With the theme Forging Canada's Tourism Future, the Tourism Industry Association of Canada's 2021 Tourism Congress and Canadian Tourism Awards was successfully held in-person and online on November 30 and December 1 at the Westin Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario.

Building on the success of the 2020 Virtual TIAC Tourism Congress, the two-day hybrid event provided quality, relevant and targeted content with82 presenters delivering forward-thinking information, ideas and solutions to operators (owners and management team), associations, educators, students, influencers, politicians and decision-makers. 

Held in conjunction with the Tourism Congress, the Canadian Tourism Awards are presented annually by TIAC to recognize success, leadership, and innovation in Canada's tourism industry – rewarding those people, places, organizations, and events that have gone above and beyond to offer travellers superior tourism experiences in Canada.

The in-person event brought over 400 industry and tourism stakeholders together for the first time in two years, while the online event attracted more than 375 delegates.

The hybrid event included 24 virtual exhibit booths and 23 sponsors.

In addition to a wide range of keynote and panel sessions, The Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, joined TIAC President and CEO Beth Potter for a fireside chat broadcast live to the online audience as well as attended and actively participated in the Canadian Tourism Awards held the evening of December 1.

The Honourable Gudie Hutchings, Minister of Rural Economic Development, attended TIAC's Tourism Hall of Fame Luncheon on the second day of the Tourism Congress and posthumously inducted TIAC's past President and CEO Charlotte Bell.  Several other MPs also attended and celebrated the inductees of the Tourism Hall of Fame and the finalists and recipients of the Canadian Tourism Awards.

TIAC's partner Alphabet® worked with industry thought-leaders to share their key takeaways from live and online sessions during the two-day event.  We are pleased to share the collection of TIAC Takeaways and hope it might be helpful for your organization to motivate action through advocacy, partnerships, community outreach, product development, sustainability, marketing, and performance measurement.

As a reminder, if you missed an online session from the 2021 Tourism Congress, don’t worry, you can login through your registration link and access all recordings on our virtual event platform.  Click here to login.