Tourism problem notwithstanding imposing visas to Mexicans was the right thing to do

I hope not and I will do everything I can to avoid it, but Canada's imposing visa restrictions on Mexico could possibly sink my business. However, the measure did not take completely by surprise. I knew it was coming when I learned months ago that Mexicans took over the #1 spot as refugee claimants. And this was when claims were in the 5,000 range. Now there are over 9,000 in the pipeline. I even wrote a note in my recent email newsletter warning my Mexican readers that this visa requirement was likely to happen in the next several months. What I did not expect was for it to happen in the summer. The government should have done this back in January, one of the slowest months for Mexican tourism to Canada. That way we would all have had time to adjust and travellers could have had the time to apply for visas.
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Having said this, I do think the goverment did the right thing. While sadly many Mexicans are in dire straits and some may very well qualify for refugee status, the truth is the majoriy of the claims are bogus and just bogs down the system and it costs us taxpayers a lot of money.
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So let's be positive and rededicate ourselves to good marketing. Let's not forget that more than six million Mexicans have multiple year, multiple entry visas to enter the United States so applying for visas is not new to them. The immediate challenge however will be for the Canadian Embassy in Mexico to deal with thousands and thousands of visitors visas in the next week or so. The way this is handled may help or hinder Canada's image and could turn people off to Canada. However, overtime we'll recover. And while the numbers will drop dramatically in the short term, there's no reason why we can't get back to the 1/4. Million visitors from Mexico in one to three years provided we do the right creative marketing. And there's another plus. Mexican tourists in the future should higher yield, higher spend visitors. I just hope my business can get over this immediate crisis.
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Happy travels,
Jaime Horwitz
www.canadaenespanol.ca

Canada imposes Visas on Mexico. Another blow to Canadian Tourism.

While I cannot blame the Government of Canada for imposing visa restrictions on Mexico due to the excessive number of refugee claims, I am very upset and disappointed for the timing of the measure. We are in the midst of a bad recession and tourism businesses need all the tourists we can get. We normally see about sixty thousand Mexican visitors in July and August and this measure, if it's effective immediately may strike a fatal blow to tourism businesses that depend in large measure on Mexican tourists (eg receptive tour operators). I know my business, which was already struggling will get hit very hard.
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Jaime Horwitz


-- Post From My iPhone

Female Ski Jumpers' "Exclusion from 2010 is Discriminatory."

Two days ago I was reading the updates on my Facebook homepage when I noticed the following quote: "we lost :-(". I knew right away what the quote referred to: the British Columbia Supreme Court had ruled against the Female Ski Jumpers (capital letters on purpose) lawsuit to participate in the 2010 games (lower case on purpose). The quote was from my Facebook "friend" Katie Willis, one of the Ski Jumpers who valiantly and bravely fought for the right to compete in the Olympics. I won't presume to say that we're friends friends. We all know that being a Facebook "friend" is not like being a real friend. Not to mention that in real life we might think it odd (or worse) that an 18 year old woman and an 49 year old man can be friends. We connected on Facebook when I joined a Facebook group to support the Female Ski Jumpers bid to compete at the Vancouver Whistler Olympics. When I first read about the issue, I obviously sided with the young women and my opinion of the IOC reached its all time low. Mind you, I am not referring here to the Olympic movement nor to the Olympic ideals, which I believe include fairness and justice. What I am talking about is the IOC. Now that the BC Supreme Court has made its decision, it corroborates my own opinion and that of the thousands of people who have supported and will continue to support these brave young women, some almost as young as my own daughter who is 15 and with her own Olympic size dreams (albeit in music rather than sport). And my opinion was and is that no matter what spin the IOC gives it, their decision not to include the Female Ski Jumpers in the 2010 games is discriminatory. According to the Globe and Mail (Sat July 11) "Madam Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon ruled that the women ski jumpers were indeed discriminated against by the International Olympic Committee's decision to keep them off the 2010 Olympic calendar, but added that the Switzerland based IOC was beyond the reach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
While I am very happy with Judge Fenlon's ruling in terms of the finding of discrimination, I don't agree about the IOC being beyond the reach of the Charter. If say, my daughter offered our home for a big party and some rich kids form Switzerland were invited, the fact that they were prestigious guests would not give them permission to break the rules of our house or break the laws of the land. More likely what happens is that the Olympic games mean so much money and effort that some principles are bent or ignored. I am a tourism marketer and I support the industry's efforts to profit from the games coming to Canada. I'm not a righteous holier than though person, not perfect by any stretch. I understand that in life it's necessary to make compromises. But in this case I believe I had to speak out. I owe it to my own daughter to try and walk the talk so that she can believe as another one of the jumpers, Meaghan Reid, told the Globe and Mail: "This is Canada. I've grown up here all my life, and nothing has ever stopped me because I was a girl."
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To Meaghan, Katie and all the other jumpers: I know it must feel awful. I know you must feel like your country let you down. We don' live in a perfect world and life isn't fair, but believe me when I say that you have made history and that because of your passion and your bravery you have advanced the cause of gender equality further. I thank you and I salute you. I am happy to have met you albeit via Facebook, but I can tell you that I'd be very proud if any of you were my daughter.
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Jaime Horwitz

-- Post From My iPhone

Forbes 10 best Travel Campaigns

Forbes.com has published a list of what they consider the 10 best Travel campaigns (not necessarily new). Canada's current Locals Know campaign came in at number 8. Congratulations to the CTC and Canadians who are uploading their favourite spots to the LocalsKnow.ca website. Here's the list:

1 - Las Vegas "What Happens here, stays here" (since 2003)
2 - Incredible India (2009)
3 - New Zeland - 100% Pure (since 1999)
4 - Australia - Paul Hogan's ads (1984-1990)
5 - Jamaica - "Once you go, you know" (since 2004)
6 - Pure Michigan - since 2006
7 - Alaska - "B4UDIE" 2005
8 - Canada - Locals Know 2009
9 - Oregon "150 Challenge" 2009
10 - Virginia - "Virgina is for Lovers" since 1969

Read the story Travel Campaigns Aim To Get People To Hit The Road in Forbes.com

Happy travelling.

Jaime

Happy Canada Day - Joyeuse Fête du Canada

Today is Canada Day. It's the second Canada Day I miss since I moved to Canada twenty years ago. But you can take me out of Canada, but you cannot take Canada out of me. I'm in Boston where my daughter is taking a performance workshop. Happy Canada Day everyone! Joyeuse Fête du Canada! Joyeux 142 anniversaire :D

Jaime Horwitz (and Maddy Rodriguez)

Canada Day Events and Festivals

For a list of Canada Day celebrations with links to events, and festivals, provinces and major cities. See Canada Travel News. Links to Canadian events, summer time activities, beaches and more. Book Canada Hotels on-line.

From TIAC and Transport Canada - changes will allow more flights from Mexico

"Canada's Government Designates More Canadian Carriers to Serve Mexico Canada's Transport Minister, John Baird, announced June 25 changes to air designation allocations for scheduled Air Canada, Air Transat, WestJet and Sunwing air services between Canada and Mexico, which will benefit travellers and our country's tourism industry.

"This is excellent news for our tourism industry. Mexico is a growing market for Canada," said Diane Ablonczy, Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism. "There will now be more routes to take visitors to the spectacular destinations and attractions our country has to offer."
"Increased air access to Canada for the growing Mexico market is an important development that is a good step in meeting the tourism industries needs," said Randy Williams, President and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada."

For the full release visit Tiac.Travel's TIAC Talk June 26

Municipal workers on Strike in Toronto

The Labour Movement that arose from the Industrial Revolution and grew slowly and strongly during the first half of the 20th Century was a just cause, a noble endeavour. The Labour Movement in many countries helped most workers, not just unions. It fostered labour laws that protect all and influenced how all workers might be treated. But, as an observer, who is neither a member of the management elites, nor a member of the union elites, I think modern unions have lost touch with reality and with the times, especially these tough economic days. Unions, over the years, have become spoiled and seem to have a sense of entitlement out of place in today's world. In recent times we've seen how greed almost made the world's economy collapse. Those responsible may never really be accountable, and that's a lesson for the future.

Unions fight for their members and that's fine. But they should be mindful who suffers as a consequence of their actions. We are in the midst of one of the worse recessions in recent times. Those of us who have work, seem to be working more and harder for less income and without any significant benefits. Our taxes, in the end pay for the salaries of those who demand more and more benefits than the average among us can only dream of having. The timing of this strike may backfire on the unions. Many hardworking taxpayers look forward to enjoying as much of the summer as possible, utilizing the services that they fund with their taxes, and breathing air free of the stench of garbage. Of all years, it's a shame that unions and management could not reach an understanding to avoid this strike in this particular one. Not too mention how this strike could affect tourism in Toronto. Just as Americans are now looking at managing the risks of having companies that are too big, we should look at how to deal with unions that are too big as well.

I hope it's over in a couple of days. Anything longer and a "pox on both their houses."


-- Post From My iPhone

Gananoque, Ontario

beautiful, isn't it (read post below).

Jaime

Visiting Gananoque, the Gateway to the Thousand Islands

I am in Gananoque for a brief two day visit. I was invited by Kathy from Gananoque Boatline to spend some time here, attend a special event she organizes every year to show appreciation to partners and collaborators. It's been a very interesting visit where I've learned about some of the challenges the area faces as well as some of the opportunities Gananoque has to further develop their destination. I was surprised to learn that that no one in the area seems to have participated in the localsknow CTC campaign. One of the challenges, it seems, has been the timing which is understandable given the fact that the campaign has been put together in virtually no time so it may be that many inthe industry will not benefit directly from it. Today I played some golf with another visitor, a former Gananoque Boatline Captain, now town councillor, and the mayor. It was a lot of fun, but also very productive in terms of learning more about this beautiful part of the country. I hope to be able to work with tourism stakeholders to promote Gananoque as an overnight spot for Hispanic independent travellers in the future. Many Hispanic visitors stop here (or in Kingston) to take tours of the Thousand Islands, but they don't spend more time in the town. I think there is an opportunity to engage Hispanic travellers to Ontario and Quebec to stay longer by educating them in what they can do here in a 24 hour period.

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I am staying at the Gananoque Inn where Lori and her staff have been wonderful. I knew about the Gananoque Inn, but I have only been in Gananoque once before and only to take the cruise of the Thousand Islands. Lori and I had some good conversations and I am glad that she's interested in Hispanic tourists. The Gananoque Inn is ideal for a segment of the Hispanic travelling public that travels independently and wants to see and experience authentic Canadian experiences (small families, couples, honeymooners). What we must do is communicate effectively to educate the market (not just Hispanic markets) as to what there is to do here. One way is to show them not just tell them, and by show I mean video, not just pictures. The Gananoque Inn is also an excellent option for small meetings (sales retreats, incentive meetings, board meetings). Hope to come back soon.

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Tonight I'll go on a Gananoque Boatline Drinks and Entertainment Cruise. Hope the weather cooperates as it did this morning when I played golf.

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Jaime Horwitz