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 federal, provincial and territorial tourism ministers, and will align with international best practices, such as those of the United States and France.
“We are pleased that the Federal Tourism Growth Strategy incorporates the input that our sector provided during the consultation period and recognizes the tremendous contribution made by business meetings and events to Canada’s visitor economy,” said Laura Pallotta, chair, Meetings Mean Business Canada. “We welcome Minister Boissonnault’s whole-of-government approach to tourism growth with the promise of better coordination across multiple government departments to address workforce, border and transportation challenges.”
The strategy document notes that Destination Canada receives $96.5 million in funding annually from the federal government to promote Canada on the world stage. “We’re encouraged by the continued support for Destination Canada’s efforts to attract more international business events to destinations across our country,” Pallotta added.
Canadian Tourism Industry Stats (2022)
> Canada’s tourism industry supported approximately 623,375 direct jobs and 1.9 million total jobs in 2022
> Tourism contributed nearly $38 billion to Canada’s GDP, generated close to $94 billion in revenue for businesses, and accounted for almost 13% of service exports
> Non-resident tourism spending rose by almost 321% compared to 2021, recovering to over 70% of the 2019 peak of $28.6 billion
> Destination Canada forecasts that total tourism spending will fully recover by 2024 and international visitation will fully recover by 2026