With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging in the United States, Brand USA says it’s hard to know when it will be ready to roll out marketing to international travellers again, or what its message will be, but when it does, Canada will be first in line.

“We are looking at Canada as being the first market (that will receive marketing attention),” said Brand USA’s Vice President, Research & Analytics Carroll Rheem in a video conference yesterday, but she quickly added, “That being said, we’re certainly not ready to start tomorrow.”

Aside from significant progress in the fight against COVID-19, Rheem says the destination marketing organization is looking for three important international travel perquisites – the “three Ps” – to be in place before it is ready to move beyond its current preparation stage:

1. Policy – Freedom of Movement: the lifting of restrictions for most travellers, including mandatory two-week quarantine periods; and a low level of cases in both origin and destination

2. Product – Reconfiguration and availability: return of flight capacity and reopening of key attractions/activities

3. Positivity – Consumer confidence: Conditions are understood and risks are at an acceptable level; may require willingness to be tested pre-entry and/or tracked in destination; comfort with new processes and procedures that require distancing and hygiene.

“We need those three Ps and we’re not quite there yet,” Rheem says.

But when they are achieved, “there are lots of things that make Canada top of the list,” she says, including that “People are going to be looking to travel closer to home, and that just makes sense for Canada; and there is going to be an opportunity for a drive market.”

However, as to the timing of the roll-out plans, she says, “We are going to have to be reactive. There is still so much information we don’t know.

“But what can expect is that geography will play a very big role, because people are going to be slower to take those long-haul trips, you can expect us to tackle the larger (visitor) destinations, our more tried and true and mature source markets first.”

For that reason, Rheem says, “We are watching (Canada) closely and we are working towards planning for that market to be the first market to roll out.”

Brand USA research shows current Canadians’ intentions to travel to the US in the next 12 months are down 8 percent over 2019 numbers, the second highest drop (after China) among its top 11 markets (Japan is the only country with positive intentions).

Brand USA president and CEO Chris Thompson observes that the organization has been in a state of “pause” for three months in terms of international marketing, but is full go in trying to deliver “optimism and hope and inspiration” during the crisis, and at the same time, shaping its marketing tools to allow it to be “in a state of readiness” for re-entry and recovery when the time is appropriate.