Travel and Vacation Show marks 23rd year in Ottawa

The 23rd edition of the Travel and Vacation Show of Ottawa took place last weekend at the Shaw Centre, in the heart of the city. Taking place over two days, more than 200 exhibitors greeted the public and travel industry professionals alike, united by their love of travel.

On Saturday morning, the Shaw Centre alleys filled up as the hours went by; last year, 17,000 visitors made the trip.

With its strategic position in Ontario – but close to Quebec – the Travel and Vacation Show can boast of bringing anglophones and francophones together under the same roof. The public go there to discover their next holiday destination, while travel agents flock there in large numbers – more than 200 this year – to discover new products and meet up with professionals and friends in the industry.

This makes it 23 years that Robert and Halina Player have organized this annual event in the capital.

“At the beginning of the adventure, it was a small room, with 120 exhibitions, mainly Ontarians and Quebecois,” Robert Player recalls.

The couple have had to navigate some tricky times, including the SARS crisis in the early 2000s, which discouraged many countries from travelling to Canada, and Ottawa. “We had two or three difficult years,” he says, “and then everything fell into place.”

When Lansdowne Park, in the south of the city, was at the heart of a large transformation five years ago, the show had to move to the Shaw Centre, in the centre of the city. “It was a very good choice,” comments Robert Player. “It’s a much bigger space and more central for the public. Since moving, we’ve started to receive more international exhibitions. Today, we have around 50 countries present.”

The exhibitions are arranged into geographical regions: Asia, the Caribbean, the American states, the Canadian provinces, and more.

Many airlines, hotel chains, cruise companies and tour operators were also present to showcase their destinations and products.

On Sunday morning, Randy Snape of the Korea Tourism Organization gave a short presentation on the destination, which hopes to attract large quantities of visitors during the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next year. Other presentations also took place throughout the course of the two days.

Some examples were ‘the best of the Czech Republic,’ ‘Discover Japan,’ ‘The World of Celebritours,’ and a presentation by Insight Vacations.