Market Trends

• Market recovery has been strong from Canada – spend levels to Sep are 112% and total visitation at 83% for 2023 vs 2019.
• Market recovery is being driven by VFR segment. Holiday market still lagging with recovery at 70% for holiday.
• General pressure on consumer spending this year, however, Canadians still plan to travel and consumer confidence around holidays remains high. 7 out of ten Canadians saying they plan to take a vacation in 2024, according to Allianz Global Assistance's (Allianz) seventh annual Vacation Confidence Study. Vacation confidence is strongest among high-income households (85%), university graduates (80%) and families with children (79%). These encouraging travel intentions are reinforced by the 72% of Canadians who say that an annual vacation is important to them. This insight is underpinned by a Skyscanner survey showing a significant 35% of Canadian travellers have budgeted to spend more on travel in 2024 compared to 2023.

Buyer Snapshot

This year we have 14 buyer organisations attending from Canada – this includes 12 Regular delegates and 2 as part of our ATE Luxe Program. Many are returning buyers, however we would like to highlight the following:

• Air Canada Vacations (ACV)– this is their first time attending ATE – Rose Gonzalez is newly appointed to focus on product for Australia. We see lots of potential with Air Canada Vacations to grow their product mix and sales. ACV has recently appointed Goway Inbound as their preferred DMC for Australia. Our team at VoX in Canada has also been focused on training and upskilling their res staff over the last month
• Downunder Travel (DUT) – DUT will be familiar to may of you but wanted to highlight that Jason Webb – President, will be attending ATE this year for the first time since 2018. He look forward to seeing and reconnecting with many or sellers.

Consumer Trends

• According to a survey conducted by Skyscanner, cultural exploration will be a priority for Canadian travellers. The survey also unveiled that Canadians want to level up their vacations in a budget-friendly way, with ‘luxe-for-less’ trips trending for 2024
• Our latest CDP report for Canada shows that Canadians are looking for experiences where they can get out into natural environments, immerse in local food wine and produce and world class beaches, coastline and marine wildlife.
• Our CDP also reveals that 64% of Canadians want to travel more sustainably over the next 12 months