By Kristen Vernon
Members of the local tourism industry have praised the province for being proactive in restoring consumer confidence in Ontario as a travel destination – a move they say will ultimately benefit Ottawa.
“Tourism is a large part of the economy so it behooves the provincial government to try and strengthen the tourism industry,” says Leslie Miller, president of the Ottawa Tourism and Convention Authority.
“It’s a given fact, the more marketing you do, the more travellers you draw to your area,” says Miller. “As we market Canada (and) as we market the province, we attract more visitors to Canada and to the province. Ottawa will benefit from that.”
Earlier this month, Tourism Minister Tim Hudak announced the province will spend an additional $3.6 million in Ontario, Quebec, Western Canada and United States border areas to promote Ontario as a travel destination.
That increase brings the total amount spent marketing Ontario as a travel destination in those areas to about $20 million, says Derek Tupling, a spokesman for the tourism minister.
“The tourism industry has been impacted negatively (since Sept. 11). But we are starting to see small signs of bounce back, which is positive news,” says Tupling. “It’s not nearly at the levels that the minister is satisfied with, which is why we’re turning up the heat on our marketing campaign.”
The Ottawa tourism industry, which depends largely on Canadian visitors, was impacted less than places such as Niagara Falls, which depends on American travellers, says Miller.
Miller says he can’t give a lot of specific information about the impact of the attacks on Ottawa’s tourism because they’re still collecting data.
“But I can tell you, the telephone is not ringing as much as it was. So we’re not getting as many inquiries and/or reservations as we were pre-the eleventh,” says Miller.
Prior to the terrorist attacks, nearly 5.9 million people were expected to visit Ottawa in 2001 for leisure, conventions and business. That number has been revised to 5.84 million visitors, who are expected to spend $973 million, says Miller.
“The impact was (in) September. But that’s just one month of the year…November and December are traditionally quiet months anyways.”
Hotel occupancy in Ottawa dropped 17 per cent in September when compared to the same period last year, Miller says. “That’s a direct impact of the eleventh.”
Ottawa tourism representatives would also like a levy on hotel rooms to raise more money to market Ottawa as a travel destination, but the idea first needs the provincial government’s approval, says Miller.
Business has been down since the terrorist attacks, but it’s starting to stabilize now, says John Cosentino, director of hotel operations at Albert at Bay Suite Hotel and Best Western Victoria Park Suites.
Customers at these hotels are mainly business and government travellers, says Cosentino.
“Business is still healthy. It just wasn’t as busy as a September normally is. But October is starting to shape up much better than September,” says Cosentino, who is also the president of the Ottawa Hoteliers de l’Outaouais. “In Ottawa, September and October are very, very busy months in the hotel industry. With conventions, association meetings, business getting back on track after summer, kids back to school and Parliament back in house.
“It shows the initiative of the government. They are taking control of the situation to restore consumer confidence,” says Cosentino. “So it’s great to see that they’re doing that as opposed to taking a wait and see attitude.”