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Propelling Smarter, Bolder Tourism: Join Tourism HR Canada at TTRA Canada

Join Canada’s foremost travel and tourism researchers, including Tourism HR Canada’s own Vice-President of Labour Market Intelligence, this fall in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Registration is still open for the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Canada’s conference, Propelling Smarter, Bolder Tourism, September 26 to 28.

Delegates will explore how research is and can be effectively employed to advance Canada’s shared social, economic, environmental, and cultural goals. It is not ‘more’ tourism that Canada needs, it’s ‘better’, more energetic, astute, intelligent tourism.

The conference features three sessions discussing major trends in Canada’s tourism sector:

  • Ulrike Gretzel of the University of Southern California will discuss smart tourism. Destinations around the world are eager to embrace smart tourism to gain competitive advantages, but only a few have successfully adopted it as a development approach and management mindset. Looking at these best practice examples, this talk will explore the critical dimensions and typical roadblocks of smart tourism development.
  • Adam Keuland Dr. Brian Eisenhauer, both of Plymouth State University, will discuss a topic that will have major ramifications in Canada just a few short weeks after the conference. Their work on cannabis tourism emerged in response to the legalization of recreational cannabis sales in several US states beginning in 2014. As a novel market in cannabis tourism has begun to blossom, their research seeks to document and discern the practical and legal/political implications of welcoming visitors to these new legalized worlds of cannabis consumption. Working with cannabis tourism operators, dispensary owners, and tourists, they examined the differentiation of these new tourism experience products, factors affecting their success, and the outlook for future cannabis tourism. Their keynote address will present this information alongside their ongoing research in Oregon and the New England states of Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Given the forthcoming federal legalization of cannabis in Canada, they will lay out the promises and pitfalls of embracing cannabis tourism throughout the provinces.
  • Jason A. Kingsley of Bow Valley College will explore the basics of LGBTQ travel, from both a Canadian and an international perspective. LGBTQ travel is one of the most lucrative, yet challenging, niche travel markets…but when you understand this market, the opportunities are limitless.

Additionally, a plenary session on the world of data collection will delve into this field`s rapid evolution. Experts from Ottawa Tourism, Telus, Arrivalist, and Google will share their experiences with the realities of collecting and disseminating data in the current regulatory and technology environment. Learn about the impact of privacy protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Tourism researchers and their clients are embracing data and know-how to fearlessly chart new directions for established and emerging destinations, and supply impactful, brilliant experiences for our diverse markets. This year’s conference will provide a platform for learning about new approaches, lessons learned and the challenges ahead, as we navigate post-truth, virtually-infused, climate change impacted, emerging environments.

Join us on the East Coast to discuss and share smarter, bolder travel and tourism research.

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