Canadian tourism is at its best, and it’s going to keep growing with international and domestic travel expected to increase by 2% this year. This is why last May 2019, the Minister of Tourism, Official Languages and La Francophonie Mélanie Joly unveiled a new tourism strategy.

They introduced the Creating Middle Class Jobs: A Federal Tourism Growth Strategy to follow the positive momentum of tourism by directing investments to this sector. It aims to encourage economic growth and create more middle-class jobs. They will do this by:

• Investing $58.5 million to the Canadian Experiences Fund to develop tourism communities and products. Increasing revenue for local businesses, redirecting tourists from popular destinations to lesser known areas, and promoting international tourism outside the peak seasons is the main focus of this pillar. This fund also helps strengthen indigenous tourism and the development of their LGBTQ tourism. 

• Improving government coordination by creating tourism investment groups, allowing all levels of government to collaborate and make more efficient investments. Each area would have personalized strategies that would enhance infrastructures, services, and products in the local areas. 

• Establishing an Economic Strategy Table for Tourism, where the government would partner with industry leaders to overcome sector challenges.

With these three pillars, the Canadian government hopes to open 54,000 new jobs and increase tourism revenue by 25%, which would translate to roughly $128 billion, by 2025.

Canada recognizes the importance of tourism to economic growth, and this new strategy will create wonderful opportunities for those rural and remote areas. Currently, tourism is concentrated on three major cities: Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver. This new approach to tourism will also allow small businesses to feel the effects of the country’s booming tourism and create a more diverse labor market in the tourism industry.

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