Advocacy

Federal Tourism Growth Strategy promises ‘whole-of-government’ approach After several months of industry consultation, Ottawa has released its new Federal Tourism Growth Strategy. Entitled Canada 365: Welcoming the World. Every Day, the strategy was unveiled on July 4 by Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance. The new strategy centres around the following five priorities: Investing in Canada's tourism assets Attracting more international events Embracing recreation and the great outdoors Partnering to grow Indigenous tourism Improving coordination through a federal ministerial council A new Ministerial Tourism Growth Council will create greater connectivity among [...]

Tourism Week 2023 Recap On April 24, members of Meetings Mean Business Canada's leadership team joined Tourism Industry Association of Canada in Ottawa to kick off #TourismWeekCanada2023. During the opening reception at Ottawa’s Shaw Centre, MMBC Chair Laura Pallotta, Vice-chair Minto Schneider and Grant Snider, VP Membership & Engagement, had the opportunity to chat with Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault, Senator Karen Sorensen and other federal decision makers, about the important contribution made by business meetings and events to Canada's economy and overall [...]

TOURISM WEEK 2023 Did you know that business travel accounts for 40% of Canada’s overall tourism industry? Destinations across Canada welcome business visitors year-round, from near and far. Business travel isn’t seasonal! Tourism Week 2023 takes place April 24-30, led by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. As a key sponsor of this initiative, MMBC is participating in a number of ways: MMBC has taken TIAC’s Tourism Week tagline (CANADA: Powered by Tourism), and customized it for [...]

Sharpening Our Engagement Strategy Meetings Mean Business Canada has updated and renewed its annual agreement with the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) to further amplify, target and measure our advocacy and engagement efforts on behalf of the business events industry. Throughout 2023, TIAC will be MMBC’s lead advocacy partner, assisting MMBC leadership to implement our Federal Advocacy Priorities Plan. TIAC will proactively incorporate key business events industry messaging into presentation and communication materials reaching Members of Parliament and other federal decision makers. MMBC will participate in a number of advocacy initiatives during 2023, including: Global [...]

Advocacy Priorities for 2023 Earlier this month, our Government Relations committee established Meetings Mean Business Canada's advocacy priorities for 2023. During the next 12 months, our coalition will continue to support initiatives that: Accelerate industry recovery Drive business events into Canada Promote the economic and social benefits of business events to elected officials and all Canadians MMBC will also renew calls for increased federal funding to Destination Canada Business Events. Industry survey: We are asking industry stakeholders to identify barriers to attracting and/or holding business events in Canada. The survey link will be arriving in your inbox [...]

MMBC Chair Report: 2022 in Review It’s been an enormous year! Twelve months ago, little did we know that we still had one more pandemic wave to manage when, on December 23, most provinces started shutting down and in-person meetings were in jeopardy. It was another long winter for our stakeholders and for the country as a whole. MMBC, along with our Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) advocacy partners, focused on supporting our stakeholders through another rough period, working along with the Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses to advocate for extending government [...]

What is the Future of Business Events? Canada’s visitor economy is on the road to recovery, but still faces challenges as we head into a new year. During the opening plenary session at the Tourism Industry Association of Canada’s 2022 Tourism Congress, a panel of business events experts tackled everything from long-term outlooks to how to attract more international conferences to Canada. Here are some of the key points made during the session: Short- and Long-term Outlooks Laura Pallotta: As soon as [COVID-19] restrictions started to ease, Marriott saw an uptick in demand in the [...]

MMBC Advocates on Parliament Hill MMBC was well represented in Ottawa last month during Hill Days (October 19–21). An initiative of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC), Hill Days is an opportunity for MMBC leaders to meet and raise awareness of business event industry priorities among Members of Parliament, Senators and other decision makers. More than 50 federal government officials met with the MMBC and TIAC delegations, and over 45 Parliamentarians attended a tourism industry-hosted reception. MMBC Chair Laura Pallotta, Vice-chair and Government Relations lead Minto Schneider and MMBC board member David Campbell met with representatives [...]