On November 27th, representatives from Destination Canada and Business Events Canada will enlighten us on trends in international visitors to Canada and ensuring our continued growth. While much of this presentation will focus on the marketing and consumer profiling aspect, it’s also important to consider other factors that help get travellers foot in the door.

“Access” is one of the main pillars TIAC works on to support potential international visitors. As a part of this pillar, we advocate to government that, while safety and security needs to be our top priority, visiting Canada cannot be burdensome on travellers. In most circumstances, it shouldn’t be necessary for someone who wants to visit Canada to fill out a 20-page visa application, have health verified by a doctor, and drive 4 hours to drop off an application, just to take a two-week vacation. With the introduction of new technologies, it should be easier than ever to screen travelers without barrier to entry.

Removing barriers works. Not only does it make the process of travelling easier, it shows we are more open and eager to welcome tourism. Take Mexico, for example. After the visa application was dropped in favour of the electronic travel authorization (eTA) form, the impact on visitation was immediate:

                 - Within 1 month, visitation was up 49.8% over the previous year

                - Spending by Mexican tourists was on average $1900 for an 18-day visit

                - Air capacity to Canada from Mexico increased 71%

If we continue to improve this way in more markets, who knows what the results could be. With the lofty targets set in the government’s New Tourism Vision, we think there’s a lot of work that can be done!