About TIAC

• TIAC led a coalition of hundreds of tourism stakeholders as well as a letter-writing campaign to advocate for a change to the Canadian Emergency Business Account loan program that resulted in revised terms and deadlines and provided operators more time to pay back. (Summer of 2023)
  
  
• BC & NWT Wildfires - TIAC was actively engaged in ongoing conversations and communications with federal officials and industry partners to determine the best ways to provide assistance. (ongoing)
  
  
• CBSA Work-Around for Business Events Sector (Early 2023): In early 2023, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirmed to TIAC their commitment to implementing a work-around for the Business Events (BE) sector. This work-around pertained to the importation of temporary goods for conferences and trade shows in Canada, within the framework of the CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) project. This development marked a significant triumph for TIAC, showcasing the organization's advocacy efforts and demonstrating tangible support for the BE sector. The BE sector expressed profound gratitude for TIAC's instrumental role in achieving this crucial milestone.
  
  
• Federal Budget Allocation for Business Events Sector (CARM-related): In the context of the Federal Budget highlights, it's noteworthy to specify that the $50 million allocation to Destination Canada (DC) is designated to support the Business Events (BE) sector. This funding is strategically aimed at attracting major international conventions, conferences, and events to Canada. By explicitly highlighting this in the Federal Budget bullet, TIAC emphasizes its role in advocating for financial resources that directly contribute to enhancing the competitiveness and appeal of Canada as a destination for significant global events within the BE sector.
  
  
• 2023 Hill Days campaign: The 2023 Hill Days campaign involved TIAC's strategic engagement with some 50 policymakers on Parliament Hill and at several important federal departments. This initiative aimed to advocate for policies favorable to the tourism industry, emphasizing its economic significance and seeking support for policy measures that would enhance the industry's growth and resilience.
  
  
• Debt Relief – New research commissioned by TIAC on the debt situation: TIAC took a proactive stance on addressing the challenges posed by the debt situation within the tourism industry. Through new research commissioned by the organization, TIAC sought to understand the complexities of the debt landscape, providing valuable insights that informed potential solutions and policy recommendations to alleviate financial burdens on businesses. These efforts led to amendments to the CEBA program that were announced in September.
  
  
• Federal Budget highlights: TIAC actively participated in the discourse surrounding the federal budget for the fiscal year. By highlighting key aspects relevant to the tourism sector, TIAC aimed to influence budgetary allocations and priorities, ensuring that the industry's needs were recognized and addressed at the national level. In support of tourism, Federal Budget 2023 announced $50 million in new resources to Destination Canada for Business Events and another $103 million to the RDAs.
  
  
• Influential Submission Impacting Government's Tourism Growth Strategy: TIAC's active involvement in shaping the future of the Canadian tourism landscape was further underscored by the submission made for the Tourism Growth Strategy. The letter from the All-Party Parliamentary Tourism Caucus explicitly acknowledged the pivotal role played by TIAC, ITAC, and THRC in influencing the strategy, which was ultimately adopted by the government.
  
  
• Took part in Tourism HR Canada’s Labour Market Forum: Each year Tourism HR Canada hosts a Labour Market Forum and invites 80 industry professionals from across the country to participate in a conversation about how we can all build a resilient, competitive, and inclusive workforce.
  
  
• Annual Tourism Congress: TIAC shared comprehensive industry data and highlights at the Annual Tourism Congress, providing a platform to discuss key challenges, opportunities, and trends. The attendance of government officials, including ministers, further emphasized the significance of these discussions in shaping tourism policies. Nearly 500 delegates from across the country attended the event in Ottawa.
  
  
• TIAC's Canadian Tourism Awards: TIAC celebrated outstanding contributions to the Canadian tourism industry through its annual awards ceremony. Recognizing excellence in various categories, these awards served to acknowledge and promote best practices, innovation, and dedication within the tourism sector. Hugh Mackenzie was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.
  
  
• Future Leaders (Air Canada Sponsored): The Future Leaders program, sponsored by Air Canada, aimed to nurture emerging talent within the tourism industry. By providing mentorship, educational opportunities, and networking experiences, TIAC and Air Canada jointly supported the development of the next generation of leaders in tourism. Seven future leaders were recognized during the ceremony.
  
  
• Development of the READi Program: TIAC initiated the READi Program, focusing on Research, Education, Advocacy, and Development in the tourism sector. This comprehensive program aimed to address current challenges and opportunities, fostering sustainable growth through informed decision-making and strategic initiatives.
  
  
• Launch of the Sustainable Tourism Symposium and workshops: TIAC took a proactive stance on promoting sustainable practices within the tourism industry. The launch of the Sustainable Tourism Symposium and accompanying workshops provided a platform for industry stakeholders to discuss and implement environmentally conscious and socially responsible strategies.
  
  
• Tourism Town Halls: TIAC organized and conducted Tourism Town Halls across all provinces and territories. These events served as valuable forums for dialogue between industry stakeholders, local businesses, and communities, addressing regional challenges and fostering collaboration for the sustainable growth of tourism. We thank our partners DC, ITAC and THRC for their work in rounding out the discussions.
  
  
• Rendez Vous Canada 2023: The Rendez-vous Canada (RVC) 2023 event, held in Quebec City, was a significant business matchmaking platform. It provided opportunities for tourism professionals to network, forge partnerships, and explore potential collaborations, contributing to the growth and return of international visitors to Canada. It is estimated the event yielded more than $90 million in long-term economic spin-offs for the broader industry.
  
  
• Industry Webinars and Member-only Ask an Expert Webinars: TIAC facilitated a series of industry webinars covering diverse topics such as Commercial Insurance, Culinary Tourism, Travel Marketing Tips, LGBTQ Market and Inclusiveness, Programmatic Advertising, Garden Tourism, Francophone and Bilingual Tourism. These sessions aimed to disseminate knowledge, best practices, and expertise to industry members, fostering continuous learning and skill development.
  
  
• Creation of 5 Advisory Committees: TIAC established five advisory committees to address specific focus areas within the tourism industry. These committees brought together experts, stakeholders, and industry leaders to provide strategic insights, guidance, and recommendations, ensuring that TIAC's initiatives were well-informed and aligned with industry needs. The committees are:
  • DIGITAL READI Advisory Committee
  • EXPORT READI Advisory Committee
  • INVESTOR READI Advisory Committee
  • SUSTAINABLE & REGENERATIVE READI Advisory Committee
  • MEMBERSHIP Advisory Committee

More details on our advisory committees can be found here.

• As an industry leader, TIAC contributes to the industry through the active participation on many boards and committees, including: NorthStar, Future Borders Coalition, Tourism HR Canada Board of Directors, WTTC advisory council, and others.
  
  
• TIAC continues to support the future of our workforce through speaking engagements and student leadership contests. We also contribute to the ongoing discussion of the post education offerings by sitting on the Board of Governors of Centennial College and as a supporting member of the Canadian Council of Tourism Universities.
  
  
• Collaborative work and speaking engagements through the provinces and territories’ network allows for aligned messaging.
  
  
• TIAC is actively working on the international front via the WTTC and UNWTO by working on issue-focused working groups that help to inform policy here in Canada.  Issues addressed included sustainability, climate change, labour, and seamless travel.
  
  

2022 Successes

• Held CRA sessions on C-2 support programs for Coalition members to have questions answered
• Submitted a comprehensive pre-budget submission to the federal government with industry input and support positioning key advocacy recommendations into three priority areas: Financial Supports; Branding and Barriers and the Labour Shortage LINK 
• Successfully advocated for testing requirements to be updated to include the option of antigen pre-arrival test for fully vaccinated travellers o Held an industry-wide briefing with Public Health Agency of Canada
• Hosted a successful Hill Week from February 15-17, 2022 with over 50 meetings
• Restart of the cruise in Canadian waters – much work and advocacy done by the TIAC Cruise Committee
• Significant work undertaken with Tourism HR Canada and government partners to begin addressing the tourism labour challenge
• Successfully advocated for testing requirements to be updated to remove the requirement for pre-travel testing, and move mandatory random testing offsite
• Submitted a comprehensive submission to the federal government with input from national counterparts and members across the country, in advance of the new Federal Tourism Growth Strategy LINK

2021 Successes

• After months of advocating for sector specific support, Bill C-2 passed on December 17th. The new support ensures Canada's Tourism Industry; the "Hardest Hit Sector" will continue to receive wage and rent relief and save thousands of businesses and jobs. LINK
• TIAC welcomed the reintroduction of a Minister of Tourism with the appointment of the Honourable Randy Boissonnault as the new Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance. LINK
• Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program : We knew that the wage and rent subsidy programs were slated to sunset at the end of October. So, we continued to push for a tailored solution. A demonstration of our efforts came when, as the first commitment on the campaign trail, Prime Minister Trudeau announced support for the hardest hit sectors, including a transition program that was very much aligned with the survival plan the Coalition had been advocating for. TIAC wrote many letters, made many phone calls, set up many meetings with Members of Parliament, Department officials and Senators, and appeared before the Standing Committee on Finance, as well as countless times in the media fighting for this bill. In December, we saw the greatest acknowledgement of these efforts. Bill C2: An Act to provide further support in response to COVID-19 was passed by both the House of Commons and the Senate. LINK
• The Prime Minister announced a standardized Canadian COVID-19 proof of vaccination, noting that Canada was engaging with international partners to obtain recognition abroad, so the tool could be used to facilitate travel around the world. This was a win for the tourism industry as TIAC had been advocating for one pan Canadian proof of vaccination system. We know that since then there is much confusion regarding the Omicron variant and the changing travel rules and restrictions. Our biggest priority through this is clarity for the industry, and ensuring we continue to advocate for one process. As we start to see provinces and territories reacting with their own measures, we need to ensure we are vocalizing the need to not move backwards into a fragmented system. LINK
• The U.S. accepted travelers immunized with vaccines approved by the WHO– including Canadians who have received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Encouraged to see this as TIAC continues to advocate for a national proof of vaccination in Canada, and for travelers with vaccinations approved by the WHO - in addition to those approved by Health Canada - to be welcomed back.LINK
• The lifting of the government's international ban on non-essential travel was very welcome as we continue to build consumer confidence in travel again. TIAC advocated for this through the Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses.
• The ban on cruise in Canadian waters was rescinded four months early due to advocacy work. Effective November 1, 2021, cruise ships were permitted in Canadian waters. Canada is working with the cruise ship industry, and other domestic and international partners, to support safe cruise ship travel in spring 2022. This allowed for ability to plan for 2022 season.LINK
• TIAC has been working tirelessly with industry partners requesting targeted support for the tourism industry. The TRF provided $500 Million in support for the tourism sector over a two-year period. The majority of the funding, $485 million, will be delivered by Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) directly to tourism businesses and organizations to help aide in the creation of new tourism experiences, or enhance existing ones. Of this $485 million, a minimum of 10% will be invested in Indigenous tourism projects.LINK
• TIAC announced the launch of the #OpentheBorder campaign, calling on the federal government to commit to a plan for reopening the Canada-U.S. border. The campaign focused on getting Canadian decision-makers to acknowledge the urgent need and to commit to a date to open the border, before the summer tourism season was lost. As a part of this campaign, TIAC hosted a number of Parliamentary and Congressional panels to discuss border reopening. The first included Beth Potter, MP Wayne Easter, Congressman Brian Higgins, and political reporter Althia Raj.
• Two press conferences with ALL PTTIAs (13) involved and supporting Tourism Week and the Open the Border campaign
• TIAC formed a national Cruise Committee, comprised of representatives from the five cruise regions: Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia and Northern Canada. This advisory committee works hand in hand with TIAC to identify cruise-related issues and provide recommendations.
• Relaunch of Tourism Round Table - TIAC as Co Chair. The Roundtable is focused on raising awareness on the barriers to travel and tourism caused by restrictions and testing requirements. We know there are more effective ways to protecting Canadians while also encouraging and facilitating travel.LINK
• Sector-specific acknowledgment for tourism in 2021 Federal Budget. LINK
• Hosted Industry Webinars providing updates on industry support efforts and partner plans. LINK
• Launch of TIAC 'Member Talk' - a monthly session open to membership to ask questions to the TIAC senior team. LINK
• Coordination of Town Hall events in partnership with Destination Canada and provincial and territorial associations. LINK
• Government announced a program change to CEWS to base year-to-date revenue comparison on 2019 revenue. LINK
• Coordinating the 2021 Tourism Week campaign for industry coast to coast to coast. Encouraging Canadians to take the Tourism Week pledge to travel in Canada this year. TIAC and tourism Week was featured on many significant media outlets. Tourism Week kicked off with a press conference held on May 21 at 11am EST. Representatives from every Provincial and Territorial Association were in attendance, as well as Destination Canada. A big focus of this year’s Tourism Week was on showcasing the solidarity of the industry, and celebrating its resilience. 34 individual media registered for the conference, including CBC, National Geographic and the Globe and Mail. A press release was distributed following the conference, followed by press releases each day from May 23 – May 30. TIAC highlighted a different region of the country each day of Tourism Week. LINK
• Coordination and execution of 2021 virtual advocacy days including TIAC Board Members in advance of the 2021 Federal Budget. Coordinated our first-ever, virtual Hill Week, online meetings with over 100 MPs.. LINK
• Launch of the 2021 Tourism Recovery Plan developed by the Tourism Recovery Committee. Comprised of tourism leaders from across Canada, representing all sectors of the visitor economy. It produced 2 reports with recommendations. This group met on a weekly basis to share status updates, ideas, and participate in dialogue on challenges and priorities for policy change and emergency support programs. LINK
• RRRF Funding Dedicated to Tourism outlined in Fall Economic Statement.
• Through TIAC's advocacy, HASCAP rollout was expedited and became available to industry in February 2021. LINK
• Elevating Canadian Experiences National Program delivered more than 100 capacity-building sessions in both culinary tourism development and winter/shoulder season development to over 4000 tourism operators and destination partners in 2020 and early 2021. We also supported the development of nine regional tourism development strategies. We also developed a suite of legacy tools from the program that is available to all Canadian tourism operators and destination partners. LINK
• Deployment of a weekly COVID-19 update outlining media and advocacy updates for the industry. LINK
• The undertaking of no less than six industry surveys including analysis of data and dissemination of information to stakeholders and partners on the state of the industry as well as the federal government on the effectiveness of relief programs. LINK

2020 Successes

• The Tourism Industry Association of Canada named one of WTM Virtual World Travel Leaders, the annual recognition of companies and individuals from around the globe which have had a positive impact on a specific region or sector. LINK
• Commissioned the State of the Industry Report, a monthly snapshot of recent global, regional and domestic tourism health and economic updates, and insights on the impact of COVID-19 on the travel and tourism industry’s path to recovery. LINK
• Partnership with The Globe and Mail to encourage Canadians to choose a summer holiday exploring Canada. LINK
• Successful execution of the first-ever virtual Tourism Congress with over 3,000 registered attendees. LINK
• Specific mention and recognition of tourism in the November 2020 Fall Economic Statement. LINK
• Hardest Hit mentioned in speech from the throne and fall economic statement through efforts with the Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses. LINK
• BCAP
• Tweaks to CEWs, CERS, other relief programs for tourism.
• Immigration rates
• Coordination of Town Hall events in partnership with Destination Canada and provincial and territorial associations.
• Development and deployment of a weekly COVID-19 update outlining media and advocacy updates for the industry. LINK
• As a result of COVID, DC has redirected $30M through Provincial Marketing Organizations to support DMO marketing campaigns.
• $40M through the RRRF fund is directed to support DMOs.
• TIAC hosted 2020 Tourism Week.
• Introduction of a COVID recovery plan.
• Wage subsidy program (CEWS) to keep labour force employed +CERB program to help those who have lost their jobs weather the storm + Changes to EI program to support laid-off employees - Recent promises in the Throne Speech indicate that this program will be extended through summer 2021.
• Creation of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee, with representation from regions across Canada and from all sectors of the tourism economy.
• Work Share program extended from 38 to 76 weeks – allowing businesses operating at lower capacity to keep employees on the payroll and share resources.
• Waived EI waiting period for those in quarantine.