News Around Town – June 2021

Member Announcements

We would like to extend a warm welcome to our new members:
Theresa Ellwood | LinkedIn is a manager or meetings and conferences at Canadian Construction Association - Association canadienne de la construction: Overview | LinkedIn
She is a dedicated team player with strong communication, leadership, and customer skills.

State of the Industry

2021 Tourism Week Recap

#TourismCounts #TourismWeek
The Tourism Week campaign was launched by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) with its provincial and territorial tourism industry association partners. Tourism week 2021 was held May 23-30 and was anchored by a call to action for Canadians to take the pledge to travel within Canada when restrictions are lifted and continue to discover Canada even after our borders re-open.

Before the pandemic struck, travel in Canada generated $105 billion in economic activity, accounting for 2.3% of the country’s GDP. In 2019, the travel and tourism industry was responsible for employing 1.8 million workers in that year. Prior to COVID-19, the tourism economy in Canada was the fifth largest, responsible for one in ten jobs.

Tourism Week in Canada wraps up with a new sense of optimism as regions of Canada announce their pandemic re-opening plans giving operators a target date to start preparing and retooling to welcome visitors. While much remains to be done, there are positive signs that the freeze on travel is starting to thaw.

2021 Tourism Town Halls
TIAC’s Tourism Town Hall series is an event partnership between the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, Destination Canada and the local host partners.
Local small and medium-sized business owners will have the opportunity to meet with TIAC, Destination Canada and tourism partners to better understand efforts being made on national tourism issues.
Town Halls allow tourism operators to provide first-hand input on issues affecting their business and the tourism industry in this time of COVID and provide feedback on government policy for the recovery and rebuilding of our sector.
Tourism Town Halls also provide front-line forum exposure for governments, TIAC, Destination Canada and event sponsors to collaborate with small and medium-sized tourism business operators.

To register or to download materials click below:
Tourism Industry Association of Canada - Tourism Town Hall Series (tiac-aitc.ca)

Open the U.S. - Canada Border Summer 2021

Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) announced the launch of a new campaign to call on the federal government to plan for reopening the Canada-U.S. border, which has been closed for nearly 15 months. The campaign focuses on getting Canadian decision-makers to acknowledge the urgent need and to commit to a date to open the border, before the summer tourism season is lost.

To act today write to your MP here: EN | Open The Border (openuscanborder.ca)

Sustainable Tourism 2030 Pledge

It’s Canadian Environment Week and together GreenStep Solutions and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) are excited to announce the launch of the Sustainable Tourism 2030 Pledge. The Sustainable Tourism 2030 Pledge is a new initiative that encourages tourism businesses and destinations across Canada and globally, to commit to measuring and improving their sustainability performance each year between now and 2030. 

Developed in Canada by GreenStep, the Sustainable Tourism 2030 Pledge offers a free online assessment and sustainability score, helping tourism businesses and destinations self-assess on a broad range of sustainability criteria. This creates a common framework and benchmark from which tourism businesses and destinations can create action plans to make ongoing improvements in the areas of economic, social, cultural, natural and environmental sustainability. By taking the pledge, tourism businesses and destinations will commit to doing two things: measuring their sustainability score annually using the online assessment, and then making a public commitment and goal to improve their score by 2030.

To take the pledge today: Take the Pledge | Sustainable Tourism 2030 Pledge

Industry News in General

 
Ontario Reopening Step 1: Friday, June 11, 2021

The Ontario Government has announced that Ontario will move into Step One of the Roadmap to Reopen at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, June 11, 2021. Updates include but are not limited to:

• Outdoor dining with up to four people per table, with exceptions for larger households,
• Non-essential retail permitted at 15 per cent capacity, with no restrictions on the goods that can be sold,
• Concert venues, theatres and cinemas may open outdoors for the purpose of rehearsing or performing a recorded or broadcasted concert, artistic event, theatrical performance or other performance with no more than 10 performers, among other restrictions.

Ottawa Outdoor Venues

This summer, safety will be first when getting together. Everyone will look for outdoor venues and event spaces. Ottawa has plenty of them. From patios to art galleries to rooftop venues, the list goes on and on.

For the list of Ottawa outdoor venues and meeting spaces click here:
Outdoor venues and meeting spaces in Ottawa | Ottawa Tourism

Your ultimate guide to multi-city hybrid events

This free white paper by the Hybrid City Alliance came together through various workshops, by engaging in dialogue with industry professionals, including planners and suppliers. The white paper sets out to define what it means to run a multi-city hybrid event, help choose whether or not to organize an in-person, digital, or multi-hub hybrid event (including the various challenges and benefits of each), provide ideas and guidance on the design of a successful multi-hub event, all while considering sustainability and safety challenges.

To download a free copy click here:
Home - Hybrid City Alliance

Room Service Concert Series: Fridays and Saturdays June 18 through July 10, 2021.

Room Service Concert Series: An Ottawa hotel exclusive

Are you in music festival withdrawal? Could you use a good belly laugh to relieve some stress? Ottawa Tourism and RBC Ottawa Bluesfest have teamed up to offer you the perfect staycation solution this summer! Get exclusive access to amazing music and comedy performances followed by live Q&A sessions with some of the evening’s artists during our special Room Service Concert Series!

No tickets are required—anyone staying in a participating hotel on one of the following nights in June and July will have access to the scheduled concerts for that particular night through the TV in their room - no logins or special codes required. This content is exclusively available through a participating hotel’s television screen; you can’t watch it from home or any other location.

Performance line up here: Room Service Concert Series official lineup | Ottawa Tourism

To book a room: Book your hotel for the Room Service Concert Series | Ottawa Tourism

Upcoming Industry Events

MPI Ottawa

 
MPI Ottawa’s Summer Bash
June 22, 2021 – 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Do you miss networking at events? Walking up to someone at a coffee station and starting up a conversation? So do we! MPI is excited to be hosting our June Summer Bash on a virtual networking platform called Bramble. Bramble’s fluid video technology makes virtual communication fun and super natural. You’ll get to move around our virtual summer landscape using your avatar. As you approach other users, their videos will appear and you will be able to start up a conversation. No more staring out at a wall of faces or feeling like a human spreadsheet. Bramble was created to be joyful and intuitive for all. It’s like Zoom meets Animal Crossing! We can’t wait to network and connect with you.

To register click here: MPI Ottawa’s Summer Bash

Keep an eye on the MPI Ottawa Chapter LinkedIn Group and the MPI Ottawa Chapter website for information on upcoming events.

PCMA EDUCON In Person OR Digital
JW Marriott Desert Ridge, Phoenix, Arizona
July 7-9, 2021

For the last year we’ve all been over-scheduled and our humanity has suffered. EduCon 2021 is designed to bring people together and will provide you with the appropriate time and space for you to reconnect with your community and yourself.

Being together in a post-COVID world will make us better facilitators of the future. Through learnings from our year-long Recovery Discovery journey and the success of January’s Convening Leaders, EduCon will show the world how business events can be a catalyst for bringing us back together to create deeper, meaningful, and safe interactions through a fusion of both in-person and digital experiences.

To register click here: PCMA EduCon 2021 | Registration & Rates

 
Article written and compiled by Elodie (Morini) Lortal, BHM, CMP, National Arts Centre | Centre national des Arts
Article edited by Darlene Kelly-Stewart, Stonehouse Sales & Marketing Services