Switzerland Tourism celebrated “the return of travel for fully vaccinated Canadians” at one of the trade’s first in-person events (it was the second industry gathering we’d heard of) since the start of the pandemic last March.

Hosted on a rooftop on Toronto’s Queen’s Quay waterfront, the event attracted about three dozen vaccinated friends of Switzerland, including tour operator representatives and media, to hear the latest on the central European nation, which has been robust this summer in marketing its recent re-opening to international travellers, but mostly to bid farewell to Switzerland Tourism Canadian mainstay Ursula Beamish-Mader who is retiring in September after over 30 years at the tourist board, most recently serving as manager of media relations for all of North America.

Canadian office director Pascal Prinz delivered an emotional speech thanking “Dear Ursula” for helping him adapt to not just a new office, but life in Canada after his appointment, and noting that her husband Brian was the one who taught him that “hockey” in this country does not need the word “ice” in front.

Flying in from New York for the occasion was ST’s director for the Americas Claudio Zemp, who noted that Canada will be the first market to send travel agents back to the country later this month when 36 Switzerland Travel Academy program members will travel with the tourist board and Air Canada for the annual Air Canada Race, to be held in Basel after a being cancelled last year.

Later in the fall, the tourist board will also conduct its annual Switzerland Travel Mart B2B trade marketplace.

Zemp said Switzerland Tourism has been “quick off the mark,” to embrace the re-start of travel, not the least in Canada, a market he says the tourist board is “fully committed to.”