CANADA’S annual East and West Marketplaces are being restructured because of increasing competition from international trade shows, visitors to the annual Rendezvous Canada marketplace, in Halifax, Nova Scotia were told.
The Quebec/Ontario Marketplace will not take place this September. Instead the two provinces have agreed to stage the event every other year, with the next one hosted in 2000. Although Ontario has not decided on its venue, the Charlevoix region is bidding to host the Quebec portion of the show.
Organisers of Canada’s West Marketplace, Alberta and British Columbia, have decided to continue their annual show in late November, although there will be only one alternating venue each year instead of it being split between the two.
Both will have two days for suppliers to meet with international buyers at one larger show. This year it will be held in Victoria on Vancouver Island, November 29-December 3, but delegates will still be offered the normal selection of pre or post-show tours. Grant MacKay, vice-president of marketing and sales for Tourism British Columbia, said: “We are holding the show one week later, which puts it in a better time frame against shows in Europe, Asia and the US. Buyers also particularly liked the idea of one location because it means less travel time.
“We believe the change will attract a stronger representation of international buyers in key markets.”
However, Western Canada admits it wants a bigger share of the US market and has shifted the date of the 1999 event largely to avoid the American Thanksgiving period.
Organisers of the new-look event are also inviting receptive operators to register as both sellers and buyers, so theycan expand their distribution chain as well as shop for new products.
Eastern Canada has struggled more than the west to attract UK buyer support to its marketplace. But Ontario Tourism thinks repositioning the event will overcome this.
Marketing manager Barbara Hladysh said: “Based on feedback from the tour operators, we will be providing more new export-ready product from a wider range of companies.
“Timing and frequency were both issues and there was a call to run the show earlier, so it will be at the beginning of September 2000 instead of the traditional period of late September-early October.”
Destination Quebec UK director Josephine Wiggall-Lazaurus agreed. She added: “We had to rationalise the event as buyers were becoming exhausted by the number of shows. UK operators also said it needed to have stronger representation from the sellers.”