Huge potential still untapped, says RDÉE PEI tourism officer

WELLINGTON – Nov. 28, 2019 – The tourism industry generates impressive and ever-growing economic benefits for Canadian communities and for the many people who work in it.

RDÉE Canada and its provincial and territorial partners – who manage the national Francophone Heritage, Cultural and Tourism Corridor – are delighted with the fact that the industry is growing rapidly and creating so many economic spin-offs. But above all, they are passionate about the immense number of additional Francophone visitors that the Canadian francophone tourism industry could potentially attract.

With the support of its partners, RDÉE Canada recently updated its information kit on the tourism industry, entitled “We’ve Got It Covered: From Business … To Adventure!” It reports the number of trips that Canadians made within their own country increased from 112 million in 2012 to 278.1 million in 2018, meaning this figure has more than doubled in the space of five years. The value of these trips has also multiplied from $29.3 billion in 2012 to $80.2 billion in 2018.

The number of international travelers welcomed into Canada increased from 16 million in 2012 to 31.3 million in 2018; the revenues they generated also increased from $15.5 billion in 2012 to $22.2 billion in 2018.

Some other impressive statistics:
• Tourism generated $98.8 billion in revenue for Canada (2017)
• Tourism generates 2.1% of Canada’s gross domestic product
• There are 739,100 Canadian tourism companies
• 217,901 direct jobs are created by Canada’s tourism sector.

BETTER TARGETED PROMOTION

With these facts in mind, Destination Canada and RDÉE Canada want to encourage Francophones from around the world to come and visit Canada. They estimate that their potential market is made up of 307.2 million Francophones located around the world; the markets particularly targeted are located in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and the United States.

The partners therefore conducted an in-depth analysis of each of these markets to determine their preferred types of activities and attractions, their travel patterns, their usual destinations, etc. These profiles, which are part of the kit, then allow Canada’s tourism regions to better target their promotional efforts to markets that would be more likely to visit them.

« One of the main objectives of our national Francophone Corridor is to attract a significant portion of this potential traffic, » says Ricky Hitchcock, RDÉE Prince Edward Island’s tourism development officer. « The more we can present an accurate picture of all the Acadian tourism products and experiences we have to offer in French, the more visitors we will be able to attract to the Island.”

He therefore indicated that organizers would like to eventually include in the Corridor’s national portal (https://corridorcanada.ca/) all tourist attractions and heritage sites that offer services in French. Efforts to include them continue.

The new version of the kit is designed to show operators their potential Francophone tourism market. It can be downloaded in PDF format, in English, at http://rdee.ca/en/core-issues/tourism/.

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PHOTO: Ricky Hitchcock, RDÉE Prince Edward Island’s tourism development officer, shows the new version of the kit that has been produced to help better target the world’s Francophone tourism markets.

 

 

For more information:
Ricky Hitchcock
Tourism Development Officer
RDÉE Prince Edward Island
902 854-3439, Ext. 223
ricky@rdeeipe.org