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Canadian Visitor Increase Expected

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By TED JACKOVICS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 11, 2007

CLEARWATER - Now that the Canadian dollar has reached parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time in 31 years - it opened Wednesday at 1.0195 U.S. - Pinellas County can expect more visitors from Canada this winter, a consultant for Visit St. Petersburg Clearwater said Wednesday.

'We've seen some huge increase in early bookings this fall,' said Kimberly Hartley, who addressed the Pinellas County Tourist Development Council's monthly meeting as a representative for the newly named Pinellas visitors bureau.

Those expectations will have to overcome similar hopes that have not panned out for visitors from Europe, given the relative strength and buying power of European currency versus the dollar.

Recent surveys by Discover America Partnership, a travel industry group lobbying for a coordinated U.S. tourism initiative overseas, said foreign travel to some major U.S. destinations has declined as much as 30 percent since the Sept. 11attacks.

A key issue, which Pinellas tourism officials continue to address, is the perception among international travelers that access to the United States has become too much of a hassle because of Homeland Security policies at airports.

Pinellas lost 0.4 percent of its European visitors in the first eight months of 2007 compared with a year ago and 1.7 percent of its Canadian visitors.

Hartley said she was confident Canadian visitors, who amounted to 6.5 percent, or 339,817 of Pinellas' 5.25 million visitors in 2006, would return in greater numbers this year based on new bookings.

One reason is additional air service between Tampa Bay and Canada.
WestJet will inaugurate service between Hamilton, Ontario, and Tampa International Airport in February, along with its flights from Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Air Canada also serves Tampa from Toronto and Montreal during the winter season.
CanJet will resume flights between St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport and Halifax in November and Moncton, New Brunswick, in February. CanJet will begin flights between Pinellas and Toronto in December. Sunwing Airlines will resume Pinellas-Toronto flights in November.

One question that remains to be answered is whether Canadians will open their pocketbooks even more this winter in Tampa Bay's shops and restaurants, given the more favorable exchange rate.

Some Canadian consumers have said that many goods in Canada have not been reduced to reflect the rising Canadian dollar, The Associated Press reported last month.

One bit of favorable news: U.S. legislators have agreed to set back the deadline for requiring passports for U.S. and Canadian travelers crossing at U.S.-Canadian borders to June 2009.

In other Pinellas tourism news, Visit St. Petersburg Clearwater received updated information that the decline in numbers of accommodations lost to condominium development was not as steep as originally thought. New figures showed the county lost about 4,100 rooms in the three years since July 2004, rather than 5,000.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at tjackovics@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7817.

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