In early 2023, Destination Canada’s Destination Development Team launched the Tourism Corridor Strategy Program to contribute to a more resilient tourism industry through accelerated destination development of multiple tourism corridors across Canada.
This pilot program places emphasis on collaboration amongst varying stakeholders with corridors and importantly, between provinces and territories, to strengthen tourism capacity and leadership. This ambitious program is an opportunity to connect the work of partners and stakeholders with a more holistic national scope.
Following a comprehensive review process, Destination Canada selected three high-potential tourism corridors to support in 2023. This includes the Sustainable Journeys from Prairies to Pacific, which leverages Highway 3 as a key interprovincial corridor linking the large urban hubs of southern Alberta and British Columbia’s lower mainland. It offers a collection of resort towns, national and provincial parks, authentic rural communities, Indigenous nations and experiences, trails and outdoor recreation, agritourism, wildlife viewing, western heritage, and much more.
Canada has a vibrant and rich tourism economy and is a destination which has been developed, managed, and marketed for over a century by private and public sector based operators. However, much of the success of Canada’s tourism industry resides in the three large provinces of Ontario, Québec, and British Columbia with the most visitation to maturing destinations in these and other key provinces, and predominantly in the key summer months.
In some instances, during certain periods of the year, demand for top Canadian destinations and attractions far outstrips supply of tourism assets causing overcrowding and significant price escalations in some destinations, discouraging prospective travellers who, in turn, may seek to spend their tourism dollars in other destination around the world. In many cases, these popular, well-known Canadian destinations — whether they are iconic attractions, major cities, resorts, or mountain communities — have decades of destination management capacity, a visitor-base, and well-known brands and marketing programs to attract visitors.
If Canada’s tourism industry is to grow and be sustainable into the future, it must help manage the over-capacity challenges in the more popular destinations by encouraging visitation during less busy times of the year. It must also encourage the development of alternative regions by building capacity, encouraging tourism investment and accelerate destination development. However, before these regions can be branded and marketed as viable corridors and routes, significant capacity development is required to support the investment needed to develop or enhance tourism assets, collaborate across a wide spectrum of stakeholders and enabling environments, and prepare to welcome high-value visitors in the future.
The Sustainable Journeys from Prairies to Pacific Strategy leverages existing key strategy and experience themes in both Alberta and BC to uncover a collection of potential investment opportunities to grow demand and sustainably manage visitation in the long-term, help define the challenges and opportunities of both provinces in developing the region for tourism, prepare the regions for tourism investment and entrepreneur attraction, and align against a common corridor theme to support Destination Canada and its partners in helping to develop the country, from coast to coast to coast — for future tourism success.
In early 2023, Destination Canada’s Destination Development Team launched the Tourism Corridor Strategy Program to contribute to a more resilient tourism industry through accelerated destination development of multiple tourism corridors across Canada.
This pilot program places emphasis on collaboration amongst varying stakeholders with corridors and importantly, between provinces and territories, to strengthen tourism capacity and leadership. This ambitious program is an opportunity to connect the work of partners and stakeholders with a more holistic national scope.
Following a comprehensive review process, Destination Canada selected three high-potential tourism corridors to support in 2023. This includes the Sustainable Journeys from Prairies to Pacific, which leverages Highway 3 as a key interprovincial corridor linking the large urban hubs of southern Alberta and British Columbia’s lower mainland. It offers a collection of resort towns, national and provincial parks, authentic rural communities, Indigenous nations and experiences, trails and outdoor recreation, agritourism, wildlife viewing, western heritage, and much more.
Canada has a vibrant and rich tourism economy and is a destination which has been developed, managed, and marketed for over a century by private and public sector based operators. However, much of the success of Canada’s tourism industry resides in the three large provinces of Ontario, Québec, and British Columbia with the most visitation to maturing destinations in these and other key provinces, and predominantly in the key summer months.
In some instances, during certain periods of the year, demand for top Canadian destinations and attractions far outstrips supply of tourism assets causing overcrowding and significant price escalations in some destinations, discouraging prospective travellers who, in turn, may seek to spend their tourism dollars in other destination around the world. In many cases, these popular, well-known Canadian destinations — whether they are iconic attractions, major cities, resorts, or mountain communities — have decades of destination management capacity, a visitor-base, and well-known brands and marketing programs to attract visitors.
If Canada’s tourism industry is to grow and be sustainable into the future, it must help manage the over-capacity challenges in the more popular destinations by encouraging visitation during less busy times of the year. It must also encourage the development of alternative regions by building capacity, encouraging tourism investment and accelerate destination development. However, before these regions can be branded and marketed as viable corridors and routes, significant capacity development is required to support the investment needed to develop or enhance tourism assets, collaborate across a wide spectrum of stakeholders and enabling environments, and prepare to welcome high-value visitors in the future.
The Sustainable Journeys from Prairies to Pacific Strategy leverages existing key strategy and experience themes in both Alberta and BC to uncover a collection of potential investment opportunities to grow demand and sustainably manage visitation in the long-term, help define the challenges and opportunities of both provinces in developing the region for tourism, prepare the regions for tourism investment and entrepreneur attraction, and align against a common corridor theme to support Destination Canada and its partners in helping to develop the country, from coast to coast to coast — for future tourism success.
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