues to be a major blow.
“We’re noticing the impact, and it’s huge. Big groups aren’t in the city anymore.”
Three-quarters of Canada’s tourism sector is domestic demand and the government should focus on growing it, Fan argues.
However, foreign tourists continue to be a target market as the tourism industry is considered an export sector as they bring new revenue.
“This means more tourists, they spend more money, they stay longer and they visit all year round,” said Federal Tourism Minister Soraya MartÃnez Ferrada.
1.9 million Canadian jobs depend on tourism
According to government statistics, the tourism sector supports 1.9 million jobs in every region across Canada.
“Tourism is the driving force of our economy. … In fact, more than the automotive industry, the agriculture industry or the fishing industry,” Martinez-Ferrada said.
Other obstacles include tensions with India and Canada’s recent reinstatement of visa requirements for visitors from Mexico.
But the cost of traveling across a country as vast as Canada can be untenable, especially without the high-speed rail that other much smaller countries offer and airline competition to keep prices low.
Martinez Ferrada said part of the government’s tourism strategy is to invest more in transport.
“If it costs the same to go from Montreal to Vancouver as it does to go to Paris, then certainly people might say, ‘Maybe I’ll go to Paris,’ but then once you go to Paris, the cost of staying in Paris becomes very expensive,” Martinez-Ferrada said.
The government hopes that a surge in immigration to Canada could boost tourism as more family and friends from overseas visit.
Foreign demand for indigenous-based tourism is also growing.
But another challenge is the growing impact of climate change.
For example, wildfires threaten a country’s reputation when newspapers around the world report that “Canada is burning,” even though only a few areas are at risk, not the entire country.
“Climate change is an emerging topic for our industry,” Martinez-Ferrada said.
“Not only do they deal with the threat of climate change, but also if they have to evacuate, for example? How do they evacuate tourists from the area?”
But climate change and an extended freeze-free period for the river could also mean an extended tourist season for Lady Dive Amphibus in Ottawa.
“I’m not worried that we can’t go back to the way things were,” Cameron said, “I just think we need to put more effort into building relationships with other countries, put more money into tourism and really showcase what’s great about Canada.”
