The capital’s tourism industry is gaining momentum and has “lots to look forward to,” an Ottawa Tourism executive said after the organization released its 2023 economic impact study this week.
The study found that tourism in Ottawa brings in 9.8 million visitors annually who spend about $2.6 billion each year. According to the study, tourism in Ottawa generates $2.8 billion in total GDP and $3.1 billion in direct economic output annually, while contributing $921 million in taxes to federal, provincial and municipal governments combined.
The report is the first economic impact study conducted by Ottawa Tourism since 2018. Catherine Callary, the organization’s manager of destination development, said the numbers show the sector is continuing its recovery from the effects of COVID-19.
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“Tourism is still a significant economic driver for Ottawa, and despite the challenges that we saw over the course of the pandemic and the recovery that has largely happened – not quite all the way to 2019 levels, but in large part, has happened – that tourism is still a major employer and a major economic driver for Ottawa,” Callary told OBJ.
“It does show the momentum that we’ve been able to see come back into our destination, and so that’s all good news.”
As the summer season wraps up, Callary said there has been a four per cent increase in visits from 2023 to 2024 in the period from Victoria to Labour Day.
The sector has started to bounce back from the pandemic, Callary said. But she added that local tourism operators are grappling with a labour shortage, with the new report finding a “shrunken” workforce compared with 2018.
“That is something that our tourism operators are still very much dealing with, and it should be noted that not all tourism businesses recover equally or at the same level,” Callary explained. “So there are some that are still a little bit further back in the recovery, or even parts of town that are still a little further back in their recovery, like our downtown core.
“So that would certainly be a challenge, especially given the fact that when visitors come to Ottawa, they primarily see the downtown core first, that’s their first impression of the city, and then their visits generally would fan out from there.”
Climate change has also been a source of concern for the tourism sector, Callary continued, as extreme weather events become more common and seasonal weather becomes less predictable.
“Weather is one of those things that can be a wild card in terms of people making last-minute travel decisions and waiting to see what the weather is going to do, and then kind of deciding based on that,” she said.
The study found that tourist and visitor activities in Ottawa directly supported about 24,570 jobs in 2023, contributing $1 billion in direct wages and salaries. Accommodation and other tourism-related businesses such as attractions, tours, arts, culture and entertainment accounted for 29 per cent of the total direct tourism-related jobs in Ottawa, equalling about 7,070 jobs.
Previous studies encompassed a broader geographic region of visitors, Callary added, so making an apples-to-apples comparison difficult. That said, she said that although tourism is still “not quite up to 2019 levels,” visitor spending figures have increased.
Callary said while inflation accounts for some of the rise in visitor spending over the past five years, Ottawa’s tourism industry is on an upward trajectory.
Employment related to aviation and rail transportation used by visitors and tourists is estimated at 2,050, and tourists who spent money on shopping and retail, food and beverage, and transportation supported nearly 15,440 jobs.
The largest sector supported by Ottawa’s tourism industry in 2023 was food and beverage, followed by transportation, which Callary said is consistent with previous report findings.
Looking ahead, Callary said recent developments like increased flights and direct routes to the Ottawa International Airport, as well as upcoming events such as the world junior hockey championships later this year, pave the way for more growth.
“We’re continuing to see momentum in the growth and recovery of tourism, and so we’ve got some things to look forward to, especially with the world juniors on the horizon and new flights having been announced,” she said. “There’s lots to look forward to.”
