TIABC Voice of Tourism Newsletter – April 25, 2025

Years ago I attended a business conference in Saint Petersburg, Russia. My job was to meet with international sport organizations (ISO) to try to convince them to bring their large events to Vancouver to bolster the local visitor economy.

As I made my pitches, it was evident that while all ISOs considered Vancouver to be a very appealing destination for sport, they also intimated that dozens, if not hundreds of other cities with both seed money and first-class amenities, were also competing for their games and competitions.

Chances are, had I not attended the conference, few would have noticed or cared. But that’s exactly the point. It’s nearly impossible to secure business when you’re absent from a market…in this case sport…especially when the competition is actively pursuing the same clients.

To be sure, BC destination marketing and management organizations, transportation companies, tour operators, sector associations, business event planners, venues, tourism businesses and many other stakeholders are present in key markets around the world through sales calls, trade shows, marketing campaigns, or other initiatives to help generate demand for their destination, product or service. And they do an excellent job!

That said, I’ve long argued that as an industry, we also need to be included in international trade missions that the Province of BC regularly organizes for multiple sectors to build trade partnerships and secure investment from targeted countries. Regrettably, I can’t recall the last time a tourism industry leader or even the minister participated in a province-led international trade mission.

I mentioned this point in a recent Premier’s Task Force on Trade and Economic Security meeting in response to a series of questions the Province asked committee members vis-a-vis trade and investment opportunities. To that end, I invited government to include the tourism industry in future trade missions to countries with potential to generate visitor demand for BC, or where there are entrepreneurs looking to invest in products and services, specifically tourism.

In last week’s Task Force meeting, many committee members offered recommendations although we quickly ran out of time. Importantly, we’ll pick up the discussion in a couple of weeks but in the meantime, I’ve included a partial list of the questions below and would appreciate hearing from you with suggestions to help inform our next Task Force discussion.

How might the Province develop its future exporting and investment priorities?
Which sectors and markets provide opportunities to increase our trade and investment diversification?
How could the Province better leverage its Trade and Investment representation abroad to deliver on these opportunities and priorities?
How do Taskforce members envision companies best participating in trade missions abroad?
What has worked well in past trade missions, and what could be better?
What kind of structure or scope would be most helpful to those participating in missions?
Are there additional measures we should be taking to better facilitate Indigenous participation or Indigenous-led trade missions?
What types of connections and meetings could the Province facilitate to best ensure value and utility of these missions?
On investment attraction, what advice would Taskforce members have for the Province on a sector-by-sector basis?
What kind of information are companies looking to get from government when exploring new sectors and markets?

For your information, in the last Task Force meeting, I referenced that tourism is one of the few sectors that isn’t subject to tariffs in the way that other natural resource sectors are. At the same time we are export industry that relies on visitors spending foreign currency in British Columbia each year.

The United States represents our largest international market with close to 3.6 million overnight visitors annually. They are generally higher yield visitors that outspend domestic tourists by a margin of three or four to one. Our messaging is one of welcoming Americans and being open for business.

As well, while we see opportunities to grow the visitor economy with more domestic visitation, we also see the need to invest in new or emerging markets such as India, Singapore and Dubai…although they may take some time to mature.

As always, I look forward to your input and contribution.

At the Sport Accord World Sport & Business Summit in Saint Petersburg, which took place prior to the Sochi Olympics, the host city thought it was so important to make a good impression, they arranged for President Vladimir Putin to attend and meet with key officials from several international sport organizations to help secure more events for Russia. He stood a mere two metres away from me as he entered the venue with his big, beefy bodyguards in tow.

I can’t say whether it made a difference or not but at the time Putin’s participation at the conference was a big deal and showed me that destinations like Saint Petersburg take their role seriously when it comes to pitching for tourism business.

To be sure, British Columbia’s tourism industry does as well but having senior tourism leaders, the Minister of Tourism, the Premier, or even the Prime Minister play a key role in international trade missions on behalf of our sector would most certainly be an added advantage to position BC’s visitor economy as a prime opportunity for growth, investment and profitably.

Walt Judas

CEO, TIABC