| MarkT |
interesting since tourism has been debated here before...it appears that Toronto is still doing well and the U.S. border restrictions are a contributing factor, not just our strong dollar, to the decline in U.S. visitors.
from today's Toronto Star:
| quote: | Tourism trouble looms, report warns
Feb. 15, 2006. 01:05 PM
CURTIS RUSH
STAFF REPORTER THESTAR.COM
Toronto tourism is strong, despite a decline in U.S. visitors, the Conference Board of Canada said today.
But the introduction of beefed-up border identification, such as a passport, that American citizens will soon require to get back into their own country will prove negative, the board added.
Just as Tourism Toronto feared, Americans aren't coming to Canada like they used to. However, tourists from other countries helped the Canadian tourism industry record a profit of $1.1 billion in 2005, the board said today.
And this will be an even better year for Canadian tourism, with profits rising to $1.5 billion.
However, profits will fall for the next two years, the report states, led by a larger falloff of American visitors.
Last month, Tourism Toronto painted a bleak picture of the tourism dollars that arrive via U.S. visitors.
Today, the Conference Board reaffirmed those fears, reporting that the number of U.S. visitors to Canada fell to a 13-year low last fall due, in part, to higher energy prices and the strong Canadian dollar.
When the U.S. fully adopts changes in 2008 that require Americans to carry more secure documentation, such as a passport or special travel card, to return to the U.S. after a trip, the impact will hurt Canadian recreation and entertainment operators further, the report states.
In fact, after this year, the tourism industry in Canada will decline until the end of the decade as the industry adapts to the impact of the new travel restrictions, the conference board states.
Bolstering the industry toward the end of the decade, however, will be an increase in travel from China and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the conference board said. |
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