Ottawa Tourism is borrowing from the tech sector’s playbook as it looks for ways to attract more private investment in projects that will make the city an even more appealing destination.
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Ottawa Tourism is borrowing from the tech sector’s playbook as it looks for ways to attract more private investment in projects that will make the city an even more appealing destination.
According to Catherine Callary, vice-president of destination development, private investors have been keeping an eye on Ottawa in recent years.
“We’re a tourism-generating world capital and this is an attractive place for investment to happen,” she told OBJ last week. “There’s a lot of momentum here as well.”
Ottawa has seen an uptick in major tourism-related investments in recent months, from both private- and public-sector stakeholders. Callary cited Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Ottawa, the new Ottawa Public Library central branch, music venue History Ottawa, development at LeBreton Flats, public realm improvements in the ByWard Market, and an influx of new hotels across the city.
“These are all investments in our city that are changing the skyline,” she said.
Ottawa Tourism is itself an investor. According to Callary, the introduction of the municipal accommodation tax in 2018 was a catalyst, allowing Ottawa Tourism to administer some of those funds to local tourism operators through its Destination Development Fund (DDF).
“It’s really meant to help an operator, an entrepreneur, with an idea that will be tourism-generating,” she said. “We work with them in a mentorship capacity. It’s almost the way an angel investor works with a founder to create something great and invest in that project.”
However, Callary said the city has now reached a stage where it can’t make the numbers work on as many major capital projects as it would like using DDF dollars alone. As Ottawa evolves as a destination, she said private support could help fill gaps in the market.
“We can’t always go with our hand out to the government and expect that it’s going to support initiatives,” she said. “There is a place for government to support initiatives here in Ottawa and this isn’t to say we don’t welcome those funds, because we absolutely do. But there is an opportunity now for Ottawa to reach beyond its own census metropolitan area or even Canadian borders.”
And so, after years filling out grant applications, Callary said Ottawa Tourism is learning a whole new playbook for pitching to private investors.
“We have to start thinking about tourism not only in terms of what we are generating for this community, but also for investors, as an attractive thing that we can sell,” she said. “The key will be showing (return on investment) to the investor.”
As part of this effort, Callary said Ottawa Tourism has become more active with land-owner partners who are in search of co-investors on projects, while also expanding its network of stakeholders to include angel networks and venture capital groups.
To help with that, she said the organization has been looking to a completely different industry.
“The tech sector is doing this on a large scale and doing it fantastically,” said Callary. “We can learn from them. We can learn from what the tech sector is doing and apply the same way of thinking about investment in tourism.”
One partner, Invest Ottawa, has been particularly helpful, she said.
“They’ve got a number of events and programs that they do with their investment community and various opportunities for learning with the tech community,” she said. “These are all really great tools that the tech community is able to leverage.”
In 2024, the two organizations joined with the Ottawa Board of Trade to launch Ottawa Unlimited with the goal of marketing the city as a “premier destination” for innovation, tourism and investment.
Callary said it’s a way of selling the city to individuals and organizations, including investors, who are looking for new business opportunities.
“If you think about (Invest Ottawa’s) new ‘Why Ottawa?’ page on its website, a lot of the why’s talk about why it’s attractive to invest or recruit talent here,” said Callary. “There are all these fantastic reasons for people to want to travel to Ottawa.”
In all of this, Callary said that Ottawa Tourism plays a matchmaking role. She said she thinks of it as a “gap-first approach,” where the organization attracts investors then finds the gap-filling best proposal for them, rather than investors coming to the city with a specific project in mind.
“We can help form those connections,” she said. “We don’t own any assets, but we can be a fantastic concierge for them and ensure that there’s a line of communication. We’re really beefing up our capacity in that regard.”
She added that the organization is looking to attract investment on both experience-based projects, such as new festivals, and on critical tourism infrastructure.
