(Originally published in TOURISM)
If 2006 seemed the year of increased hardships for travellers and the industry, 2007 brings with it a fragrance of careful optimism after some rather acrid whiffs. To get a sense of the general mood for what is hoped to be a period of renewal, we have asked a few industry members about what developments prevailing winds may bring on the eve of yet another summer.
Lynn Flury, general manager of the Hilton Garden Inn in Saskatoon, describes the coming summer as “looking pretty solid”:
“One of the things we rely on in this market (particularly with downtown hotels) are those national conferences that tend to come in the summer. It is very difficult to predict leisure travel at this point in time but I expect it will be strong, based on what we are seeing across the country. We see a significant amount of US travel on the business side (Hilton is such a strong brand in the US). We have seen a strong economy in Saskatoon in the last couple of years; if it continues to be strong, we will continue to see strength in our sector.”
A sentiment echoed in Alberta by Pierre Frigon, director of marketing and group/leisure sales at Jasper’s Sawridge Inn and Conference Centre:
“Our summer is going to be awesome. We are expecting fewer US travellers than ever before and more from Alberta than ever before. Our leisure peak is from June 15 to September 30-October 15 (on either shoulder of that is conference business). Jasper National Park is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and to commemorate this, a play around the theme of water conservation will be staged in the ballroom which is under-utilized in the summer time.”
You might remember the fury of the storms that hit Vancouver’s Stanley Park this winter? Gerry O’Neil of Stanley Park Horse-Drawn Tours hopes visitors to Vancouver won’t think there is nothing left of the world-famous attraction:
“We have roughly between 5000 and 8000 trees that came down, and as a result there was substantial media coverage around the world. This has led to a number of tour operators calling to ask if things were still a 'go' for us. People should bear in mind the destruction affected less than 1% of all the trees in the park, in very concentrated areas away from where our tours run. We have advised those tour operators who have called of that; I am more concerned about those who haven’t called. It is still a bit early to say but all indications are there won’t be a drop. We had a good increase last year, with 12% more in sales than the previous year.”
For David Pancoe of Northern Soul, a Manitoba canoeing experience operator who has invested his marketing dollars strategically, there are signs of pending rewards:
“Deposits are coming in. I am following up on all the inquiries from the trade shows and things are falling into place, especially with guests from the UK. That is where I have seen my biggest leap in growth. I attribute it to the tradeshows I have been attending and to the availability of direct flights from London to Winnipeg.”
Industry veteran Paul Leeson of Purcell Mountain Lodge in BC offers this candid analysis of the trends he is witnessing:
“There is a bit of optimism, but the bookings are still not back to pre-9/11 level. The crawl back is very much slower than we anticipated; we are at least a little better off than we were last year. I don’t want to blame everything on 9/11; I think there was a perfect storm going on. There is a huge growth in the adventure and wilderness travel product and I really don’t think demand has caught up. Will it catch up? I don’t know. Globally, there is such a menu of adventure travel product and with the expansion in the industry in the last 10 years, no wonder some of us aren’t full anymore. Our focus now is on the travel industry itself, on packaging and small group kind of tours. This is what has to happen; our FIT is just not recovering and we are going to have to have better partnerships and relationships to make some inroads. We have had some success with Japanese group and other specialty hiking groups; we can’t just rely on North America anymore.”
Rudolf Hegetschweiler, commercial director at Victoriaville-based Misa Tours International, sees some encouraging signs of recovery. His markets are mainly European:
“It is shaping up to be a year more like 2005 than 2006, which hit us like a ton of bricks. We made it through that and things are looking up with increased bookings. Is this due to the stabilization of world currency markets? Is it because people have learned how to deal with fears and the stress of going through airports? I believe people have been forced to become more frugal about their travel plans in the last five or six years and stayed home because of that. The pressure to fulfill travel plans is getting stronger and they feel the urge to make them happen or to forget about them altogether.”
Nathalie Blouin is with Québec Maritime. She often gauges what the summer will look like by taking stock of what Europeans are up to:
“Because Europeans book earlier than short haul markets, we often get a sense of what the summer will bring by finding out what overseas visitors are doing. Reservations are coming along nicely. We recently attended the Salon Mondial du Tourisme in Paris with the CTC, where we really felt the longings of French-speaking Europe for experiences in natural environments. With our national parks, the marine mammal viewings we offer across our region, the sea kayaking and hiking opportunities, we are well positioned. The demand for these experiences shows no sign of tapering off anytime soon.”
Nunavut tourism industry representatives will be the first to point out that cruising experiences are a good way to see a greater portion of the territory at one time (rather than flying from community to community). Dugald Wells couldn’t agree more. He is the president of Cruise North. Cruise North’s expedition vessel is the Lyubov Orlova:
“The ship is our means of transportation, but we use it as a platform from which to launch Zodiaks and get ashore, hike and engage in wildlife viewing activities. We are in our third year of operation; we focus exclusively on Canada. Most trips are 8 nights long only. We include the airfare out of Montréal; the airline is a sister company also owned by the Inuit. This summer, we are looking at doubling the number of bookings. Last year, 10% of our business originated from overseas. This year, almost 70% of our business will come from there, mainly from France and Germany.
“On the operational side, we are working assiduously to get more Inuit people involved in the business. We have 14 Inuit staff on the ship this year and we are doing a lot of training for hospitality, first aid, advanced first aid and Zodiak driver training. This is a big part of what we do and why people enjoy the trips so much; the authentic Inuit experience here is simply about spending time with Inuits as opposed to featuring Inuit people as living artifacts (like being in the presence of a famous carver). Our guests get to know the Inuit at a different level when they are being driven around by them in Zodiaks.”
If 2006 seemed the year of increased hardships for travellers and the industry, 2007 brings with it a fragrance of careful optimism after some rather acrid whiffs. To get a sense of the general mood for what is hoped to be a period of renewal, we have asked a few industry members about what developments prevailing winds may bring on the eve of yet another summer.
Lynn Flury, general manager of the Hilton Garden Inn in Saskatoon, describes the coming summer as “looking pretty solid”:
“One of the things we rely on in this market (particularly with downtown hotels) are those national conferences that tend to come in the summer. It is very difficult to predict leisure travel at this point in time but I expect it will be strong, based on what we are seeing across the country. We see a significant amount of US travel on the business side (Hilton is such a strong brand in the US). We have seen a strong economy in Saskatoon in the last couple of years; if it continues to be strong, we will continue to see strength in our sector.”
A sentiment echoed in Alberta by Pierre Frigon, director of marketing and group/leisure sales at Jasper’s Sawridge Inn and Conference Centre:
“Our summer is going to be awesome. We are expecting fewer US travellers than ever before and more from Alberta than ever before. Our leisure peak is from June 15 to September 30-October 15 (on either shoulder of that is conference business). Jasper National Park is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and to commemorate this, a play around the theme of water conservation will be staged in the ballroom which is under-utilized in the summer time.”
You might remember the fury of the storms that hit Vancouver’s Stanley Park this winter? Gerry O’Neil of Stanley Park Horse-Drawn Tours hopes visitors to Vancouver won’t think there is nothing left of the world-famous attraction:
“We have roughly between 5000 and 8000 trees that came down, and as a result there was substantial media coverage around the world. This has led to a number of tour operators calling to ask if things were still a 'go' for us. People should bear in mind the destruction affected less than 1% of all the trees in the park, in very concentrated areas away from where our tours run. We have advised those tour operators who have called of that; I am more concerned about those who haven’t called. It is still a bit early to say but all indications are there won’t be a drop. We had a good increase last year, with 12% more in sales than the previous year.”
For David Pancoe of Northern Soul, a Manitoba canoeing experience operator who has invested his marketing dollars strategically, there are signs of pending rewards:
“Deposits are coming in. I am following up on all the inquiries from the trade shows and things are falling into place, especially with guests from the UK. That is where I have seen my biggest leap in growth. I attribute it to the tradeshows I have been attending and to the availability of direct flights from London to Winnipeg.”
Industry veteran Paul Leeson of Purcell Mountain Lodge in BC offers this candid analysis of the trends he is witnessing:
“There is a bit of optimism, but the bookings are still not back to pre-9/11 level. The crawl back is very much slower than we anticipated; we are at least a little better off than we were last year. I don’t want to blame everything on 9/11; I think there was a perfect storm going on. There is a huge growth in the adventure and wilderness travel product and I really don’t think demand has caught up. Will it catch up? I don’t know. Globally, there is such a menu of adventure travel product and with the expansion in the industry in the last 10 years, no wonder some of us aren’t full anymore. Our focus now is on the travel industry itself, on packaging and small group kind of tours. This is what has to happen; our FIT is just not recovering and we are going to have to have better partnerships and relationships to make some inroads. We have had some success with Japanese group and other specialty hiking groups; we can’t just rely on North America anymore.”
Rudolf Hegetschweiler, commercial director at Victoriaville-based Misa Tours International, sees some encouraging signs of recovery. His markets are mainly European:
“It is shaping up to be a year more like 2005 than 2006, which hit us like a ton of bricks. We made it through that and things are looking up with increased bookings. Is this due to the stabilization of world currency markets? Is it because people have learned how to deal with fears and the stress of going through airports? I believe people have been forced to become more frugal about their travel plans in the last five or six years and stayed home because of that. The pressure to fulfill travel plans is getting stronger and they feel the urge to make them happen or to forget about them altogether.”
Nathalie Blouin is with Québec Maritime. She often gauges what the summer will look like by taking stock of what Europeans are up to:
“Because Europeans book earlier than short haul markets, we often get a sense of what the summer will bring by finding out what overseas visitors are doing. Reservations are coming along nicely. We recently attended the Salon Mondial du Tourisme in Paris with the CTC, where we really felt the longings of French-speaking Europe for experiences in natural environments. With our national parks, the marine mammal viewings we offer across our region, the sea kayaking and hiking opportunities, we are well positioned. The demand for these experiences shows no sign of tapering off anytime soon.”
Nunavut tourism industry representatives will be the first to point out that cruising experiences are a good way to see a greater portion of the territory at one time (rather than flying from community to community). Dugald Wells couldn’t agree more. He is the president of Cruise North. Cruise North’s expedition vessel is the Lyubov Orlova:
“The ship is our means of transportation, but we use it as a platform from which to launch Zodiaks and get ashore, hike and engage in wildlife viewing activities. We are in our third year of operation; we focus exclusively on Canada. Most trips are 8 nights long only. We include the airfare out of Montréal; the airline is a sister company also owned by the Inuit. This summer, we are looking at doubling the number of bookings. Last year, 10% of our business originated from overseas. This year, almost 70% of our business will come from there, mainly from France and Germany.
“On the operational side, we are working assiduously to get more Inuit people involved in the business. We have 14 Inuit staff on the ship this year and we are doing a lot of training for hospitality, first aid, advanced first aid and Zodiak driver training. This is a big part of what we do and why people enjoy the trips so much; the authentic Inuit experience here is simply about spending time with Inuits as opposed to featuring Inuit people as living artifacts (like being in the presence of a famous carver). Our guests get to know the Inuit at a different level when they are being driven around by them in Zodiaks.”
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