Tourism, Industry Sector Summaries, Manitoba Competitiveness, Training and Trade

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Tourism

Sector Structure

Size:

2003 Manitoba tourism industry revenues are estimated at $1.39 billion, and the industry supported an estimated 17,100 direct tourism jobs.
(Source: 2003 Canadian & International Travel Survey, Statistics Canada, Canadian Tourism Research Institute: Tourism Economic Assessment Model).
Sixty two percent of tourism revenues are derived from visits and activities by Manitoba residents. The remaining 38% of industry revenues is derived from visitors from other Canadian provinces (20%), US visitors (14%), and overseas visitors (4%). The top 3 nations of origin for overseas visitors are the UK, Germany and Japan.

Dominant Activities: The predominant subsectors are (by number of businesses registered in specific NAICS Codes in 2004): Food & beverage services (45.3%), Accommodations (13.8%), Amusement, gambling and recreation (13.3%), Transportation (12.6%), Performing arts and spectator sports (8.8%), Travel arrangement and reservation services (3.7%) and Heritage institutions (2.5%).

Structure & Concentration

Most industry participants are small to medium sized operations.

There are over 60 tour operators and suppliers who cater to group travel and FIT (fully independent traveller).
Manitoba offers a range of accommodation options, including hotels, resorts, bed and breakfasts, country farm vacations and camping. In all, there are over 500 facilities available in the province.
4 airlines provide access to Manitoba, supplemented by an additional 8 smaller air carriers within the province.
There are 2 public motor coach lines offering passenger transport throughout the province as well as 13 charter lines. Rail travel is provided by VIA Rail.

Sector Capabilities

Adventure travel & eco-tourism
Culture & heritage attractions
Fishing & hunting
Aboriginal tourism
Touring
Meetings, conventions, incentive travel
Urban experience
Group travel

Highlights

Churchill, Manitoba’s seaport on Hudson Bay, is known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World, and is also an excellent destination to view natural phenomena like the aurora borealis or the summer gathering of beluga whales in Hudson Bay.

In addition to being one of the finest natural sand beaches in North America, Grand Beach is one of the continent's foremost sites for sail boarding and sailing.
Known for superb canoeing, Manitoba’s Seal and Bloodvein Rivers are two of only six heritage rivers in all of Canada.
The International Peace Garden at Manitoba’s border with North Dakota is the world’s largest garden dedicated to peace.
The Manitoba Museum, is one of the finest interpretive museums in Canada.
Founded in 1939, the world-renowned Royal Winnipeg Ballet holds the distinction of being the longest continuously operating ballet company in North America.
Winnipeg’s Folklorama is the world’s largest multicultural festival and has been named “Canada’s number one event” by the American Bus Association.
Historic St. Boniface, boasts the largest French speaking community in Western Canada. Le Festival du Voyageur, held in St. Boniface, is Western Canada’s largest winter festival.

Competitive Strengths

Diverse geography — A wide variety of geographic features provides numerous opportunities for Manitoba’s industry. The province is home to forests, desert, prairie grassland, escarpments, white sand beaches, Canadian shield, and arctic tundra. The province has 100,000 freshwater lakes, and 2.5 million acres of parkland in 150 parks, with abundant fish, game and top quality resorts.
Variety of cultural, heritage and sporting attractions — Manitoba’s population represents a wide cross-section of diverse world cultures. Almost one quarter of all Manitobans claim a language other than English as their mother tongue. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in St. Boniface, which is the largest francophone community west of Quebec. The province’s rich heritage is recorded in 130 museums and celebrated in over 100 annual festivals.

Cultural attractions include art galleries, professional dance companies (classical and modern), orchestras (symphonic, chamber, and jazz), opera, professional theatre in both official languages and concerts and shows in every musical genre. Additionally, the province is home to numerous amateur and semi-professional ensembles, several of which have toured the globe.

Manitoba has a mixture of professional, amateur and recreational sports activities available throughout the year. Winnipeg is home to professional teams in football, baseball, and hockey. Visitors can take part in a variety of sporting activities — tennis, swimming, cycling, horseback riding, sailing, golf, skating, and skiing — are but a few. Additionally, the province offers excellent hunting and world-class sport fishing accessible via an extensive network of lodges, resorts, and outfitters.
Factor strengths: In addition to the above noted diversity in natural and cultural/recreation resources, Manitoba’s tourism industry benefits from competitive business and occupancy costs, skilled labour, high-quality transportation infrastructure, and favourable currency exchange rates.

Trends

Increasing demand for outdoor touring, travel leisure and experiential travel With its abundant natural parkland and wildlife, and diverse geographic features, Manitoba is well positioned to respond to an increasing industry demand for outdoor touring products and ecotourism. Manitoba provides excellent opportunities for watchable wildlife tours (e.g., polar bear and beluga whale observation at Churchill), and for adventure tourism generally. Additionally, the province provides a variety of opportunities for diverse cultural heritage and Aboriginal tourism.