FAQs

For the latest information on travel to Canada including the updated federal requirements and restrictions, please visit the Government of Canada website.

Travel to Canada is different than it was prior to the pandemic. We encourage all travellers to be fully informed of the public health requirements both federally and provincially. As of April 1, fully vaccinated travellers no longer need to complete a pre-entry test, for more details read the full press release.

Use of the ArriveCAN app remains mandatory. Travellers should plan for extra time in the lead up, and upon the arrival of their trip

It’s also important that travellers be aware of local restrictions and health guidelines. Please visit your travel destination’s website for those guidelines, or Destination Canada’s COVID-19 Guidance for Travellers page.

Destination Canada is not involved in the implementation of border restriction policy and cannot answer specific questions on the new regulations. The official source for travel information is the Government of Canada’s website, which we encourage you to visit.

Team Canada is ready to go. The travel industry has invested billions in health and hygiene protocols, retraining staff, and reconfiguring experiences to prepare for visitors.

In terms of Canadians level of welcome - our weekly tracking shows that Canadians are becoming increasingly more open to welcoming back international visitors. Our warm and diverse people, vibrant cities and cultures, and incomparable natural beauty await those looking for meaningful travel experiences to reconnect with what’s important today.

We have been working closely with our in-market teams globally to ensure that Canada stays top-of-mind and we continue to cultivate our global travel trade and travel media relationships. Team Canada is absolutely ready to go and we are excited to be welcoming back travellers.

It is important that we all make it clear that travellers can feel confident in making travel plans as tourism businesses throughout Canada have made huge investments in new hygiene protocols. The health and well-being of tourism employees and guests is paramount.

We continue to share our weekly analysis of each region’s travel restrictions and local residents’ sentiment towards tourists. This can help you make evidence-based decisions when it comes to marketing.

Our consumer website has lots of great resources and travel inspiration as well as COVID-19 guidance for travellers.

The Canada Specialist Program is intended to be a one-stop resource for travel advisors in Canada, to help them learn about the destinations, understand travel restrictions, and connect them with the tour operators.

More details on our Canada Specialist Program is available on our website: canadaspecialist.ca

Destination Canada’s report, Tourism’s Big Shift, identifies the key trends that will have the greatest impact on Canada’s travel and tourism industry in the next one to three years.

This new report delves into the trends influencing the traveller of tomorrow under three key areas:

• Macro trends: The profound socio-economic changes that will affect businesses and communities of all kinds, including climate change and accelerated digitalization.
• Industry Trends: Key challenges that will impact Canadian tourism businesses, such as reduced transport connectivity and labour shortages.
• Market Trends: Changes in consumer behaviour and values that will influence tourism businesses operational models, product and service development, channel marketing budgets, and focus for the future, including trends such as responsible travel, health and wellbeing and Indigenous connection - these emerging consumer preferences align with a more aspirational level of tourism.

Download the full report here.

There are many important elements for recovery of the industry but the number one thing we need is for Canadians to keep their holiday dollars in Canada to speed up our sector’s recovery. We encourage you to do whatever you can to channel domestic demand to your business and we are doing the same.

To help do this, we need to do the following:

1. Increase Canadians’ understanding of the importance of Canada’s tourism industry.
2. Inspire confidence and desire to travel domestically – this includes showcasing all of the extensive health and hygiene protocols you’ve put into place and also reminding Canadians what a beautiful country we live in!
3. Re-ignite the welcoming spirit of Canadian communities – to ensure they feel ready to welcome visitors back again.a

We work closely with our provincial and territorial counterparts and keep them up-to-date on all marketing plans and provide opportunities for collaboration whenever possible keeping in mind equal representation from across the country. We want to ensure we are supporting ongoing efforts and not duplicating.

It is crucial that you stay connected to your PTMO to stay apprised of all plans and opportunities within your local region.

Going forward, we will be using a new yardstick for Canada’s tourism industry – one that measures whether tourism is creating net benefits for our country. As we re-build our industry, we are focused on four pillars that will enable us to compete more effectively and win the customers we want. Building on existing strengths in marketing and research, we are carving out a new strategic role in destination development. We will look to work with businesses across the country in these efforts.

We are working closely with our in-market teams globally to ensure that Canada is a premier destination for international travellers and are maintaining our strong global travel trade and travel media relationships.

We launched our Travel Offers page which has hotel, air, and rail offers as well as city and activity passes, special offers and deals within the choice of city and Indigenous experiences through ITAC too. These all link directly through to our partners pages. We also created a Package Portal with bookable packages form partners from across Canada.

Our report Tourism’s Big Shift, identifies key trends that are impacting Canada’s tourism industry in the next one to three years. Developing a collective understanding of these changes in the tourism industry and in consumer behaviours, as well as their potential implications, is key to the industry’s recovery. For tourism businesses and operators across the country, this trends analysis will help inform strategies and understand the key immediate changes anticipated as well as the longer-term implications.

Earlier this year, we hosted a webinar for small and medium tourism businesses (SMEs) discussing the findings from this report and sharing key ways that SMEs can apply these findings to their recovery strategy. You can watch a recording of the webinar here.

Below are a few key trends and takeaways from the webinar:

• More Leisure: Today’s guest is different, and motivators and drivers need to be present in our business practices and stories.
  • Stay really close to your best guests and stakeholders - and align closely with their motivations and drivers.
• More Digital: The industry has become more digital in its approach - look at ways to adopt technology while keeping the guest front and center of everything you do.
  • Embrace technology to support your presence online and to replace services where no- or low-touch is needed.
• More Change: As more uncertainty is expected, operators and destinations will need to be future-facing and flexible in order to proactively adapt to a new reality rather than wait for the industry to rebound to pre-COVID-19 levels.
  • Utilize the resources available to you:
    • Destination Canada Programs – Research & Marketing
    • Federal resources – Canada Digital Adoption Program & ISED Business Benefits Finder
    • Tourism HR Canada
  • As labour continues to be scarce, look at adopting new practices for recruiting and retaining employees - examine your employee value proposition to ensure you can compete with all the other options workers may have.
• More Competition: While governments invest heavily in the tourism industry’s recovery and competitiveness, the volume of international tourists from source markets will be limited, creating a highly competitive landscape in the short term — especially as destinations simultaneously open their borders.
  • Get a jumpstart on your competition with your marketing and stay visible even through the downtimes.