You’ll often hear TIAC refer to how Canada ranks against our global competitors. We get really excited when the media lists Canadian destinations as “The Top” of anything, and event the government’s New Tourism Vision has a specific goal tied to Canada’s global tourism rankings.

But why does it matter? We know Canada has great tourism product, and has been growing visitation for several years, so obviously we’re doing ok.

When TIAC uses rankings in our advocacy efforts, it is because it is the easiest way to benchmark our competitiveness, and what rankings say often reveals where we can improve.

Take the World Economic Forum’s bi-annual tourism competitiveness report. In this report, we can see in great detail what our competing countries are doing better, and what we’re already excelling at. Airport Infrastructure? We’ve been #1 for years! Our price competitiveness however leaves a lot to be desired – ranking 97th of 136 countries in 2017. Rankings also help to put our own growth into context. While Canada has set records recently with international arrivals, tourism globally is growing at a much faster pace than us. This means we need to do more and be more innovative to take tourism to new heights.