Easily accessible, Eastern Canada presents an exotic cultural feast while serving up familiar comforts. The six-province region, with its historical traditions of France and Britain, encompasses everything from fast-growing cities to windswept seascapes and wilderness and lakefront retreats.
Its Gallic legacy will embrace the spotlight next year, when Quebec City, Quebec’s provincial capital, marks its 400th anniversary.
Quebec
Separated from America by Appalachian foothills, Canada’s largest province sprawls over 21 distinct tourism regions, where French is the mother tongue of more than 80 percent of the population.
“You really feel you are in France here, but with all the amenities that make you feel at home and without a long flight, and what is amazing is that right outside is the great outdoors,” says Paule Bergeron, spokesperson for Quebec City Tourism, adding that less than 20 minutes from the city center, groups can pursue activities such as skiing, golfing and kayaking.
Perched atop Cap Diamant overlooking the St. Lawrence River, Quebec City has historic fortified walls, and Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac, opened in 1893, is a dominant, picturesque feature of the skyline.
Across from Parliament, the Quebec City Convention Centre offers 232,000 square feet of function space. Adjacent to the center are the 948 guest rooms of the Hilton and Delta hotels.
Of the city’s 12,000 hotel rooms, more than 3,200 are close to the convention center.
The region is gearing up for its anniversary celebrations, which begin Dec. 31 and continue until October 2008, peaking during the period around July 3, the date in 1608 when Samuel de Champlain founded the city.
“Everyone is refurbishing. There’s lots of construction going on, and we will be left with a legacy of attractions for the future,” Bergeron says.
In preparation for the festivities, a number of developments are under way, including a new promenade and park along the St. Lawrence as well as Espace 400e, a pavilion at Old Port that will be the main events venue and feature a massive outdoor multimedia show. Following the anniversary, it will become a Parks Canada discovery center.
Located at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, Montreal is Canada’s second-largest city and the world’s second-largest French-speaking community.
The Montreal Convention Centre has 333,000 square feet of meeting and exhibition space and bridges the downtown core with the tourist attractions, restored buildings and cobblestone streets of Old Montreal and Old Port, where river cruises depart. Meanwhile, Montreal’s Underground City, with 20 miles of walkways and seven metro stops, links the center, hotels, museums, and malls.
The newest downtown property, the 80-room Hotel Le Dauphin, opened in December next to the convention center. Starwood is slated to open a 136-room aloft hotel near Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport by 2009.
For off-site events, a popular choice located minutes from the city’s center is Casino Montreal, which includes a 500-seat cabaret theater.
For the first time, Montreal will host MPI’s annual World Education Congress, set for July 29-31, an event Tourisme Montreal is forecasting will result in CAD$100 million in economic spin-offs in the next five years.
“This is an incredible city, very affordable and with so much within walking distance,” says Bertin Jacques, media relations manager for Tourisme Montreal. “We’re well known for our dynamic nightlife. Gastronomy? We have a huge range at all price levels. For shopping, Sainte-Catherine Street has 1,200 shops, and the Underground City has 1,600.”
Ninety miles north of Montreal, the ski and golf magnet of Mont-Tremblant in the Laurentian Mountains has a convention center with 10,000 square feet of function space and nine resort properties with meeting facilities, including the Fairmont Tremblant.
The Outaouais region in the western part of the province blends urban sophistication with the great outdoors. Its main city of Gatineau, located just across the river from Canada’s capital of Ottawa, is home to the Gatineau Convention Centre as well as premier group hotels such as Hilton Lac-Leamy and its adjacent Casino du Lac-Leamy.
Ontario
Ontario, Canada’s most-populous province, is home to Ottawa, Toronto and the legendary Niagara Falls.
A four-hour drive northeast of Toronto and two hours west of Montreal, Ottawa is a center for the arts and the seat of Canada’s federal government. With the atmosphere of a smaller city and wide-open green spaces and parks, it was ranked in April No. 1 out of 123 communities in MoneySense magazine’s annual “Canada’s Best Places to Live” listing.
Its primary convention venue, the Ottawa Congress Centre, with 84,000 square feet of function space just a block from Parliament Hill, will complete a renovation project this fall. Surrounded by the attractions and nightlife of downtown, it is attached to a 480-room Westin and a shopping complex with 180 stores, and next door is the Rideau Canal, which is popular for ice-skating during winter.
Museums abound in Ottawa, and the lineup includes the 2-year-old Canadian War Museum, the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
In February, Canada received its first Indigo hotel, the boutique brand by InterContinental Hotels and Resorts. The 106-room Hotel Indigo Ottawa has 3,000 square feet of meeting space, augmented by an adjoining 6,600 square feet of function space.
Called the world’s most multicultural city by the United Nations, Toronto is Canada’s financial center and top convention city. A mecca for immigrants, the city is home to five Chinatowns and two Little Italys.
A defining feature of the destination is its CN Tower telecommunications hub and tourist magnet, the world’s tallest freestanding structure.
Close by in a downtown area of 10,000 guest rooms is the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. In January, it hosted the annual PCMA conference; ASAE will be arriving in 2009.
“What is attractive to visitors is our cultural diversity, but we’ve also been undergoing a renaissance, with a surge in new product, and we are expanding our convention facilities,” says Michele Simpson, Tourism Toronto’s media relations manager.
The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts opened last year, and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) opened a new 175,000-square-foot building June 2, the centerpiece of a CAD$250 million renovation and expansion. Across from the ROM, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art reopened last summer after a major expansion, while the Art Gallery of Ontario is undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation and expansion, and the Royal Conservatory of Music will debut the first of three concert halls at its new TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning later this year.
Just west of downtown’s core are the 192 acres of Exhibition Place, a waterfront park and sports, entertainment and convention complex that annually draws 5.2 million visitors and hosts more than 300 events and trade and consumer shows. With 1 million square feet of space, Exhibition Place’s largest facility is the Direct Energy Centre (formerly the National Trade Centre), and it plans to finish a 162,000-square-foot conference center addition in September 2008.
Two convention facilities near Pearson International Airport are slated to unveil expansions in January. Toronto Congress Centre is doubling its exhibition and meeting space to more than 1 million square feet, and the International Centre, currently offering 500,000 square feet of function space, is building a 50,000-square-foot conference center.
Meanwhile, upcoming hotels include a 250-room aloft property by Starwood Hotels and Resorts, slated to open in downtown Toronto in late 2008.
Farther east, the Niagara region, with the falls as its main draw, attracts 12 million visitors a year. Tourism Niagara promotes an area with more than 70 wineries, 40 golf courses and more than 14,500 hotel rooms.
Eleven major Niagara Falls hotels offer meeting facilities, including the Sheraton on the Falls; Sheraton Fallsview Hotel and Conference Center; Fallsview Casino Resort; Marriott Niagara Falls Fallsview Hotel and Spa; the new Seneca Niagara Casino and Hotel; the new Great Wolf Lodge; and the Hilton Niagara Falls Fallsview and the Grand Niagara Resort, both of which are planning expansions.
The destination also has a new convention center on the drawing board.
Across the river from Detroit is Windsor, offering 1,500 hotel rooms.
Its top attraction, Casino Windsor, is also its largest hotel, with 400 guest rooms. Casino Windsor plans to finish a major renovation and expansion in June 2008, adding another 400 rooms as well as 100,000 square feet of meeting space. Upon completion of the project, the property will adopt the Harrah’s Caesars brand.
“The expansion will help grow our overnight business,” says Gordon Orr, managing director of the CVB of Windsor, Essex County and Pelee Island. “Previously we had groups of 100 to 500. Now we can have larger and multiple meetings.”
“Right now we’re in transition,” he adds, explaining that the city’s convention venue, Cleary International Centre, closed in March and was taken over by St. Clair College of Applied Arts and Technology for a downtown campus. Of the Cleary’s 40,000 square feet of function space, 13,700 square feet will remain available as meeting space.
Northern Ontario is also filled with options for groups. The Muskoka region encompasses 2,500 square miles of forest and lakes north of Toronto, with several meetings-ready resorts, championship golf courses and endless recreational activities. Another option is Sault Ste. Marie, which borders Michigan and opened the multipurpose Steelback Centre last September for sporting events, concerts and meetings, while Thunder Bay is an ideal choice for scenic gatherings on Lake Superior.
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is the setting for Halifax, the Maritime Provinces’ largest city and a major port. Its waterfront serves up museums, historic vessels, pubs, and restaurants.
Accessibility is a key selling point; the city is closer to Boston and New York by air than any other Canadian city. Halifax International Airport has more than 600 flights a week, and the province also has ferry service from Bar Harbor, Maine.
Groups can gather at the World Trade and Convention Centre, offering 100,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space. The newest event venue, Cunard Centre, is a converted waterfront cargo shed with 53,000 square feet of column-free space. Meanwhile, 16 hotels and three universities also have meeting facilities, including standout properties such as the historic Lord Nelson Hotel and Suites.
Within an hour’s drive are 27 golf courses. To the north are the renowned courses of the Cape Breton region.
Nova Scotia has 11 travel routes, including its 174-mile Cabot Trail, featuring scenic coastlines and Acadian fishing ports.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Canada’s most easterly province consists of two different entities: Newfoundland, an island at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and to the north, the vast wilderness of mainland Labrador.
Historic St. John’s, which promotes itself as “Canada’s Far East,” is Newfoundland’s commercial center and the provincial capital.
“We’re unique. We have our own time zone, our own dialects and bird colonies just outside town,” says Mike Buist, general manager of Destination St. John’s. “We’re considered an exotic destination. Where else can you see both whales and icebergs in May and June?”
The St. John’s Convention Center offers meeting space and a 16,000-square-foot exhibit hall, and adjacent to the center is a 6,200-seat, multipurpose stadium.
“We also have our own version of Bourbon Street two blocks from the center, where you can hear everything from Celtic music to jazz,” Buist says.
Major meetings properties include the 400-room Delta St. John’s Hotel and Conference Center and the 300-room Fairmont Newfoundland. An 87-room Courtyard by Marriott with meeting space opened last year.
New Brunswick
With the border of Maine to the west and the Bay Fundy to the south, New Brunswick is 85 percent forest, with its population concentrated along the coast and river valleys. Home of the French Acadians deported in the 1750s to places such as Louisiana, many returned, and today 35 percent of its population is French-speaking.
Saint John, the province’s largest city and a cruise ship destination, is just 90 miles from Maine. Its Trade and Convention Center, providing 40,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space, is connected to a 197-room Hilton.
Four new hotels with 325 total rooms are opening this year, increasing the destination’s number of rooms to more than 1,500.
Moncton, the province’s second-largest city, has 10 hotels with meeting facilities, the largest of which is the Delta Beausejour.
The Victorian provincial riverfront capital of Fredericton, home to two universities and 1,500 hotel rooms, plans to open a convention center with 30,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space in 2010.
In March, the city unveiled the North Side Sports and Leisure complex, which includes two NHL-size hockey surfaces. Planning is under way to build another complex with a third hockey facility and an Olympic-size pool.
Prince Edward Island
With its picturesque rolling landscape, the crescent-shaped Prince Edward Island, connected to New Brunswick by bridge, is marketed as the “Gentle Island.”
Known as the Cradle of Confederation, Charlottetown, the province’s historic seaport capital, was the site of the 1864 conference that prompted the Canadian Confederation three years later. Around 80 percent of the province’s 138,000 people are of British stock, and Charlottetown is home to 33,000 of them.
Charlottetown is also a cruise stop, with 23 ships scheduled this year.
The city’s civic center can handle up to 3,500 people for banquets.
For More Info
NEWFOUNDLAND/LABRADOR
Destination St. John’s 709.739.8899
www.newfoundlandandlabrador.com
Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism 800.563.6353
www.cambridge-usa.org
NEW BRUNSWICK
Fredericton Tourism 506.460.2041
www.tourismfredericton.ca
New Brunswick Tourism and Parks 506.444.4303
www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca
Tourism Moncton 506.853.3590
www.gomoncton.com
Tourism Saint John 506.658.2990
www.tourismsaintjohn.com
NOVA SCOTIA
Destination Halifax 902.422.9334
www.destinationhalifax.com
Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture 902.425.5781
www.novascotia.com
ONTARIO
CVB of Windsor, Essex County and Pelee Island 519.255.6530
www.visitwindsor.com
Muskoka Tourism 800.267.9700
www.muskokatourism.ca
Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation 416.212.0756
www.ontariotravel.net
Ontario’s North 705.759.5462
www.ontariosnorth.ca
Ottawa Tourism 613.237.5150
www.ottawatourism.ca
Thunder Bay Tourism and Economic Development 807.625.2564
www.thunderbay.ca
Toronto Convention and Visitors Association 416.203.2600
www.torontotourism.com
Tourism Hamilton 905.546.2666
www.tourismhamilton.com
Tourism Niagara 905.984.3626
www.tourismniagara.com
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Tourism Prince Edward Island 902.368.4444
www.peiplay.com
QUEBEC
Eastern Townships Tourism 819.820.2020
www.easterntownships.org
Laurentians Tourism Association 800.561.6673
www.laurentides.com
Quebec City Tourism 418.641.6654
www.quebecregion.com
Tourisme Montreal 514.844.5400
www.tourisme-montreal.org
Tourisme Mont-Tremblant 819.425.2434
www.tourismemonttremblant.com
Tourisme Outaouais 819.778.2222
www.tourismeoutaouais.ca
Tourisme Quebec 514.873.2015
www.bonjourquebec.com
