ACTA Meets and Greets the Honourable Maxime Bernier and the Honourable Naomi Yamamoto in Vancouver

On Wednesday April 1, 2015, the Federal and Provincial Ministers of State for Small Business and Tourism, the Honourable Maxime Bernier and the Honourable Naomi Yamamoto, held a Press Conference and Meet & Greet at the Vancouver Convention Centre in downtown Vancouver. Marlene Brown, Regional Manager for ACTA BC/Yukon attended the event. Along with trade press, all major stakeholders in tourism were in attendance including Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC), Tourism BC, Tourism Vancouver and the Vancouver Airport Authority.

The Press Conference was review of recent trends for the tourism industry in Canada and British Columbia. Minister Bernier spoke of the main focus to re-market Canada back to the United States. The U.S. dollar is higher than it has been in years and should help entice U.S. travellers to travel north of the border. Minister Yamamoto said that 2014 was an excellent year for tourism in BC with a consistent increase of visitors year after year for the past three.

The tourism industry is important to the BC economy as a large number of people from this province are employed in the tourism sector.  

Also announced was that the Canadian Tourism Commission office will remain at its location in Vancouver for the next 10 years.