Low gas prices, a low Canadian dollar and an increasing number of international flight routes is fueling optimism that 2015 will be a banner year for Canadian tourism.
“We’ve had increasing air access in all our major markets,” Canadian Tourism Commission CEO David Goldstein said February 19 at his organization’s annual public meeting in Vancouver.
“We’re starting to see the effects where all these cylinders are pulsing together.”
Statistics released this week show that Canada had 17.13 million international visitor arrivals in 2014. That’s 3.2% more than in 2013 and more than 7% more than in 2012.
“2013 was our collective turnaround year,” he said.
He dismissed suggestions that plunging oil prices could wreak havoc on the economy and spur a reticence among Canadians to travel.
Goldstein, who has been in the job for about two months, also set out his vision for the Vancouver-based federal Crown corporation, which is mandated to increase tourism revenue in part by helping small and medium-sized businesses reach international markets.
One of his key planks for change is to act more like a media organization by “breaking down intermediaries,” bypassing agencies and producing more direct-to-consumer content. He said CTC still relies on marketing agency partners but that this is shifting due to consumer behaviour.
He also wants to have a multifaceted marketing strategy that he equated to that of Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO), which is known for its iconic carbonated soda but also owns healthier beverage brands such as Minute Maid and Odwalla.
Goldstein said that the CTC’s greatest asset is the Canada brand but that “sometimes the Canada brand can lead and sometimes it can lead from behind,” implying that various provincial brands, those of large cities or even private companies could instead sometimes also take the lead in CTC initiatives. He referred to this approach as tapping into a "constellation of brands" and he projected a graphic on large monitors that prominently featured the word Canada but was surrounded by dozens of other logos.
The CTC has watched its budget steadily decline from $105.9 million in 2009. It was $75.8 million in 2012, $61.4 million in 2013 and $58 million in 2014.
Goldstein told BIV after the meeting that some of the funding in previous years was always intended to be temporary and was tied to initiatives such as the 2010 Olympic Games.
“Scarcity drives innovation,” he said before explaining that less money has forced the CTC to improve efficiency. “We’re at the tipping point of diminishing returns.”
