MONTREAL — Summer bookings to Europe are holding up, but continued eruptions from the volcano in Iceland could spook vacationers, the head of tour operator Transat A.T. said.
“Until today there has been no impact but if this continues for sure we’ll have a problem,” Jean-Marc Eustache told a news conference Tuesday.
Canada’s largest tour operator said it has been fortunate to be relatively unscathed because disruptions have come before it begins to ramp up its European business.
Air Transat’s eight flights to Europe on Tuesday were scheduled to depart as planned. They included flights to Paris, Brussels, Spain, Manchester and London.
Air Canada cancelled 30 flights between Canada and Frankfurt, Munich, London and Paris on Tuesday, but planned to have two flights to Paris, one to Rome and one to Tel Aviv.
During the peak summer season, it operates about 90 daily flights back and forth.
Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick wouldn’t disclose summer bookings but said Europe is a very popular destination.
“With past disruptions of this extraordinary nature, such as 9/11, we have found people tend to return to regular travel patterns fairly quickly. People like and need to travel,” he said in an email.
Canada’s largest carrier wouldn’t disclose the financial impact of the volcano disruptions, but it earns on average $4.7 million in daily revenue from transatlantic flights, according to its financial reports.
Transat noted the daily cost due to the disruptions right now was much less than the $750,000 estimated by some industry observers, however that number could rise well above that during the peak season.
Transat transports one million passengers to and from Europe annually. Eustache said it would be hard-pressed to find alternative destinations if tourists altered their travel plans to the continent this summer.
In a speech to business leaders, Eustache said Canada needs to rethink its tourism strategy to regain its fading attractiveness as a destination.
He said Canada is slipping down the list of must-see spots in the world partly because it has erected financial roadblocks for visitors including security fees and exorbitant airport rents that are passed along to consumers.
“We must stop viewing the tourism industry as a cash cow,” Eustache said.
Between 2002 and 2008, Canada slid to 14th in the world in terms of the number of visitors. While international tourism increased by some 30 per cent, with almost all countries growing, Canada experienced a decline of 15 per cent, thanks largely to fewer U.S. visitors.
In 2009, nearly 16 million tourists visited Canada, including 12 million from the United States.
Price is Canada’s main weakness. The World Economic Forum ranks the country 106th out of 133 when it comes to price competitiveness.
Some 78 per cent of foreigners surveyed list cost as the second most important reason for not visiting the country. The No. 1 reason, at 81 per cent, was other destinations they wanted to see first.
For years, Canada reaped the benefits of limited competition and a weak currency that made the country an accessible destination. Those days are gone, Eustache said.
Eustache urged industry leaders and provincial authorities to be creative to find solutions that not only protect consumers, but are financially viable.
He also urged governments to act more quickly to build infrastructure, such as rail connections between Trudeau Airport and Montreal’s downtown. And he said more attention must be paid to harnessing the potential of the St. Lawrence River that is the “backbone” of the city’s tourism.