When global trade visitors arrive at the ExCel Centre in east London today (Nov. 7) for World Travel Market, they will note the absence of a significant exhibitor pavilion – Canada – at the world’s largest English-language travel trade show.

The absence this year will also extend to ITB Berlin next spring (the world’s largest travel show), as this country’s destination marketing organization (formerly the Canadian Tourism Commission) aims to chart a more singular course for engaging with critical global trade buyers. (It should be noted that Brand USA has similarly pulled out of WTM this year).

Destination Canada will instead host a Showcase Canada event at Canada House in London Nov. 14-17, the week after WTM London, with the confirmed participation of 64 Canadian sellers and 83 European buyers. (Typically, Canadian exhibitors would buy into Destination Canada’s space at WTM and ITB).

Rupert Peters, Destination Canada’s regional managing director for Europe and India, told Travel Industry Today in an exclusive interview that while the organization has not closed the door on participating in WTM or ITB again, that committing to taking part during the uncertainty of a pandemic was considered too risky (and costly).

With a 12-month planning cycle required for events of such magnitude, Peters points to the situation a year ago (when preparations for 2022 would have started) at which time Canada was facing the omicron wave and still had border restrictions. (Destination Canada did not participate in a hybrid WTM in 2021 either.)

“There was a lot of uncertainty,” he recalled – a fear that was borne out when ITB (set to take place in March 2022) cancelled in December as an in-person event.

With the prospect of sunk costs and exhibitors and attendees left hanging, Peters says Destination Canada decided that more flexibility would be beneficial for Team Canada in the future, namely hosting its own Showcase, which Peters points out will technically take place on Canadian soil at Canada’s consulate in the British capital.

Peters admits that a Showcase event has pros and cons.

Pro: Shining a spotlight exclusively on Canada in a vastly competitive global environment.

Con: Missing out on buyers who are attending WTM but who may not hang around, or return, for a Canadian-specific event a week a later.

Canada’s tourism chief in the UK says attendees will be canvassed on the results of this year’s Showcase to help determine Destination Canada’s plans going forward as the pandemic presumably comes to an end. And he acknowledges that the opinions on either side of the table – the buyers and sellers – may not have the same opinions.

Noting that Destination Canada has conducted Showcase events in the past, Peters says time will tell “whether this is the right event or not (at this time),” adding, “It’s a test and a learning experience.”

As for famously pricey WTM, Rupert says attending again in future is “not just about costs, but about key benefits” – such as flexibility.

“For now, we want to fly our own plane,” he says. “We think that’s the right move.”