From the wildly exhilarating to the serenely picturesque, visitors will find much to enjoy
n
the International Year of Ecotourism it seems appropriate to highlight
Canada as a tourist destination. An area of more than 9.8 million sq
km, mostly sparsely inhabited, it is a place where the traveller can
commune with nature.
In Canada’s US$34 billion-a-year industry, ecotourism and adventure
travel are becoming more popular. This doesn’t mean travelling
on the lowest possible budget nor does it necessarily involve arduous
physical activity. Canadians have long mastered the art of enjoying
their wilderness without enduring any hardship.
Whether tourists want to go skiing, hiking, snowmobiling, climbing,
cycling, horseriding, exploring, whitewater rafting or engage in dozens
of other outdoor activities, Canada offers some of the best territory
anywhere in the world.
Nor
does the country lack culture – in Quebec City or Montreal visitors
could be forgiven for momentarily thinking they were in France. Toronto
is a modern, cosmopolitan city, while Vancouver is a vibrant metropolis.
Even smaller cities, like Stratford in southwestern Ontario, offer world-class
attractions. The Stratford Festival, entering its 50th season, attracts
more than 500,000 visitors a year with its superb theatrical productions.
Tourism has become the top consumer e-commerce category. Online sales
totalled more than US$20 billion last year, according to US travel and
research firm PhoCusWright. Canada’s tourism business took a knock
as a result of September 11, so the internet has become a vital tool
as the authorities work to get the industry back on course.
Officials are optimistic that business will pick up. Scott Meiss, director
of research for the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), says an increase
in US tourists is expected in the spring and summer. “Canada is
viewed by the US as the safest travel destination of all,” he says.
The weak Canadian dollar has been
a factor in attracting US tourists, whose currency is worth nearly double
that of Canada. After the US, most visitors are from Britain, France,
Germany and Japan.
The CTC has a three-year, US$150 million plan to beat the tourism downturn:
2002 is the Year of Recovery, 2003 the Year of Change and 2004 the Year
of Success.
The travel industry is turning to the increasingly popular ploy of the
movie
tie-in. One Canadian firm is offering a
10-day tour based on The Shipping News, a film starring Kevin Spacey
set in Newfoundland.
Tourism,
culture and recreation minister Tim Hudak recently announced that Ontario
is to establish a Tourism Consumer Information Service (TCIS), which
will combine the province’s call centre and tourism e-business
initiatives in one integrated service. It will promote the Ontario brand
worldwide.
Tourism contributes an estimated US$17.5 billion a year to the economy
of Ontario and employs 450,000 people. Toronto, Niagara Falls and Windsor
are the three major points of call.
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Richard
Legendre, the minister of tourism, leisure and sport
in Quebec, says: “We have really started to consider the importance
of tourism over the past five years, and we have probably doubled our
investment in advertising, although it is still quite modest.
“We target the UK because it is our second most-important European
market after France. We’ve noticed that nowadays the Europeans
are much more interested in eco-tourism and the great outdoors, and
the image of Quebec is still one of wide open spaces and caribou.”
Quebec receives 500,000 visitors from France each year and about 134,000
from Britain. Mr Legendre says the province has four distinct seasons
and the authorities are making efforts to extend the holiday period
beyond the summer.
Winter
sports, plus the Hotel de Glace, which opened in January last year,
are beginning to attract more people in the colder months. The ice hotel
averages 80 guests per night and expects to double capacity this year.
Mr Legendre, a former tennis professional, is very keen on developing
sport in Quebec. “Our tennis tournament is among the nine largest
in the world. We have a new stadium and the tournament is almost at
the same level as Wimbledon. But all sports are being developed –
our department supports about 50 disciplines.
“In the past 15 years, Quebec has really seen a lot of diversification
as people are now interested in a lot more sports. Some 25-35 years
ago it was mostly ice hockey and baseball. Now the most popular, in
terms of participation, is soccer. That has really come a long way.
Cycling is also very strong in Quebec.”
He points out that, although Canada is vast, most foreign visitors fly
into one of the major cities. From Quebec City or Montreal, he says
you are never more than a five-to-seven-hour drive from some of the
province’s most beautiful scenery, whether the Laurentides, Tremblant,
Charlevoix or Sanguenay Lac St-Jean.
And, of course, there are the cities.
Mr
Legendre says: “We have a nice mix of cultures – the modernism
of North America and French culture. Often, we
say that Quebec is the Europe of North America – that’s important
for the European market.”
One of the oldest landmarks is Le Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City,
which opened in 1893 and is now owned by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.
This 605-room hotel, part medieval castle and part French chateau, has
long played host to the world’s royalty, leaders and celebrities.
The most moderate climate can be found on the British Columbia coastline,
indented by deep fjords. Vancouver Island, which shields the coast from
Pacific storms, has a temperate rainforest climate. Here you can see
the oldest and tallest trees in Canada – Western red cedars that
are 1,300 years old and Douglas firs 90 metres high.
Rod Harris, president of Tourism British Columbia, says that the industry
remains largely undeveloped except for one sector – skiing. The
resort of Whistler, he says, is the best in the world, and three US
ski magazines have said the same thing for 10 consecutive years.
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