Canada is giving the cold shoulder to its neighbours south of the border according to the latest report on Canadian tourism.
According to the Canadian Tourism Commission’s (CTC) 2012 Annual Report,, the company stopped all efforts to attract travellers in the U.S. to visit Canada. The organization cites that tough competition for attracting U.S. tourists — and their money — wasn’t something the CTC thought it could win.
In 2012, we also terminated our media relations, public relations and social media work in the U.S., remaining active in that market only through our business events sales activities and our annual Canada Media Marketplace event. While U.S. Leisure has traditionally been — and remains — important to Canada’s tourism industry, it is also ferociously competitive.
It also looks like Canada wasn’t getting enough bang for its buck, with numbers suggesting that U.S. tourists weren’t spending enough money during their visits. Travellers from the U.S. spent an average of $ 518 per trip to Canada — the lowest of any international visitor group.
“Dollar for dollar, advertising in overseas markets was proven to generate a higher return on investment than the United States,” Paul Nursey, vice-president of strategy and corporate communications for the CTC told the Toronto Star.
By comparison, visitors from Mexico spent an average of $ 1,399 per trip while travellers from the United Kingdom, where tourists made nearly 600 trips to Canada last year, spent $ 1,253 on average. Brazil made the top of the list, with tourists paying an average of $ 1,874 per trip.
The move to effectively abandon luring American tourists has been in the making since 2010, starting with killing off ads and marketing through U.S. travel agents and tour operators according to the report. The CTC says that it plans on spending its money attracting tourists from Australia, Germany, France and the U.K., which account for nearly 60 per cent of Canada’s international arrivals, according to Skift.
The organization also looks to focus on bringing tourists from outside of the country, though it has seen some success with campaigns to get more Canadians travelling within Canada. Last year, the CTC unveiled their 35 Million Directors project, a massive crowd sourced video initiative which highlighted Canada through the eyes of Canadians. The project has since earned 2.5 million YouTube views.
While Canada has been scaling back their efforts to attract U.S. tourists, just the opposite has been happening south of the border. Last May, Brand USA, an organization working with U.S. Tourism Organization, launched their campaign in Canada, hoping to lure Canadians travellers into the U.S., according to the International Business Times.
Would you like to see more American tourists in Canada? Let us know in the comment section below or on Twitter at @HPCaTravel.
{ 0 comments }