'C' Is for Convention

Canada seeks to lure more tradeshows from its southern neighbor

By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 6/28/2004

Canada is doing its best to convince the world that the "C" in its name stands for conventions.

Already home to thousands of tradeshows per year, Canada has recently stepped up its efforts to draw even more. Not surprisingly, one of the biggest targets is its populous southern neighbor, the United States, which accounts for more than two-thirds of Canada's business travel revenue.

But getting American business travelers to leave home isn't as easy as it once was. U.S. business travel to Canada was already down by 4 percent even before Sept. 11, due to declines in high tech and corporate profits. The year 2001 ended with nearly 2.3 million American business travelers spending $1.6 billion in Canada, a nearly 9-percent drop from the previous year.

The business travel declines continued as the United States struggled through an economic recession in 2002. Then came the Iraq War, followed by the SARS scare in Toronto, Canada's most populous city and the destination with the greatest share of the tradeshow market. At least nine events were canceled or rescheduled due to the scare, including two U.S. association events that moved back south of the border last spring.

Toronto reacted to the public relations fiasco by forming a tourism industry coalition, Tourism Toronto, and launching a marketing campaign helped by $10-million donations from the federal and provincial governments. The group has recently beefed up its convention sales staff.

"Since the SARS outbreak, they've put a lot of money into promoting tourism," said Karen Bassels, show manager for CGTA Gift Show, produced by the Canadian Gift & Tableware Assn. each January at the Toronto Congress Centre and Intl. Centre.

At a recent Tourism Toronto meeting, CEO Bruce McMillan reported the rebooking of eight out of 10 citywide conventions that were annulled last spring. In addition, the city has landed the 2005 meeting of the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives, expected to draw about 300 travel executives.

The Canadian Tourism Commission, meanwhile, has launched a meetings, conventions and incentive travel initiative to help the country become a preferred destination. In its most recent strategic plan, the commission identified U.S. association meetings and corporate events as key potential markets.

The commission's latest move was to launch a Web site — www.canadameetings.com — that provides meeting planners with everything from venue comparisons and free planning guides to fam' trip signups and promotional photos. The site stresses that Canada is affordable, convenient for travelers and has exciting destination cities. It even advises that the Goods and Services Taxes that Canadians must endure is refundable for visitors' convention and meetings expenses.

And it's not only tourism officials getting into the act. Air Canada, the country's biggest airline, employs convention representatives to help planners arrange air travel for their meetings.

Even the government is lending a hand. The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency offers regional convention coordinators access to various government departments on planners' behalf. A brochure — entitled "Welcome to Canada: Your Guide to Bringing a Convention, Meeting, Trade Show or Exhibition Across the Canadian Border" — spells out customs clearance procedures, duty requirements and immigration and employment requirements for speakers, exhibitors or delegates.

For tradeshow organizers schooled in the United States, a geography lesson might be in order: Canada has 10 provinces, each with its own capital city. The country's dominant tradeshow city is Toronto, home to four convention centers with a total of 2.5 million sq. ft. of exhibit space. Toronto was the site of 29 of last year's Canadian 50 tradeshows, with Montreal host to 12 and Edmonton, Alberta to three.

Canada's largest trade-shows in 2003 demonstrated a 1.5-percent year-over-year increase in net square footage. But the number of exhibitors and attendees experienced slight declines. In contrast, the United States' largest shows decreased in net square footage but increased slightly in exhibitors and attendees.