Multimedia "Portraits of America" to be Featured in International Arrivals Areas, U.S. Embassies and Other Venues to Welcome Visitors to the United States

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of State in partnership with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts premiered "Welcome: Portraits of America," a multi-media initiative to welcome international visitors to the United States. The donation from Disney included a seven-minute film and hundreds of still images, featuring American people from all regions and walks of life. Disney commissioned the project as part of the Rice-Chertoff Initiative, which seeks to secure America's borders while welcoming legitimate visitors to the United States.

"We greatly appreciate Disney's significant contributions to our efforts to make America's embassies and airports more welcoming to our international guests. Disney's creativity and excellence wonderfully capture the essence of America, which is embodied in the diversity and values of our people," said Karen Hughes, Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Department of State.

"Travelers form their first impressions of America when they arrive at our borders. Our global reputation therefore depends on making visitors feel every bit as welcome as they feel secure," said Stewart Baker, Assistant Secretary for Policy, Department of Homeland Security.

"We are proud to partner with the U.S. government to extend a world class welcome to America's guests," said Jay Rasulo, Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. "This project showcases America's greatest asset: the ordinary people who make this nation extraordinary."

The film and still portraits showcase the diversity, friendliness and optimism of the American people. The film will be shown in the Federal Inspection Areas of U.S. airports, and in U.S. embassies and consulates overseas, while the still portraits will be incorporated in posters, banners and other imagery welcoming visitors to the U.S. The video and images will not feature or promote any commercial entities. The first airports to feature the images will be Washington Dulles International Airport and Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, to be followed by the nation's other international airports.

For the project, Disney attracted a world-class creative team including producer Federico Tio, a highly-regarded marketer of some of America's best-known motion pictures. Born in Havana, Cuba on May 1, 1962, Tio came to the United States on one of the first "Freedom Flights" in 1965. Tio's crew embarked on a cross-country odyssey to capture the content for the video, including images of ordinary Americans at work, play, with family and at moments of introspection.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff announced a joint vision to enhance border security while streamlining security processes and facilitating travel for legitimate visitors in January 2006. As part of this initiative, the Secure Borders, Open Doors Advisory Committee was established with participation from the business, travel and tourism and academic communities. One of the goals of the Advisory Committee is to help the Departments of State and Homeland Security establish a friendlier, more welcoming process for visitors from the time they apply for a visa to their entry into the United States.

Overnight travel by Canadian residents to the United States rose 4.2% to almost 1.5 million, setting a new record for overnight air travel in the process. Canadian residents took 498,000 overnight plane trips in August, up 2.3% compared with the previous month.

Overnight car travel also increased, with a 5.3% jump in August compared with July. The number of same-day car trips increased a more modest 0.6% to nearly 2.0 million trips.

Although the Canadian dollar was 9.5 US cents higher in August than in January, the Canadian dollar actually fell 0.7 US cents from July to 94.5 US cents. In relation to other major currencies, the Canadian dollar rose against the euro and the UK pound sterling but declined against the Japanese yen in August compared with July.

Overall travel from abroad increased 2.4% from July, as US and overseas travellers took nearly 2.6 million trips to Canada in August.

Travel to Canada from the United States rebounded in August after witnessing across the board declines in July. American residents took 2.2 million same-day and overnight trips to Canada in August, up 2.8% from the previous month.

Overnight travel from the United States increased 4.3% in August to 1.1 million trips, while same-day car travel rose 0.9% to 975,000 trips.

Overnight car travel witnessed the largest increase, as US residents took 665,000 trips in August, up 4.7% from July. Overnight travel by plane and by other modes increased 4.4% and 2.3%, respectively.

Although travel to Canada from overseas countries remained stable at 385,000 trips, travel from 7 of Canada's top 12 overseas markets increased in August compared with July. Among the top 12 markets, travel from Mexico posted the largest gain (+5.8%), while travel from China recorded the largest decrease, dropping 3.4%.

The University of Guelph has created a special University Research Chair to focus on issues of importance and interest to the tourism and hospitality industry.

Prof. Marion Joppe, director of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM), will be the inaugural chair holder. She has relinquished her current duties to take on the five-year position.

"This is a unique opportunity to position and advance collaborative research on a number of fronts of great concern to the industry," said Joppe. "These include the looming labour shortage, the environmental impact of travel, and the repositioning of Canada in light of rapidly changing consumer attitudes and motivations."

Joppe, who joined U of G in 2003, has an extensive research career that focuses on the planning, development and marketing of destinations, with particular focus on heritage, ethnic and wellness tourism. She is also interested in trade and incentive travel as well as e-commerce.

During her career, Joppe has received a number of prestigious awards and grants, including ones from the Society of Incentive and Travel Executives Foundation, the Ontario Hostelry Institute, the Ontario Accommodation Association and the HAFA/HTM Alumni Association. In 2007, she was appointed to a seat on the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council and is the current Chair of the Ontario Tourism Education Corporation. She also has a long-standing involvement with the Canadian Tourism Commission’s Product Enhancement and Innovation Committee.

"This appointment recognizes Marion's personal achievements as a scholar in tourism research and the importance of this field to the School and College of Management and Economics (CME)," said dean Chris McKenna.

"Through this research chair, Marion will continue to provide leadership in the tourism area, both in her research and through her involvement in several national and international organizations."

McKenna added that Joppe made many positive changes as HTM director, including boosting the reputation of its restaurant and programming, improving external relations and enhancing graduate programs. She also helped position the school as a leader in preparing students for industry.

Joppe has been teaching and working in the hospitality and tourism industry for more than 20 years internationally and in Canada. She worked for the provincial government as its senior policy adviser for tourism and was a faculty member with Ryerson University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Waterloo and received her master’s and doctorate from the Université de Droit, d'Économie et des Sciences d'Aix-Marseille III in France.

MONTREAL - VIA Rail Canada is pleased to announce it has partnered with Premier Spas of Ontario to introduce the new Spa Train Route. Passengers can immerse themselves in the relaxing comforts of train travel while contemplating the peaceful spa treatments that await them at one of the Premier Spa destinations along the Spa Train Route. So grab your girlfriends for a special getaway, celebrate your anniversary with special his-and-her treatments, or leave the world behind and get back in touch with yourself. Let VIA Rail and Premier Spas show you the "Human Way to Travel."

VIA Rail's Spa Train Route gives you access to 18 quality-assured Premier Spa destinations in Ontario that are waiting to indulge you with facials, massages, body wraps and other luxurious treatments to rejuvenate your body - and soul. Each of the participating Premier Spas offers packages that include return train travel and shuttle transportation to and from the nearest VIA Rail station.

Use VIA Rail's Spa Train Route and take the healthy track to any of the
following Premier Spas:

- Au Naturel Spa - Ottawa, ON (nearest station: Fallowfield)
- Holtz Spa - Ottawa, ON
- Claramount Inn & Spa - Picton, ON (nearest station: Belleville)
- The Hillcrest -Valenova Hotel & Spa - Port Hope/Cobourg, ON
- HighFields Country Inn & Spa - Zephyr, ON (nearest station: Oshawa)
- Ste. Anne's Spa - Grafton, ON (nearest station: Cobourg)
- Elizabeth Milan Day Spa - Toronto, ON
- Elmwood Spa - Toronto, ON
- HealthWinds - Toronto, ON
- Rosewater Health and Beauty Spa - Oakville, ON
- SilveryBlue Butterfly Spa - Oakville, ON
- Magnolia House Spa - Waterdown, ON (nearest station: Aldershot)
- Langdon Hall Country House Hotel and Spa - Cambridge, ON
- Pillar & Post 100 Fountain Spa - Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON (nearest
station: St. Catherines)
- The Spa at White Oaks - Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON (nearest station:
Niagara Falls)
- Fayez Beauty Spa - London, ON

Looking to explore Ontario a bit more? There are also two Premier Spas of Ontario destinations north of Ontario, along VIA's flagship Canadian route:

- Trillium Resort & Spa - Port Sydney, ON (nearest station: Washago)
- Inn at Manitou - McKellar, ON (nearest station: Parry Sound)

For more information on the Spa Train Route and the various spa packages,
go to viarail.ca/spatrain.

Visits for pleasure, vacation, holiday, and visiting friends and relatives represented 91% of all domestic visits. Together, these visits increased 2.1% in the third quarter of 2006 compared with the same period in 2005.

Intra-provincial visits reached 58.5 million in the third quarter of 2006, while inter-provincial visits totalled 7.6 million.

In Canada, 9 domestic visits out of 10 were taken within the traveller's province of residence.

Same day visits reached 32.9 million in the third quarter of 2006, while overnight visits totalled 32.0 million.

Canadian residents spent an average of four nights away from home during their overnight visits in Canada. Of the 116.2 million nights spent away from home, 50.9 million were spent in a commercial establishment.

Domestic travel usually peaks during the summer vacation period. The number of visits in Canada was 23.2 million in July, almost equal to the 23.5 million visits recorded in August, and in September it reached 18.2 million.

Canadian travellers spent $11.8 billion within the country during the third quarter of 2006. When taking inflation into account, spending on domestic visits totalled $11.0 billion (in 2002 dollars) for this same quarter.

More than 60% of all domestic expenditures were for transportation ($3.9 billion) and food and beverages ($3.4 billion).

In the third quarter of 2006, Canadian spending on domestic visits for pleasure, vacation, holiday, and visiting friends and relatives increased 2.0% compared with the same period in 2005.

Americans made only 1.1 million overnight trips to Canada in July, about 81,000 fewer than in June. This was equivalent to a 7.1% decline, which was the fastest in over four years.

The level was the lowest since the height of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis in May 2003, and the second lowest level in over a decade. (Unless otherwise specified, monthly data are seasonally adjusted.)

In fact, overnight travel from the United States was down across the board. Declines in overnight border crossings were recorded in all regions of Canada. Also, overnight car travel dropped 6.4% to its lowest level in over 22 years, while travel by plane fell 5.5%.

American residents made 959,000 same-day car trips to Canada in July, 3.9% less than in June. Same-day car travel from the United States had increased during the previous four months.

Overall, travel from the United States dropped to 2.1 million trips, down 5.2% from the previous month and the second lowest level since record-keeping started in 1972.

Turmoil within the mortgage and credit sectors in the United States may have kept Americans from travelling to Canada in July. Another factor may have been the Canadian dollar, which has been gaining ground against its US counterpart. The loonie increased for a sixth consecutive month, hitting a 30-year high of 95 US cents in July.

Travel from countries other than the United States also fell, but to a lesser extent. Travellers from overseas countries made 376,000 overnight trips to Canada, down 1.4% from June.

The major security breach at Glasgow Airport in Scotland on June 30 does not seem to have deterred residents of the United Kingdom from travelling to Canada in July. Travel from the UK, Canada's most important overseas market, reached 76,000 trips, up 0.5%.

Among Canada's top 12 overseas markets, travel from Mexico recorded the largest decline (-12.1%), while travel from Hong Kong had the largest gain (+8.4%).

Also, travel to the United States showed a slight increase, with Canadian residents taking 3.4 million trips south of the border, up 0.2% from June.

The increase was the result of a 0.6% gain in overnight travel by car and a 2.0% increase by plane. Overall, overnight travel to the United States moved up 0.7% to 1.4 million trips.

Same-day car travel to the United States slipped 0.1% to 2.0 million trips in July.

Travel to overseas countries remained stable in July, with Canadians taking 605,000 trips to non-US destinations.

Note: Revisions have been made to some non-seasonally adjusted series for each month of the fourth quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2007.

HONG KONG - Worldhotel-link.com Limited (WHL) announced the launch of its network of travel sites (www.whl.travel) in over 70 destinations in 40 countries, including China and India. The sites are catering to those wishing to travel "off the beaten track" and who are tired of the "fast food" travel options being offered by most online service providers.

Increasing numbers of independent travelers are heading for emerging destinations in search of an authentic experience, but have not been well served by the mainstream travel market. WHL has set out to change this with local partners on the ground in each destination they service.

"So far, most of the accommodation and activities mentioned in guidebooks like Lonely Planet have not been bookable online," said Len Cordiner, CEO of WHL. "Our new network not only gives travelers a choice of interesting accommodation and activity options, but it also gives them a more personalized way of connecting with the locals and the place."

WHL, a private company, originated from a project sponsored by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), partof the World Bank Group, to help interesting and unique travel service providers in the developing world gain access to global markets. "Accommodation and activity providers in places like Madagascar and Mongolia face big challenges in connecting with travelers," says Len Cordiner, "so we have local people on the ground in each destination to enable that connection and provide a local concierge type service."

More than this, WHL is committed to putting more and new interesting and exciting experiences within the travelers' reach, particularly those that enhance the character of the destination being visited: food, aesthetics, culture, heritage, and environment. WHL encourages travelers to get involved in "Caring for the Destination." WHL is also working on ways to profile local climate change initiatives such as the Plant a Tree Today (PATT) initiative in Laos, as well as ways to improve the travelers experience by integrating grassroots businesses, such as township B&Bs in South Africa, and community initiatives.

Canada's largest cities are the country's arts and culture hubs, with the size of an area's cultural workforce depending largely on the area's total workforce. Despite this reality, a number of rural areas and small cities, particularly in British Columbia, Nunavut and Quebec, show unusually high proportions of cultural workers, according to a new study.

The study, "Towards a Geography of Culture: Culture Occupations Across the Canadian Urban-Rural Divide," used 2001 Census data. The Canadian Framework for Culture Statistics was used to define the culture sector in the workforce and to examine the proportion of cultural workers in the overall workforce in Canadian cities and rural areas, as well as the diversity of cultural occupations in those areas. While certain rural areas boasted a high proportion of cultural employment, those occupations tended to be specialized, the study found, with the largest cities showing the biggest variety of cultural occupations.

Relative to its overall workforce, the highest proportion of cultural workers was found in British Columbia's Capital Regional District, near Victoria. Of the four rural British Columbia areas that had very high shares of visual arts and design workers, three were on Vancouver Island, with the nearby Sunshine Coast completing the cultural "supercluster."

Another supercluster exists in the vicinity of Montréal, including two small cities and three rural areas with high cultural employment. Montréal had both the highest proportion of cultural workers among Canadian cities and the most diverse cultural workforce, with a large number of occupations in literary arts, performance arts, culture management, and technical as well as culture-related manufacturing occupations.

Nunavut, and particularly its Baffin Island region, had a high proportion of visual arts and design employment, the result of the production of Inuit carvings, tapestries, weavings and other artwork made for shipment elsewhere. In a few other rural areas, particularly in Quebec, cultural employment was dominated by manufacturing, with a limited range of manufactured culture products shipped to larger markets in Canada and abroad.

Among small cities that showed higher-than-average cultural employment, some, like Owen Sound, Ontario, and Magog, Quebec, also relied on shipments of manufactured culture products elsewhere. Others featured a greater presence of cultural venues, such as libraries, museums and theatres. Small-city clusters tend to have a more diverse cultural workforce than rural areas, implying that the range of cultural goods and services available for local consumption is greater.

For rural regions and small cities with high cultural employment, exports or proximity to a large urban centre were important, since local markets were generally too small to support the industry; Stratford, Ontario, for example, attracts audiences from nearby Toronto, Hamilton and Detroit to its theatre festival. In Canada's largest cities, on the other hand, cultural employment levels depended strongly on changes in the overall workforce size, indicating the importance of local demand.

Taxes on products, such as the goods and services tax (GST) and provincial sales taxes, comprise the single largest source of government revenue from tourism, according to a new study.

In total, tourism generated an estimated $19.4 billion in revenue for all three levels of government in Canada in 2006, up from just over $15.0 billion in 2000.

In 2006, taxes on products accounted for 51% of the federal government's revenue from tourism. For the provincial and territorial governments, the proportion was 61%, the study found.

Income taxes, such as those on employment income and business profits, were the second most important source of revenue from tourism for both the federal and provincial/territorial governments. Property taxes were the main source of revenue for municipalities.

Taxes on products generated $10.3 billion for the three levels of government combined, over half of the revenue attributable to tourism in 2006. Income taxes generated another $4.5 billion, close to one-quarter of the revenue from tourism.

Other taxes on production (e.g., property taxes) generated $2.3 billion, while contributions to social insurance plans amounted to $1.9 billion. Government sales of goods and services to tourists (e.g., park entrance fees) added another $400 million.

Government revenue from tourism increases faster than tourist spending

The increase in revenue that tourism generated for governments between 2000 and 2006 outpaced the gain in spending on tourism by both Canadian and international travellers.

The tourism revenues of governments rose at an annual average rate of 4.5% during this period, while spending by tourists increased at an average rate of 3.8%.

This increase stemmed in part from the introduction of the air travellers security charge in 2002, as well as increased tax revenues from products purchased by tourists, like alcohol and tobacco, vehicle fuel, and recreational and camping equipment.

Government revenue from tourism slipped in only two of the seven years covered by this study. The declines occurred in 2001, when the 9/11 terrorist attacks dominated the tourism landscape, and in 2003, when the issue was the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak.

According to Statistics Canada's most recent release of the National Tourism Indicators, Canadian and international tourists combined spent $66.8 billion in Canada in 2006.

For every $100 of this spending, the study found that governments raised $29.10 in 2006, up from $27.90 in 2000. The federal government raised $13.60, the provincial and territorial governments took in $13.90, while municipal governments received $1.60.

The federal government took in $9.1 billion from tourism in 2006. Taxes on products, mainly the GST, were its single most important source of tourism revenue, raising $4.6 billion.

The provincial and territorial governments collectively raised $9.3 billion. Again, taxes on products, mainly provincial sales taxes, were the largest source of revenue, bringing in $5.7 billion.

The municipal governments received a much smaller $1.1 billion. Almost all of this came from other taxes on production, mostly property taxes.

The one-percentage point reduction in the goods and services tax that took effect July 1, 2006, slowed the growth of tourism revenue at the federal level to 2.4% in 2006. This was less than half the growth rate of 7.1% for the provinces and territories, and the rate of 5.6% for municipalities.

Tourism accounting for higher share of government revenues

The study found that tourism accounted for 3.9% of government revenue in 2006. This reflected the relatively high taxes on many goods and services bought by tourists, such as fuel, alcohol, and entertainment in casinos. At the same time, tourism accounted for 3.8% of all jobs in the economy and 2.0% of Canada's gross domestic product (GDP).

Moreover, tourism's share of government revenue was higher in 2006 than it was in 2000, unlike its share of overall GDP and jobs.

In 2002, tourism accounted for 4.0% of government revenue. This contribution slipped a quarter of a percentage point in 2003, the year of the SARS outbreak, and since then it has been growing.

Between 2005 and 2006, government revenue from tourism rose by 4.8% (in nominal terms). All levels of government registered higher tourism revenues, with the federal and provincial/territorial governments taking the lion's share.

Summary indicators
	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Government revenue attributable to tourism ($ billions)	15.0	14.9	16.3	16.1	17.1	18.5	19.4
year-over-year growth (%)		-0.6	9.3	-1.5	6.6	8.1	4.8
as a share of government revenue in scope (%)	3.77	3.79	4.00	3.76	3.79	3.87	3.91