Ottawa Tourism rolls out the welcome mat — and picks up the tab — for visitors

tourism
tourism

Ottawa Tourism is so keen to welcome visitors back to the nation’s capital this year that it’s even willing to foot the bill. Well, at least part of it.

The 3rd Night On Us accommodation package announced by Ottawa Tourism earlier this week will cover the cost of the third night for visitors who book a stay of three or more nights at participating Ottawa hotels. The offer ends on Oct. 10, 2022, which allows visitors plenty of time to take in the city’s outdoor events, festivals and live music shows that have been on hiatus for the past two years.

“We are celebrating an outstanding year of culture and creativity in Ottawa,” said Ottawa Tourism president and CEO Michael Crockatt in a news release. “There is a pent-up demand to visit festivals and museums and to admire visual art and catch a live music show – all the things we’ve missed so much over the past two years. We’re making it easy for people to choose Ottawa to scratch that itch.”

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The launch of the program comes during National Tourism Week 2022, which runs to June 4 under the theme Travel Now: For Work, Life, and Play! The program is an important part of Ottawa Tourism’s strategy to bolster the local tourism economy, which is still recovering from the pandemic and the impact of the trucker convoy.

Earlier this year, Crockatt told OBJ that it was “heart-wrenching” to witness the impact the past couple of years has had on tourism businesses and employees. He estimated that approximately $3 billion in visitor spending was lost during the pandemic.

“It’s almost too big of a number to even think about what that means,” Crockatt said. “The simple story is, it’s probably been the worst couple of years in this industry’s history.”

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