We are marketers and innovators who promote our great country around the globe. As Canada’s national tourism marketer, we introduce the authentic and the exotic to world travellers. Learn more about us—who we are, what we do, why we do it and how we conduct our business around the world.

Our mandate Read more > Close >

A Crown corporation wholly owned by the Government of Canada, we report to Parliament through the Minister of Industry. Our legislated mandate is to:

• Sustain a vibrant and profitable Canadian tourism industry.
• Market Canada as a desirable tourism destination.
• Support a cooperative relationship between the private sector and the governments of Canada, the provinces and the territories with respect to Canadian tourism.
• Provide information about Canadian tourism to the private sector and to the governments of Canada, the provinces and the territories.

Our mission Read more > Close >

Our mission is to harness Canada's collective voice to grow tourism export revenues.

Tourism is big business. Travellers from around the world and in Canada spent more than $74.1 billion in 2010 experiencing all that Canada has to offer. Nearly $14.8 billion of this amount—or 20%—is new money coming into Canada's economy from international visitors. Because Canada's provinces, cities and regions are already largely invested in marketing to Canadians, our focus is on keeping international tourism revenue streams flowing into the country.

A thriving tourism sector benefits Canadians from coast to coast to coast and accounts for 610,600 jobs. Tourism's contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached $29.5 billion in 2010 and represents approximately 2% of Canada's overall GDP.

Small- and medium-size tourism businesses (SMEs) are the heart of Canada's tourism industry. Some 178,000 tourism-related businesses operate in Canada, from small family-owned bed and breakfasts to national tour companies—each with their own marketing plan.

Our job is to take Canada's most extraordinary tourism experiences and opportunities and promote a strong and consistent image of our country to the world through Canada's tourism brand, "Canada. Keep Exploring."

Our core values Read more > Close >

Innovation: The freedom to challenge the norm, learn from mistakes and successes, and have the courage to create and invent new paths.

Respect: Appreciating the diversity of our organization so that all are heard, valued, trusted and treated fairly.

Collaboration: Transparent communication shared within a team-oriented environment in order to build synergies to achieve our goals.

Our vision Read more > Close >

Our vision is to inspire the world to explore Canada. We do so by promoting a compelling and consistent image of our country in the international tourism marketplace.

The Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) is a national marketing organization. We lead Canada's tourism marketing efforts in global markets and consumer segments where there is the highest potential for return on investment. Our current approach targets international travellers in 11 countries around the world: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. However, our regional hub structure allows us to be nimble and opportunistic so that we can adjust our marketing programs to reflect changing market conditions and to capitalize on new marketing opportunities as they arise.

We work in collaboration with the Canadian private sector, international travel trade, meeting professionals, and the governments of Canada, the provinces and the territories to position Canada as a place where travellers can create their own unique and extraordinary personal experiences. Through a targeted, focused approach to marketing, we develop and implement marketing strategies that are relevant to customers’ individual needs and the personal experiences that they are seeking in their travel destinations.

Our work Read more > Close >

To achieve our strategic goal of growing revenue for Canada's tourism economy, we follow a strategy of focusing on markets where Canada's tourism brand leads and yields the highest return on investment. We are active in the markets that account for more than 90% of all international arrivals to Canada. By deepening our relationship with high—yield customers—those who stay longer and spend more—we influence their travel decisions and increase Canada's tourism revenue even when arrivals are down. In addition, by harnessing the collective energy of different levels of government and the private sector, we take the lead in communicating a strong, consistent, global brand for Canada.

By focusing on both short— and long—term opportunities for maximizing return on investment as markets mature and evolve, we are positioning ourselves to increase demand for Canada's visitor economy. Overall, we are leading the way to attract the best customer to Canada

Our activities:

• Direct—to—consumer advertising is the most effective way to influence demand for Canada as a vacation destination. We engage in integrated advertising campaigns using broadcast, social media, newspapers, magazines, and out—of—home, which includes billboards, e—marketing and database marketing. Our advertising and marketing campaigns are run in partnership with key private— and public—sector tourism partners.

• Media— and public—relations activities aim to develop key relationships with international media to influence a high level of positive coverage about Canada. Key activities such as organized experiential travel for international media, plus access to broadcast—quality video, images and information, often result in positive stories about Canada. We interact and engage with international journalists though our state—of—the—art CTC Media Centre.

• We work directly with overseas travel companies to develop and sell Canada as a vacation destination. Travel agents who understand Canada's tourism products have a much greater likelihood to influence consumers to visit Canada. To this end, we engage in key travel—trade activities to educate travel agents and tour operators regarding Canadian products and to influence tour operators to include Canada in their sales offerings in competition with other destinations around the world.

• Our Meetings, Conventions & Incentive Travel (Business Events Canada) program generates business opportunities for various private and public sector Canadian partners, resulting in eventual bookings. This provides economic impact to destinations and ultimately increases international tourism revenue. Additional goals are creating greater awareness of Canada and the brand among meeting planners and influential senior executives and CEOs.

• Social media is an important element of our overall marketing strategy. Embracing social media enables us to reach influencers and consumers. Our focus is on being present where travellers are speaking with travellers, and supporting the conversation. We showcase Canada travel photos, videos and story ideas to strengthen Canada's position as a world—class travel destination. We also use these channels to communicate travel offers as part of the overall goal of converting followers to paying customers.
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Flickr

• Our research program has gained a global reputation as a leading innovator in tourism research. The work conducted has been the fundamental catalyst to our success as well as the success of Canada's visitor economy. Research contributes to giving Canada's tourism a competitive edge. Timely, credible, and relevant business intelligence has been at the forefront to support effective strategic business decisions