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• In 2011, the US saw a steady yet modest economic recovery with GDP growth of 1.7%.While consumer confidence has undoubtedly improved since the 2008-2009 recession, many US consumers still approach leisure-travel planning and purchasing with extreme caution. (Source:Oxford Economics, July 2012)

• US leisure travel represents Canada’s largest inbound travel market, accounting for 62% of all travellers in 2011.

• US leisure travel to Canada fell 2.9% in 2011 to 9.7 million overnight arrivals. The majority of declines occurred in Q1 (-4.5%) and Q3 (-4.3%).

• Total spending by US leisure travellers decreased 4.6% to $4.6 billion in 2011, with the average spend per trip dropping 1.7% to $475.

• A decrease in travellers was seen across all age groups with an exception of those 55 years of age or older. This demographic represents the largest segment among US leisure visitors to Canada, accounting for 44.7% of all overnight US leisure visitors to Canada in 2011.

• Shopping was the most popular activity in 2011 among US leisure travellers, followed by sightseeing.

• In 2011, theNorthwest Territories was the only province/territory that showed growth in visits by US leisure travellers, up 16.2%. Newfoundland and Labrador experienced the largest decline (-11.8%) in overnight visits.

Source: Statistics Canada, International Travel Survey, unless otherwise indicated.All Statistics Canada numbers are preliminary.

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Contact our team for more information.

 

Business Events Canada Read more > Close >

Business Events Canada (formerly Meetings, Conventions and Incentive Travel)

The mandate of Business Events Canada is to develop a comprehensive and fully integrated program in the US market that maximizes the sales impact on Canadian meetings and incentive destinations. We accomplish this through direct solicitation, in-market promotions and incorporating the “Canada. Keep Exploring” brand. The program aims to elevate and expand core partnership opportunities to support reaching overall sales-led targets for the meetings and incentive markets.

CTC’s Business Events Canada program in the US positions Canada as an attractive alternative to other international meetings and incentive destinations, providing the cachet of a foreign experience with the familiarity and ease of being at home. We promote Canada’s state-of-the-art facilities, high service levels, diverse destinations and distinctive niche-product experiences in key geographic and segment-specific markets to generate new business opportunities away from competitive US and overseas destinations.

 

Current trends and market considerations

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the travel and tourism industry outperformed the global economy in 2012, growing faster than the manufacturing, retail, financial services and communications sectors. The industry has grown its total contribution to global GDP by 3% and increased the number of jobs by five million to 260 million. It means that, for the first time, one in 11 of all jobs in the world is now supported by travel and tourism. More than 10% of all new jobs created in 2012 came from the industry.

The US Travel Association is launching Travel Effect, a multi-year, multi-million-dollar advocacy and awareness campaign to establish the link between travel and its effect on relationships, education, business and communities.

Clients have reported that more cruises are being booked due to the lure of “all-inclusive.” Adding to the appeal is the minimal time required in planning for them.

The downturn in the economy has impacted available rooms and prices for holding corporate meetings. Many associations took advantage of the low prices and signed multi-year contracts at destinations or with hotel corporations. According to the Hotel Price Index and hotels.com, the average price of a hotel room increased 5% in North America in 2012.

WestJet will begin a new daily service from Dallas, TX, to Calgary, AB, on April 29.

The merger of American Airlines and US Airways on Feb. 14 is the last major airline merger in the US and they are keeping the American Airlines name. JetBlue hopes to have an agreement in place with American Airlines by the end of 2013. 

Canada is not seen as having the value it once did: several clients have reported that they are not looking at Canada as a destination due to high airfares. Customers of frequent-flyer programs and hotel loyalty programs are finding it increasingly harder to use those miles/points across the board. They discover they need more miles/points to claim an award and there is more limited availability.

Procurement involvement in corporate incentive trips has increased. The cost of business will continue to increase due to technology and marketing across multiple mediums, while almost all forms of various destination marketing tools are losing effectiveness apart from online videos and in-market sales or marketing representatives.

Current trending destinations are Dubai, the Basque region (Spain), Prague, Panama and Sicily. Also, what is old is new again in Aruba (new Ritz), Beijing, Shanghai, Mexico (Cancun) and the less travelled parts of the Caribbean (Antigua, Nevis and Barbados).

Industry trends

·       Higher airfares in 2013

·       More airline fees, plus hotels, rental cars and cruises are now adding fees

·       More airline consolidation

·       Gas price relief (with the exceptions of March, April and September)

·       Artisan products, local sourcing, culinary creativity, gluten-free, new cuts of meat and sustainable seafood on menus.

Events

·       January: BEC was Gold sponsor for GaMPI January meeting

·       Jan. 9-15: CTC and partners Tourisme Montréal, Mendelssohn, Québec City Convention Centre, Ottawa Tourism, Meetings Calgary and Edmonton Tourism collaborated  with Chuck Fazio photography to sponsor an Executive Head Shot Lounge at PCMA, Orlando, FL. Nearly 1,000 delegates came by to have their professional headshot taken. 

·       Feb. 10-13: HBS Canada in Québec City tradeshow

·       Feb. 12-13: CVB and destination partner sales blitz in Austin and Dallas, TX

·       Feb. 15: Association Trends Salute to Excellence Award Luncheon. John Graham, CEO of ASAE, was honored as Executive of the Year. Team Canada hosted a table with local partners and invited customers.

·       Feb. 21: HelmsBriscoe, north Texas sales meeting in Austin, TX

·       Feb. 21: Northern California MPI Annual Tradeshow.

·       Feb. 25-28: CTC, Tourism Vancouver, Québec City Convention Centre, Tourism Toronto and Tourisme Montréal all sponsored various events throughout CESSE CEO mid-winter meeting, in Albuquerque, NM. It culminated with a dinner for six CEOs. Over 60 CEOs of various scientific and engineering societies attended the meeting, with 14 of them first-time attendees.

·       Feb. 27: Travel Safety presentation on behalf of the CTC to Canadian American Chamber of Commerce, Dallas, TX

·       Feb. 28: Seattle Canada Client Event

·       March 5-6: Relais & Chateaux sales calls with BC partners.

·       March 8: ConferenceDirect APM in Las Vegas with eight partners in a tier one program with approximately 280 ConferenceDirect associates

·       March 10-13: Celebrating the 10^th anniversary of ASAE’s Great Ideas Conference in Colorado Springs, CO, Canada ensured that the Snap Learning Spot created by ASAE was buzzing with activities. We provided attendees with an opportunity to be on the cover of a magazine, had a table hockey mini tournament, created a 3-D experience with a dinosaur, served high tea and offered a taste of poutine. This year’s conference had the highest attendance ever with over 630 attendees. 

·       March 11-15: Experient EnVision in Houston, TX

·       March 12: MPI SoCal with CTC sponsorship of the Annual State of the Industry program

·       March 12-13: Canadian Consulate Event and Sacramento sales calls

·       March 13: Tourism Montréal Spa event for key customers

·       March 14: Niagara Falls hosted a VIP suite at the Pink Concert in Washington, DC

 

CTC is exhibiting at the 8th Annual Pharmaceutical Forum on meeting management where we have the opportunity to meet directly with meeting professionals from various pharmaceutical companies. 

BEC Atlanta partnered in a client culinary event with Travel Alberta at the Viking Cooking School in Atlanta with 25 clients in attendance. For the first time, BEC Atlanta also participated in the Satellite Offices of Atlanta (SOA) client appreciation event with approximately 125 attendees. Also noteworthy is the recent appointment of BEC Atlanta to co-chair the SITE SE Communications Committee (CommComm) for 2013, spearheading social-media participation and event development for the chapter.

BEC gave a presentation on destinationmarketing and strategic meetings management to a group of 35 students at the Gwinnett Tech College for Hospitality.

BEC made in-market sales calls in Tampa, Sarasota and St. Pete, and attended the Tampa Bay Chapter of MPI networking event (approximately 40 attendees). We also attended local industry events such as MPI and SITE, plus industry in-territory events with Georgia BTA and SKAL. We conducted sales missions with Travel Alberta and Tourisme Montréal.

CTC sponsored 10 FAM trips: four in British Columbia, Vancouver, Whistler and Victoria, two in Alberta, Banff and Lake Louise, one in Ontario and Niagara Falls and three in Quebec, Montréal and Québec City.

 

Insurance market

Recent trends in the insurance market expect more customer events and community-oriented events. Financial companies will continue to increase customer events due to the sustained volatility of the stock market. As insurance companies become more transparent about their business practices, they will get closer to their customers by holding community-oriented events.
 
Robust training and sales meetings are on the increase, particularly as companies continue to launch new products for consumers. Due to continued low interest rates, there will be tighter meeting budgets for insurance companies. 

Luxury is back as planners continue to look for value, but perception has become less of an issue. Companies are also starting to launch meeting apps for incentive programs.

 

Events

Feb: 20-22: LIMRA Sales & Distribution Conference, Orlando. The 2013 Distribution Conference had industry experts, top distribution professionals and highly energized inspirational speakers inspiring attendees to rethink, re-imagine and redefine distribution. Approximately 300 insurance executives who oversee incentive programs and sales meetings attended.

BEC sponsored the opening reception and received a complimentary booth. A campaign was created to build booth traffic and introduce BEC. As a result, over 100 key decision-makers visited the booth resulting in 30 prospects identified for lead development.

For more information on our upcoming programs and activities, see our events calendar or our International Meetings, Conventions and Incentive Travel Strategic Plan 2011-2016. For more information on the International Business Events Canada Strategic Program offerings, contact phelps [dot] heather [at] ctc-cct [dot] ca (Heather Phelps), our International Program Director.