18 March 2009

UK visitors to Canada down

UK visitor numbers to Canada dropped 6% last year, delegates at Canadian Tourism's spotlight event in London were told.

In a question and answer session with leaders of the UK and Canadian travel industry, Ben Peters of JonView suggested that the current client mentality was to delay spending until as late as possible.

He said there was much higher degree of shopping around and that this economic crisis was totally different from any recently felt.

Paul Ryan of Fairmont Hotels agreed. Ã¢â¬ÅâœBooking pace is way behind what is has been over the past few years, leading to much later bookings. Clients are looking for added value and lower prices,Ã¢â¬~ he said.

Chris Bryan of Canadream added: Ã¢â¬ÅâœThere is a lot of long-haul choice for UK travellers and Canada has to work hard to get them."

He believes value for money marketing, rather than discounting, was the way forward.

Despite the recession, Peters concluded that Canada was well placed to increase visitor numbers from the UK thanks to the Winter Olympic in early 2010.

He also said Canada spotlight 2009 will be bigger than 2008 in terms of the number of exhibitors, appointments and visitors.