Connecting America opens up new possibilities for Canadian tourism

As tourism arrivals to Canada from emerging markets such as China and India are reaching record highs, Destination Canada  – recently rebranded from the Canadian Tourism Commission – is turning some of its attention closer to home.

Leading up to Rendez-vous Canada Marketplace, now ongoing in Niagara Falls, ON from May 26-29, the Federal Government recently pledged to invest $30 million over three years to the Connecting America program, a marketing proposal to attract U.S. visitors originally brought forward by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC).

Although still in the early days (considering the announcement of funds was just made a week ago), Destination Canada is now gearing up to make a much anticipated return south of the border, targeting U.S. leisure travellers and raising awareness of Canada's hospitality and tourism experiences.

In 2013, the organization made the controversial decision to stop all marketing efforts in the U.S. after determining that limited resources prevented the organization from having "an adequately strong impact in the U.S. leisure market," and as such, "redirecting those dollars to focus on higher-yielding international markets could generate measurable gains," according to the 2012 annual report.

Arrivals from the U.S. have declined since then, but it still remains Canada's largest tourism market.

Now, as the American economy is showing signs of recovery, outbound U.S. travel is increasing and with more citizens holding passports than ever before, it is time to make a return.

Thirty-million dollars over three years is a good start, but arguably insufficient to make any major impact. As such, Destination Canada is looking for businesses from across the country – tourism boards, airlines and other suppliers – to step up and invest in joint marketing efforts with a 1:1.25 parterning ratio.

According to Jon Mamela, chief marketing officer, the approach will be "building a brand on emotion," while smart media buy is a priority.

Technology is of course a key factor in allowing this to happen, as Destination Canada aims to use the data available to follow the global consumer.

"While the customer takes time to get to know our destination, they are leaving – to our benefit – a trail; the highlight of who they are, what they opt into, what they interact with," he explained. "This can all be aggregated into a data set. We can model, we can assess, we can put more content to re-engage further... We can pass the customer along from the point of engagement into Canada – into a province, a destination, a private operator, you name it."

The strategy has evolved completely from where it stood in 2010, Mamela explained, now producing dynamic creative versus a one-size fits all approach taken in the past, predictive analytics versus reactive analytics, integrated data versus sliced data, and living audiences and leads versus static audiences.

The goal is to attract 650,000 travellers from the U.S., equating to $400 million in visitor spend.

The investment in the U.S. market is expected to help push Canada closer to a goal highlighted in its 2011 tourism strategy, aiming for $100 billion in tourism revenues by 2015.

Numbers have been on a steady incline, up five per cent in 2014 to reach $88 billion.

Maxime Bernier, federal minister of state (small business & tourism), told PAX in an exclusive interview that the $100 billion goal was a lofty one, but he remains confident that Canada is on track to achieving it in the next year or two.

When asked if the $30 million investment could be impacted by a new government, both the Minister and David Goldstein, CEO of Destination Canada, maintained that it is a sure thing.

After all, Goldstein said, "tourism is not a partisan issue."

"Tourism impacts every riding across the country," he noted. "There is a federal tourism caucus that has supporters from all parties... [The investment] was announced in the budget – it was announced by the Prime Minister, we're planning to get rolling in the coming months but I don't perceive any problem."

Goldstein noted that one of the major advantages of the $30 million investment is that it will allow Destination Canada to continue its work in traditional and emerging markets, without having to divert existing funds to "the all-important U.S. market."