The news is not good for Ontario's tourism industry and for Ontario's hundreds of resorts, inns, and tourist properties. According to a new Statistics Canada report, more Canadians than ever before are choosing to travel to the United States and abroad to spend their hard earned holiday dollars. The following paragraphs will look at why the Ontario resort and tourism industry is seeing a change in vacation trends.



Released last Friday, a Statistics Canada report states that in November 2007, Canadians made a record 2.4 million overnight trips out of the country, thanks in large part to the strong Canadian dollar, and almost 73 percent of these trips were to the States. Additionally, in the month of November, the number of overnight car trips south increased approximately 50 percent from the previous year, reaching levels not seen since the early nineties. And, if that was not bad enough, at the same time, fewer Americans are heading north to vacation. In 2007, Canada saw a 13 percent drop in the number of American visitors entering Canada. However, the news is not entirely bad since the number of overseas visitors to Canada actually grew by 7.2 percent.

Over the last few years, there has been a shift in Canada's demographics that Ontario resort owners should be aware of, if they want to attract Canadian business to their resort properties. The tradition of young families returning each and every year to spend their summer vacations at a resort is slowly dying. One reason this is occurring is that Canada's population is aging. Another reason is the lure of lower cost all-inclusive sun and sand vacations vying for Canadian's vacation dollars.

Due to the shifting trend of vacation travelers, some Ontario resorts and inns are looking towards Canada's growing population of baby boomers and seniors. This segment of the population is a market that some resorts want to attract because they have both the money to spend and the time to spend it. Many Ontario resort owners are hoping to rely on retirees that are free to travel during the week, and any time of the year, to potentially fill rooms during the off-season and slower periods. While leisure travel among Canada's boomers has increased by leaps and bounds, and the numbers are expected to grow as Canada's population ages, many Ontario resorts have realized the potential that the seniors and baby boomer market offers and have moved away from marketing exclusively to families.

Ontario inns and resorts have much to offer tourists and vacationers besides Ontario's natural beauty, abundant lakes, and wilderness areas. It is evident why Ontario resorts are seeing a change in vacation trends. However, in an effort to compete with U.S. and overseas vacation destinations, and to get back and retain a good portion of the vacation dollars that are now leaving the province, resorts owners will have to proactively attract vacationers by offering them the services and packages that they demand. Success may simply be a matter of knowing the market and giving it what it wants.