Manitoba trails other provinces when it comes to tourism spending

Manitoba spends less on tourism marketing than any other province in the country, according to tourism leaders in the province.

Travel Manitoba, the Crown body in charge of marketing tourism in the province, saw a 42 per cent increase in its funding this year, jumping from $7.5 million to just under $11 million in the first funding boost it's seen in a decade.

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Even with the increase Chuck Davidson, presidentof Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, said every other province in Canada still spends more.

Close to the top are provinces like British Columbia and Alberta, which spendaround $60 million a year andsecond-to-last was New Brunswick at just under $13 million, according to Davidson.

"This is what really shocked me when we started looking at it ... Tourism on an annual basis is about a $1.5 billion industry to Manitoba," Davidson said.

Still, Davidson said the province is in the process ofclawing its way out of last place.

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On the road to improvement

The provincial Progressive Conservative government increased Travel Manitoba's funding earlier this year by embracing a funding model dubbed Plan 96/4.

Under that framework, Travel Manitoba gets four per cent of provincial revenue from tourism generated each year, and the remaining 96 per cent stays with the government with no strings attached.

In its first year, the plan gave Travel Manitoba roughly $3million more to work with than its previous operating budget not enough to boost Manitoba out of bottom placebut a step in the right direction, Davidson said.

Davidson and the MCC helped develop the plan through consultation with tourism groups last year,and were vocal advocates for its adoption under the previous NDP government. Davidson said the New Democrats supported the initiative but didn't have time to implement it.

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Davidson said he'd like to see the province do more to boost tourism, including putting together an officialstrategy to guide future development. Right now, Manitoba has no formal plan on tourism.

Other tourism advocates in the province have also spoken out on the need for an official plan, including Jeff Provost, general manager of Eastside Aboriginal Sustainable Tourism.

"We look at this asit's taken 10 to 15 years for government to come to the realization that tourism is a smart, viable industry in Manitoba which had a lack of funding," Davidson said.

"So now that that's in place, we would expect to see even greater things happening in Manitoba."

'We're a long ways away from theAlbertasof this world'

Colin Ferguson, president of Travel Manitoba, said prior to the increase,the province was "lagging behind" in terms of investment.

Ferguson said he thinks Plan 96/4 is the solution to bringing Manitoba out of the bottom of the barrel, and hopes to surpass markets including Saskatchewan and the Maritime provinces down the line.

He said it's unfair to compare Manitoba to the "Big Four" provinces of B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

"I think Alberta is in the $60-million range, and now, with Plan 96/4, we're at $10.6 million," he said. "We're a long ways away from theAlbertasof this world."

Ferguson said tourism spending grew by $106 million this year, and he hopes to see it expand from $1.5 to $2 billion by 2020.

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Tourism a priority, provincial spokesman says

Cliff Cullen, Manitoba's Minister of Growth Enterprise and Trade, said in a written statementthe government is proud of its initiatives on tourism thus far.

Those have also included an increasethe Tourism Development Fund of more than 50 per cent, bumping it up to $297,000.

A spokesman for the ministry said tourism is a priority for the new government.

"The priority of the government was to improve the tourism marketing and the efforts of promoting the province. That was the priority coming into government, and that's what we feel we took a very significant step forward on with regards to the 96/4 plan."