After a record-breaking summer for visitors to the city, Ottawa Tourism is expecting a solid fall season as business travel continues to recover post-pandemic.
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After a record-breaking summer for visitors to the city, Ottawa Tourism is expecting a solid fall season as business travel continues to recover post-pandemic.
Jerome Miousse, director of public affairs for the organization, told OBJ Wednesday that it should be a “good season” for all types of tourism this fall, and business tourism will be no exception.
“Business tourism was a little bit slower to recover from the pandemic than leisure travel,” said Miousse. “It was easier for people to connect virtually, so (there was) less of an incentive or less of a value for people to meet. Now this is starting again.”
Miousse describes Ottawa as a “four-season destination,” attracting tourists with summer weather, fall foliage, outdoor activities in the winter and tulips in the spring.
But while summer and winter are when leisure travellers come out in force, fall is when Miousse said business travellers come to the city for meetings, events and conferences.
The next few months are booked up at venues around town, he said, with events such as the national tourism conference scheduled to take place in Gatineau this November and the Folk Music Ontario Conference in October. Other major events include sporting championships in golf and volleyball, which attract significant crowds, he said.
Such events are an opportunity to show off the city, Miousse said.
“The strategy with these visitors is to provide them with the best experience we can so that they might decide to expand their stay after the event,” he said. “And we want to be able to convince them that Ottawa should be their next vacation.”
Bringing more major events to the city has become a high priority for Ottawa Tourism, he added.
“We have as big a team as we’ve ever had to bid on, attract and organize these conferences,” he said. “And we have the capacity for it. We have a very good tourism community that is conference-ready. Basically, they know how to host, are great hosts and are excited to host.”
A record-breaking summer
Plans for the fall season follow an “exceptional summer” for tourism in the city, according to Miousse.
“It was the best summer since 2019, actually,” he said. “July was the best July on record and August was also the best August on record. There’s many components that go into making this summer amazing.”
Between June and August, data from Ottawa Tourism and Outaouais Tourism show that the city saw a five per cent increase in overall hotel demand and a seven per cent increase in visitor spending compared to last year.
One factor was ongoing tensions with the U.S., Miousse said, with Canadians having an increased interest in visiting cities in their own country. While Ottawa saw a slight decrease in visits from Americans, he said the uptick in Canadian travellers, especially those from Quebec, made up for the difference.
The Canada Strong Pass, which offered free and discounted admission to tourism sites for children and young adults, helped families get out and enjoy, Miousse said. To bolster the impact of the national pass, Ottawa Tourism launched a Visit Ottawa Pass to bundle access to key attractions in the city.
“There is an incentive for people to make last-minute decisions to come visit Ottawa for a quick getaway, especially in our proximity market,” he said. “We’re talking about Montreal. We’re talking about Toronto. We’re in the middle of the Quebec-Windsor corridor, so we have a lot of people looking for quick weekend getaways. Ottawa provides that mix of outdoorsy experiences with gastronomy, culture and popular landmarks. And lots of people have family and friends who live here.”
A “lineup of marquee events,” including music festivals such as Bluesfest and Escapade and sporting events like Ironman, the Canadian Track and Field Championships and the Canada-USA Women’s Rugby match also drew large crowds that stayed multiple days.
“If you bring events, people will show up,” said Miousse. “People will be enthusiastic about it.”
The wider Outaouais region saw a 4.5 per cent rise in the number of hotel nights booked between May and July compared to 2024. A survey of tourist businesses by Outaouais Tourism found that 87 per cent had a “good to exceptional” season, a 13 per cent increase from 2024.
Miousse added that a province-wide push to attract tourists to Ontario allowed Ottawa to position itself as a “gateway” city, due to its proximity to the Quebec border. 
