If you think Canada is content with its position as one of Australia’s favourite winter holiday destinations, think again.
According to Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) Marketing Manager Nathan McLoughlin, the country’s tourism authorities will be “really positioning Canada as the home of winter” to Aussies for some time to come.
“Winter is a huge focus for us. You’ll see that coming through along with autumn,” he told Karryon at the recent Focus Canada event in Sydney.
“They’re going to be our real big focuses over the next three years really.”
But while Canada’s winter proposition will always be inextricably linked to the mountains, in particular to skiing and snowboarding, Canadian authorities are keen to push its winter credentials beyond the ski slopes.
“Yes, we love our ski market and we support it and we’ll continue to push it, but we really also want to talk about all the other amazing winter product there is,” McLoughlin said.
Such as the Northern Lights.
“We’re really getting that message out there that Canada is definitely the best place in the world to see the Northern Lights,” he remarked.
“We have a 95 per cent success rate over a three-night stay between December and March – far higher than anywhere else in the world.
“Some of the places like the Yukon, Manitoba and Northwest Territories – they’re averaging over 200 nights a year of Northern Lights, which out of 365 is not bad.”
Adventure and wildlife
Elsewhere, McLoughlin flagged other “non-ski activities” like “dog sledding, snowshoeing, ice skating”.
“You name it, you can do it in Canada in winter. So, winter is a huge push,” he said.
Just beyond winter, Canadian tourism authorities are also focusing on fall.
“The good thing about fall is it’s the best time to come and see the wildlife,” McLoughlin said, while also hailing the country’s autumnal colours.
“The bears hunting the salmon, the moose, the dear, everything. The whales … the orca whales. It’s the best time to see them, in that September-October period.
“So you’ll see a lot from us over the next three years over those two specific seasons so we’re really excited. We’ve got a great product to promote and we can’t wait to get it out there.”
Comeback (almost) complete
And post-pandemic, Australian holidaymakers are catching on, with Canada welcoming Aussie visitor numbers that are “not far off 2019 levels”.
“BC is seeing a bulk of that … and they’re really close to 2019 levels, I think it’s single digits (percentage points) off,” McLoughlin told Karryon last week.
“2019 was our best year ever. We were at around the 350,000 [Australian visitors] a year mark.
“So we’re hopeful by next year we’ll be achieving that and past it.”
Read more about the recent Viva Holidays Canada Roadshow presented by Destination Canada.
Viva Holidays has also launched 21 packages to Canada in all four seasons. Read more about that here.
For more information about Destination Canada, click here.
