CATHERINE COOK APPOINTED HEAD OF PRACTICE - NOT-FOR-PROFIT & SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

Osborne Group Contract Executives President and CEO Mark Olson is pleased to announce that Catherine Cook (B.Comm, CMA) has been appointed Head of Practice – Not-for-Profit & Social Enterprise.

"There is so much need in the not-for-profit sector for cost effective executive assistance and expertise when it comes to launching social enterprise ventures. Catherine’s rich NFP experience as an interim executive, combined with her strategic business acumen, will serve our clients well in her new role as Head of Practice for this sector," commented Mark Olson.

Catherine adds "I am looking forward to further serving not-for-profits and social enterprise organizations. So many of these organizations can benefit from our team's executive experience and knowledge in strategy and organizational effectiveness. Whenever I chat with many of these organizations, they are pleased to hear Osborne’s services can be molded to fit their organizational needs in a cost effective manner. I appreciate the Osborne team's belief in my leadership and ability to grow for our clients and partners, and am very much looking forward to the coming years."

Catherine can be reached directly at (403) 264-8195 (ext. 1005) or ccook@osborneinterim.com.

WHAT ARE THE COMPETITIVE CHALLENGES FOR CALGARY AND CANADA'S TOURISM SECTOR?

Canada is a great country, rich in natural resources, pristine beauty, abundant wildlife and cultural diversity.  We are seen by the world as a safe and clean destination with welcoming people. In fact, in many surveys, people from around the world have Canada on the top of their “hope to visit one day” list. Additionally, in FutureBrand’s Country Index, which measures the strength of a nation’s brand, Canada finished first in 2010 and 2011 and was placed second in 2009 and 2012 – four years running as one of the top two country brands in the world.

 

At one time, and as recent as 2002, Canada’s international tourism arrivals was 7^th in the world – Canada  today sits 18^th! The USA market for Canada has dropped by 55% since 2000. Mexican visitation to Canada has dropped from 53,000 visitors in 2008 to 23,000 visitors in 2011. Canada’s travel deficit (dollars spent by Canadians outside the country versus dollars spent by international visitors in Canada) has inflated to $16 billion, a six fold increase in a decade. Canada’s visitor economy is growing at half the rate of international growth. And over five million Canadians cross the border each year to depart from a USA airport rather than a closer Canadian airport – a national disgrace!

So why are Canada’s tourism results a contradiction to the abundance we offer and our international brand positioning? The facts are, we have some critical competitive challenges we need to overcome in order to capitalize on the fourth-fastest growing export sector in the global economy. And in this competition, if Canada has a competitive issue, then every community in the country has a competitive issue. 
 

There are a number of challenges, and because many of them can be overcome, each represents opportunities for us to grow travel and tourism. Here are the top five the industry agrees upon:

 

 · Marketing investment – Canada’s federal investment in marketing Canada to the world is going to be $58 million in 2014, half what it was a decade ago. Compare that to India ($294M), Ireland ($211M),   Mexico ($153M), Australia ($147M) and Malaysia ($128M). Additionally, at the provincial and municipal levels, marketing investments are inconsistent and fractured amongst different stakeholders, diluting and duplicating messages and efforts. 

 

 · Cost of Air Travel – The cost structure of Canadian aviation downloads the cost of the system onto the individual traveler, with an assortment of taxes, fees and levies – including landing fees, security charges, navigation fees, airport rents, etc. – inflating the already significant base fees of an airline ticket. As a   result, flying in and around Canada is comparatively amongst the most expensive anywhere.

 

 · Travel Visa – Although improvements have been made in Mexico and Brazil, citizens of many countries find it to be too difficult and take too much time to receive a Canadian visa. The reason Mexican visitation dropped so significantly is that the Federal Government imposed a new visa requirement in 2009. Chinese visitation has grown dramatically in the last three years because of increased access through the Approved Destination Status agreement in 2009.

 

 · Seasonality – Canada, like all Northern Hemisphere countries, experiences an annual migration each winter of its citizens looking for sun and sand opportunities, creating a travel deficit for their tourism economies. Skiing, snowmobiling, dog sledding and other winter products helps to mitigate this issue but Canada needs more product development offering experiences late fall, winter and early spring.

 

 · Human Resources – Tourism labour demand is forecast to grow by 33% from 1.6 million jobs in 2010 to 2.14 million jobs in 2030, with more than 228,000 jobs in the tourism sector going unfilled across the country due to lack of workers. Even today tourism is handicapped with a lack of human resources depending on temporary foreign worker programs or suffering through poor customer service.

 

At Osborne Interim Management and Osborne Business Advisors, we can help owners and operators understand how these and other challenges can be overcome. Knowing the competitive obstacles affecting your global and national markets will help operators to better sell their tourism product or experience.   

Randy Williams (click to see Randy's profile)

Principal

Head of Practice - Hospitality, Tourism, Destination Management

 

OLD FRIENDS NOT VISITING AS MUCH; BUT WE ATTRACTED MORE NEW FRIENDS!

The data for this summer will not be released until later in the fall, but early signals of what the whole summer will be like are seen in the June results. Although many people believe tourism in Canada only happens in the summer time, and that is probably because the international tourists by sheer volume are more noticeable and because Canadians themselves become tourists more often in the summer, the travel industry is a year-round business. It is true that for Canada June, July and August represents over one third of annual trips – in other words, our peak months.

In June, it is interesting that our biggest inbound to Canada visiting countries – USA, UK, France and Germany – all saw decreases in visitation to June last year. These countries represent our traditional markets, or our old friends. China, Australia, Mexico, South Korea and India visitors were all on the rise in June. For the most part these are new friends from new markets.

In June, American visitation was down 0.8%; a market where Canada has seen an over 50% drop since 2000. The UK is our number one overseas market and it dropped 2.6%, while France (-6.7%) and Germany (-4.3%) were also sluggish. China continues to grow significantly since 2010 and the introduction of Approved Destination Status, seeing 22.1% growth in June alone. Australia continues to surprise with 5.0% growth. India (+2.8%) and South Korea (+6.4%) are very encouraging because of the size of those markets.

It is safe to suggest that these results for June in Canada should follow for the next two summer months of July and August. Although the numbers reflect a good mix of positive and negative results possibly indicating strong growth in international travel, this is not the case. The USA represents by far our largest inbound market outweighing all other international markets combined! An 0.8% decrease in the USA in one month represents about 12,000 visitors and the huge growth from China, Mexico and Australia combined represents less than 11,000 visitors.

Canada is not keeping pace with global growth in tourism revenues and visitations. Canada is growing in both benchmarks by about 2% per year, but this represents half of global percentage growth. In 2002 we were the 7th most visited country in the world – today we rank 18th and slipping. There are a number of reasons for this which are addressed in another article – What Are the Competitive Challenges for Calgary and Canada’s Tourism Sector?.

The good news is that domestic travel – Canadians visiting other Canadian destinations – is strong. Domestic tourism is now the life blood of our tourism sector representing 80% of this country’s $79 billion industry. The bad news is that international tourism to Canada then represents 20% of our tourism economy, whereas only ten years ago international visitors represented 33% of our sales mix. This dependence on one market, as in any business, is not healthy and is risky. Additionally, international visitors stay longer and spend more than domestic travelers.

Keep traveling Canada – it’s a great country and worth exploring!

Randy Williams (click to see Randy's profile)

Principal
Head of Practice - Hospitality, Tourism, Destination Management

TAKING A TRIP IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU MAY KNOW

As the summer season winds down for 2013 it is apropos to reflect on the importance of an activity all of us probably enjoyed these past few months – traveling close to home or exploring another country! Why is the fact that you traveled and became a tourist important? Well, for many reasons; some you would instinctively know already and others you may not have thought of.

When you and others travel you inject $79 billion into the Canadian economy, $5 billion into the Alberta economy and $1.4 billion into the Calgary economy. These are important revenues to our economy as they provide $22 billion in tax income to all three levels of governments, which in turn helps pay for education and health care. Calgary’s municipal government received over $50 million in property tax revenues from tourism businesses and people living here and employed in the industry. These revenues also supported 1.6 million jobs in Canada and 90,000 jobs in Alberta; almost one in every ten people that work in this country.

These expenditures also inject new monies into economies with $15.4 billion in Canada and the $1.4 billion in Calgary representing export revenues. Obviously, new money is essential in sustaining an economy and allowing all businesses opportunities to grow their markets. Tourism represents a greater GDP contribution to the Canadian economy than agriculture, forestry and fishing industries combined!

Ok, so your decision to travel this summer contributed to the economy and supported employment, no surprise there – and your credit card and bank statements probably already reminded you of this fact. However, I would contend that your trip was probably more important to you, friends and relatives and the communities visited than the economic impact, and this may surprise you.

It is generally accepted that there are three motivations for travel: leisure/pleasure, business and personal. Business travel includes meetings, conventions, incentive travel, independent business travel, group study tours and blended travel. Personal includes travel for doctors, legal, and hospital visits. But let’s focus on leisure/pleasure trips because, we hope, that is what your summer travel was most likely motivated by. These trips include vacations; attending events like sports, festivals, concerts; shopping trips; weekend getaways; visiting friends and relatives, group tours and blended travel (business and pleasure).

Leisure travel is a chance for you to escape, re-energize, rejuvenate, recharge, re-acquaint, or to learn and understand more. It is most likely that if I asked you why you invested some of your disposable household income in a trip, at least one or two of these reasons would be cited. And good for you, each of these are important. But beyond buying an escape or investing in rejuvenating yourself or re-acquainting yourself with friends, the tourism industry works hard to turn these motivations, into experiences that will become unforgettable and transformational.

As everyone rolls into the classrooms and offices after Labour Day the hallway talk will inevitably be about what you did this past summer, and I bet your trip will be one of the most memorable. When you look at the most memorable photos in your digital or print albums, the most important ones will likely be taken on a trip. When families reflect back on their quality times together, no doubt it will be when they traveled together somewhere, whether it was for two days or two weeks. And when you share insights about other people in our global community, it is probably because of your knowledge gained in experiencing the culture and way of life of citizens in another country, or even our own.

So how important was that trip? When you think of these benefits, you may argue that Canada’s ranking of 19th of 21 OECD nations in paid vacations and holidays needs to be improved.

But let’s give three more reasons why traveling is an important thing to do by asking three questions:

•  Do you believe that if Canadians travelled their own country more, Canadians pride in their country would improve and their passion for national unity would increase?
•  Do you believe that people would be more tolerant and understanding of other races if they experienced and appreciated more of their culture?
•  When a visitor comes to your city or town and says to you how much they enjoyed one aspect of their stay or how beautiful our community is, what does this do for your sense of place or pride in where you live?

If you think about these questions and the role travel and tourism plays in answering them, I am confident that you will conclude that taking a trip is important in many ways, and maybe more ways than you first thought about.

Thank you for traveling!
 
Randy Williams (click to see Randy's profile)

Principal
Head of Practice - Hospitality, Tourism, Destination Management