eLearningU
Tourism Industry Scan
April 2026
eLearningU
Monthly Intelligence Report for Canadian DMO Leaders
The essential monthly briefing for executive directors and senior leaders at Canadian destination marketing organizations. This edition synthesizes 14 industry reports into intelligence you can act on now.
Executive Briefing · April 2026
The six most significant forces reshaping Canadian destination marketing right now, synthesized from 14 industry reports.
In 2025, 18% of travelers used generative AI tools for trip planning, a 64% year-on-year increase. AI is compressing the path from inspiration to booking into a single interaction. For DMOs, invisibility in AI-generated results is the new equivalent of a broken website.
By end of 2025, TikTok For You Page views had grown to 58% of all views (up from 31% in 2023), and Instagram non-follower views nearly doubled to 49%. A single piece of resonant content can outperform an entire year of follower-building.
Nearly 70% of travelers now book holidays within two months of departure. Close to 50% of Gen Z and Millennials confirm within four weeks. Travelers have learned that holding out for last-minute deals pays off. The traditional "inspire early, convert later" funnel is broken.
April 2025 overnight arrivals to Canada totalled 1.2 million, down 7% versus April 2024. US visitors fell 11%, land crossings fell 14%. Meanwhile the UK is up 16%, Mexico up 23%, South Korea up 5%, Australia up 6%. The visitor mix is shifting fast.
88% of marketers now believe AI is living up to the hype, up from 80% one year ago. 95% use generative AI for creative generation or optimization. The performance gap between AI-empowered and traditional teams is measurable and widening.
International bookings to Alberta are up 20% for H1 2026, with EU27 bookings up 47%, directly attributable to HBO's The Last of Us filming there. Alberta hotel ADRs climbed from $137.50 to $148.63 between 2023 and 2025, tracking the show's release cycle exactly.
How travelers are thinking, searching, booking, and behaving differently right now, drawn directly from primary research across the source set.
Overtourism concern is now reshaping where travelers choose to go
In 2025, 68% of travelers said they would avoid a destination due to overcrowding, a seven-point increase from 2024, suggesting many have experienced the effects firsthand. The biggest concerns driving avoidance are high tourist volumes (up 14 points year-over-year) and insufficient amenities (up 12 points). Travelers are backing tangible management solutions: 46% support off-peak travel incentives (up 6 points), and support for timed entry systems has nearly doubled to 44%. For Canadian DMOs, destinations that proactively communicate crowd management and seasonal dispersal programs will capture quality travelers actively seeking less-crowded alternatives.
Simon-Kucher Global Travel Trends 2026 (10,000+ travelers, 10 markets)
US arrivals dropped sharply in April 2025 while other markets grew
American visitors to Canada dropped 11% in April 2025 versus the same month in 2024, with land border crossings down 14% and bus arrivals down 29%. Year-to-date US arrivals are tracking 3% below 2024 levels. This is the most significant near-term demand signal in the source set, and it arrives while several other markets are growing: UK up 16%, Mexico up 23%, South Korea up 5%, Australia up 6%, China up 1%. The picture is not sector-wide decline. It is a geopolitically-driven reallocation of inbound demand that rewards DMOs with diversified source market strategies.
Destination Canada Monthly Overnight Arrivals April 2025 (Statistics Canada)
Travelers will pay a premium for room attributes they actually want
63% of travelers say they are willing to pay above the standard room rate for specific room attributes, a shift from generic categories toward preference-driven personalization. 12% of Gen Z travelers would pay up to 25% more for gaming or premium entertainment in-room, while 17% of US business travelers would pay up to 20% more for in-room business services. Amadeus's 2025 Travel Dreams Survey found this "Pick 'n' Stay" behaviour accelerating as hotel tech enables preferences to be captured and priced at booking. Accommodation partners adopting personalization tools will drive higher RevPAR and better visitor satisfaction scores, both of which directly affect destination competitiveness.
Amadeus Insights Travel Trends 2026, Travel Dreams Survey (6,000 travelers, 2025)
The creator economy is a primary distribution channel in 2026
There is a projected $37.1 billion in US annual creator economy ad spend in 2026, with Goldman Sachs estimating the global creator economy will reach $480 billion by 2027. 61% of marketers plan to increase their investment in creator content this year. Creator content generates 10x more shares on TikTok than brand content, and 69% of marketers report influencer-generated content outperforms branded content. For DMOs, this isn't just about influencer trips. It's about building a systematic local creator pipeline. Brands posting two to four times per week using intentional creator and UGC content consistently outperform high-volume brand-posting strategies, with TikTok engagement running 63% higher for moderate posters.
CrowdRiff Creator Trends Report 2026; Dash Social New Rules of Social Discovery and Distribution
Canadians remain strongly supportive of tourism, well above the global average
Destination Canada's Wealth and Wellbeing Index reports that public approval of tourism's contribution to communities has remained above 80% across all reporting periods. Canada's General Sentiment Towards Tourism score is 62, against a global benchmark of 44. The Tourism Growth Support Index sits at 58 (benchmark: 55), and the Tourismphobia Index is just 3 (benchmark: 5). These figures give Canadian DMOs a stronger social license to grow than most of their global counterparts. This support is not unconditional: the Resident Consideration Index (18 vs. a benchmark of 27) signals that residents feel tourism policy does not always account for their interests, pointing to a meaningful engagement gap to address.
Destination Canada Tourism Wealth and Wellbeing Index (Resident Sentiment Index)
The most compelling quantitative data from the source set, including hero statistics and two data visualizations.
Platform Investment Priorities for Brands in 2026
% of brands investing more resources into each platform · Sprout Social, 1,200 marketers
Canadian Tourism Revenue Recovery
Q4 each year as % of Q4 2019 baseline · Destination Canada / Statistics Canada
Six specific, implementable actions for DMO executive directors, grounded in the data from this month's source set.
Audit your content and data infrastructure for AI discoverability now.
Generative AI trip planning grew 64% in a single year and is now used by 18% of all travelers, with over 60% of Gen Z and Millennials already using AI for inspiration and planning. If your destination's website content is outdated, poorly structured, or not indexed by AI tools, you are invisible to the highest-growth traveler segments before they ever reach a search engine. Conduct an immediate audit of your destination content for accuracy, freshness, and structured data markup. Then explore Model Context Protocol readiness so AI agents like ChatGPT and Perplexity can surface your destination's real-time pricing, events, and availability directly in their responses.
Accelerate overseas market development. Treat the US decline as a structural signal, not a temporary dip.
April 2025 arrivals data shows US visitors down 11%, with land crossings down 14% and year-to-date arrivals tracking 5% below 2024. Meanwhile, the UK is up 16%, Mexico up 23%, South Korea up 5%, and Australia up 6% for the same month. This is not a blip. It reflects a durable shift in travel sentiment that DMOs cannot wait out. Identify your top two or three growth overseas markets, review your current investment in those markets, and make the case to your board for reallocation. The diversified DMOs will weather 2025 far better than those still anchored to a single source market.
Shift your social media KPIs from follower growth to reach quality and content resonance, then restructure your posting calendar accordingly.
By end of 2025, 58% of TikTok views and 49% of Instagram views came from non-followers. Algorithms reward relevance signals like hover time, rewatches, and pauses rather than audience size. Brands posting two to four times per week generate 13% higher engagement on Instagram and 63% higher on TikTok than high-volume posters. Stop measuring success by follower count. Set new benchmarks around non-follower reach, watch time, and saves. Cut posting frequency if it means improving creative quality. Build a local creator pipeline: creator content generates 10x more TikTok shares than brand content, and the projected $37.1 billion creator economy ad spend in 2026 signals where the industry is heading.
Introduce or expand flexible booking incentives to capture visitors in the compressed booking window.
Nearly 70% of travelers now book within two months of departure, with close to 50% of Gen Z and Millennials confirming within four weeks. The top incentive to book earlier is an early booking discount (59%), followed by flexible cancellation (41%) and no-cancellation fees (33%). Work with your accommodation and experience partners to develop and promote a visible flexible booking program. Frame it in your marketing as a conversion offer, not as a policy detail buried in fine print. This is especially important for international visitors, where the booking window is even tighter in Asian and Middle Eastern source markets.
Inventory your destination's cultural IP pipeline and build a content program around it before the demand surge arrives.
Amadeus data shows international bookings to Alberta up 20% for H1 2026, with EU27 bookings up 47%, driven directly by HBO's The Last of Us filming there. Alberta hotel ADRs climbed from $137.50 to $148.63 between 2023 and 2025 in direct correlation with the show's release cycle. This is a repeatable playbook, not a one-off. Identify what TV, film, gaming, or cultural content is set in, filmed in, or associated with your destination. Then build a content and creator strategy around those IP connections before competitors claim the narrative. The destinations winning on pop culture tourism are moving 12 to 18 months ahead of the demand curve, not reacting to it.
Use your community's strong support for tourism as a strategic asset, but close the resident consideration gap before it erodes.
Canada's General Sentiment Towards Tourism score is 62, well above the global benchmark of 44. Canadians support tourism growth at rates that most destination managers globally would envy. However, the Resident Consideration Index sits at 18 against a benchmark of 27, meaning residents do not feel that tourism policy accounts for their interests. This gap is manageable now, but left unaddressed it will compress your social license to grow. Launch or refresh a resident engagement program that demonstrates how tourism investment directly benefits the community through infrastructure, employment, and cultural funding, and make that case visibly and regularly.
All 14 source reports analyzed for this edition, with links, descriptions, and category tags. Filter by topic.
Destination Canada / Statistics Canada
Monthly Overnight Arrivals April 2025
Travel DemandSingle-page infographic tracking overnight arrivals to Canada by market and mode of entry for April 2025, including year-to-date comparisons against 2024.
Destination Canada
Tourism Enables Prosperity Across Canada
Industry EconomicsOverview of tourism's macroeconomic contribution to Canada including GDP, revenue, employment, exports, and government revenue against pre-pandemic benchmarks.
Destination Canada / Resonance Consultancy
Tourism Wealth and Wellbeing Index
Industry EconomicsComprehensive measurement framework evaluating Canadian tourism across six dimensions: Economy, Employment, Enablement, Environment, Engagement, and Experience.
Simon-Kucher & Partners
Global Travel Trends 2026 Report
Consumer BehaviourSurvey of 10,000+ travelers across 10 markets covering booking behaviour, AI adoption, social media influence, wellness travel, overtourism, sustainability, and loyalty.
Amadeus / Globetrender
Travel Trends 2026
AI & TechnologySix emerging travel trends for 2026 including pet travel, AI trip planning, point-to-point aviation, pop culture tourism, hotel personalization, and innovation tourism.
Expedia Group / Censuswide
Future of Business Travel Report 2026
Industry EconomicsSurvey of 214 senior travel management company leaders across 10 markets examining expectations, confidence gaps, technology investment, and growth priorities in business travel.
Expedia Group / Phocuswright / Inntopia
Summit Seekers: Mountain Traveler Research 2025
Consumer BehaviourPrimary research on US mountain traveler demographics, booking habits, spending patterns, and seasonal preferences, including Canada as a top international destination.
Hootsuite / Talkwalker
Social Media Trends 2026
18 social media trends for 2026 covering algorithm evolution, AI content, social search, creator economics, platform-specific strategies, and audience intelligence.
Mews
Metrics That Matter
AI & TechnologyHospitality-focused guide to next-generation performance metrics covering operational efficiency, revenue beyond rooms, and portfolio management for modern hotels.
Sprout Social
2026 Social Media Content Strategy Report
Survey of 2,300+ consumers and 1,200 marketers on platform preferences, content performance, AI adoption, and brand strategy across all major social networks.
Dash Social
The New Rules of Social Discovery and Distribution
Data-driven analysis of how social reach, creative quality, UGC, and posting frequency affect performance on Instagram and TikTok in 2025 and 2026.
CrowdRiff
2026 Creator Trends Report
Analysis of the creator economy's growth, the shift toward nano and micro creators, platform-by-platform performance, and video workflow integration for destination marketers.
Destinations International
Crisis Communications Handbook
Policy & RegulationPractical guide for DMOs on building and executing crisis communications plans, including protocols, worksheets, holding statement templates, and case studies.
Smartly / Reach3 Insights
Digital Advertising Trends 2026
Paid AdvertisingSurvey of 450 marketers spending $5M+ in paid media on AI adoption, cross-channel strategy, video investment, predictive advertising, and creative efficiency in 2025 and 2026.