As Rendez-vous Canada is taking place at the Edmonton Convention Centre, one of the biggest challenges Canada's tourism industry is facing is playing out in technicolour just a few hundred kilometres away: wildfires. Canada's tourism industry is trying to put on its Sunday best this week, showcasing itself to more than 500 international travel agents and tour operators at the largest annual tourism convention in Canada.
Hot, dry weather in Western Canada, exacerbated by climate change, sparked a massive fire last week southwest of Fort McMurray. This week it is forcing more than 6,000 people from their homes.Some of them are the same residents whose houses were razed by a major wildfire in the same city just eight years ago.
But making matters worse is the fact that many people around the world see headlines about Canada being on fire, she said, then think nowhere in the country is safe to visit. Last summer, tourism operators in southwestern Ontario told her about cancellations due to fires largely more than 3,500 kilometres away in B.C., she said.
"When you think about Europe, Canada is four times Europe. So you wouldn't put an ad for the whole of Europe, right?"The concerns reach beyond just fires. Warmer winters are harming cold-season tourism as well. The famous Rideau Canal stayed closed in 2023, and barely opened at all this year, because it was too warm. The ice hotel in Quebec City, a unique draw for tourism, was melting, said Martinez Ferrada.