Leaders of Canadian tourism and travel, including airlines and airports, announced the formation of the Canadian Tourism Roundtable and immediately called on local, regional and federal governments to streamline and clarify rules around travel in order to ensure safe, accessible and timely travel for Canadians this summer.
“The Roundtable is looking forward to working with governments across the country to take meaningful steps to ease travel and quarantine restrictions so that they are more targeted and less universal,” said Charlotte Bell, CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC). “Failing to do so risks permanently losing millions of jobs across the country that depend upon a robust tourism sector.”
Bell added other jurisdictions, like the European Union and Australia, have already unveiled action plans to save the summer travel season,
Roundtable members, including the Canadian Airports Council (CAC), recently wrote directly to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau requesting a meeting to discuss travel-and tourism-targeted measures to revive the sector to encourage Canadians to safely explore the country this summer, so the season is not entirely lost.
The group, noting the travel and tourism industry is a US$740 million annual section accounting for 2.1 percent of Canada’s GDP, is calling for a strong focus on public safety, while streamlining and clarifying rules with the end-to-end traveler experience in mind.
“The aviation, hospitality and tourism sectors were hit particularly hard by the pandemic,” said Perrin Beatty, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. ” Restoring tourism is important for all regions of Canada.”
