The tourism industry has launched a new Canada Map in the hopes of attracting more visitors to Canada following the damage it received during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Destination Canada and the federal government revealed a proposal at the country’s largest annual tourism convention in Edmonton to lengthen the tourist season, expand the length of stays, and attract more locals, visitors, and business people to a larger range of destinations.

Exceptionally dry circumstances have resulted in wildfires scaring away people, while milder winters have wrecked havoc at ski resorts. However, the hotter weather is opening up prospects to attract tourists in the spring and fall, potentially filling hotels and tour buses into the shoulder seasons, according to Destination Canada CEO Marsha Walden.

“We would like to keep our workers longer into the season. And, in most cases, the product does not require significant adaptation to accommodate a new season, such as fall and the transition into winter,” Walden said in an interview with CP24.

“We really need to lean heavily on expanding further into the shoulders.”

Drawn-out vacations would also result in millions more in revenue for hospitality companies, according to federal Tourism Minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada.

“Having people stay longer — having people spend more money — is just good for tourism for us in Canada,” she stated in a recent interview.

Canada Map to Promote Indigenous-owned initiatives

She said marketing initiatives will focus on “getting travellers to say, ‘If you’re going to come, you’d better stay a couple days more, because Canada is big.'”

With the new Canada Map, the federal policy aims to promote a larger range of places, from Indigenous-owned initiatives to off-the-beaten-path ecotourism spots.

Meanwhile, corporate visits continue to lag behind the recovery of leisure travel, a post-pandemic hangover that the initiative hopes to alleviate.

By 2030, the goal is to improve Canada’s position in a World Economic Forum ranking of tourism development, after it fell out of the top ten for the first time in 2022.

Tourism has rebounded from pandemic lows, according to operators, but it has yet to reach pre-COVID levels, and debt remains a significant burden for thousands of small enterprises across the country.

According to Destination Canada, international visitor counts were lower last year than four years before, with tourists from the United States accounting for 85% of 2019 levels and those from other countries accounting for 78%.

According to the Tourism business Association of Canada, the business generated more than $109 billion in revenue in 2023, approximately 4% higher than in 2019, but much less in real terms after accounting for inflation.

The association’s president, Beth Potter, has urged the federal government to establish a new low-interest loan program and a temporary foreign worker stream tailored to the tourism industry.

Canada Wildfires that have been raging throughout the country for the past week have forced thousands of people to abandon their homes, with many unsure when they will be able to return.

Firefighters battling more than 100 wildfires across Canada may receive brief relief in some areas as a major mid-week storm moves through western and central Canada, bringing higher possibilities of rain and blasts of cool air.

Nonetheless, some dangerous fires are burning within miles of neighborhoods. Fire authorities warn that minor changes in weather or wind direction can suddenly put adjacent homes and businesses at jeopardy.

More than 6,000 people have fled Fort McMurray, Alberta, since Tuesday, as a 51,000-acre fire rages less than 5 miles from the city’s edge. Residents should count on being gone from their houses until at least May 21, and possibly longer, according to the regional municipality.

The fire near Fort McMurray remained active Wednesday, but winds were forecast to start pushing it away from the city and its key roadway, according to Alberta Wildfire Information Officer Josee St-Onge. Rain showers are expected to start Wednesday night and last until tomorrow, with a total rainfall of up to one inch.

Firefighters braving the flames of the wildfires

Firefighters have been working around the clock to keep the flames at bay, employing water helicopters with night vision. Firefighters, often defending their own villages, have also worked arduous and risky shifts.

“To the firefighters braving the flames to defend Fort McMurray and other areas of the province, we appreciate your heroic efforts more than we can say and we pray for your safe return,” the premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, said on Wednesday.

For many Fort McMurray locals, the smoke-blackened skies and nervous evacuations bring back sad memories of “The Beast,” a devastating 2016 fire that forced 90,000 people to evacuate and caused billions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses.

Resident Jocelyn Routhier, whose neighborhood has yet to be told to evacuate, has observed from her back porch as the situation becomes disturbingly identical to the last disaster. She posted two uncanny photos of the fires, shot eight years apart.

“This is a déjà vu that I would prefer avoid. Let’s hope it doesn’t become a reality,” Routhier wrote in a social media post accompanying the photographs.

Jocelyn Routhier, a Fort McMurray homeowner, captured the 2016 and May 2024 flames from the same position on her porch.

Every day, new fires break out across Canada, and numerous out-of-control blazes threaten densely populated areas, leading scores of evacuated citizens to seek refuge in hotels, emergency shelters, and camp and RV sites.

Anticipated Rains

Mackenzie Spenrath is one of roughly 5,000 individuals forced to evacuate the Fort Nelson area of British Columbia, where the 31,000-acre Parker Lake Fire is blazing barely 1.5 miles from the town. He told CNN that he has grown obsessed with watching news and surfing through social media, “trying to figure out if my town is still standing.”

Fort Nelson fire crews may benefit from less than an inch of rain anticipated Wednesday night and Thursday evening. However, the quantity of precipitation required to offset drought conditions and extinguish the fires is significantly greater, according to the British Columbia Wildfire Service.

“It’s not completely hopeless, obviously. But the fire is so close to town that it’s difficult to imagine anything but the worst,” Spenrath explained.

Extremely dry conditions are also causing issues for firefighters battling a fire that has reached within a mile of the Cranberry Portage town in western Manitoba. Approximately 580 individuals have been evacuated, and there is no anticipated time for their return.

“Because the conditions are so extremely dry up there, the fires burned down deep,” Earl Simmons, the Manitoba Wildfire Service’s director, told CBC. “So the firefighters have to get in there and dig down into the dirt to extinguish it. And we’re not just talking a few inches; in some cases, we’re talking meters deep.

Warming circumstances induced by human-made climate change exacerbate the dry conditions that are fueling Canada’s wildfires.

“This region has experienced multiple years of drought, with a below-normal snowpack this past winter,” said Ben Boghean, fire behavior specialist for the BC Wildfire Service. “As a result of this, our forests in the Fort Nelson zone are very receptive to new fire ignitions and rapid rates of spread.”

Declining snow, rising temperatures, and worsening droughts are all signs of climate change, and Environment Canada predicts that they will continue to drive larger and more destructive fires across Canada.

BEIJING — On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated their “no-limits” friendship, which has expanded as both countries face mounting tensions with the West, and blasted US military deployments in Asia and the Pacific.

At their summit in Beijing, Putin hailed Xi for China’s recommendations to settle the conflict in Ukraine, which Ukraine and its Western allies have rejected as mostly adopting the Kremlin’s line.

Putin’s two-day state visit to one of his biggest allies and commercial partners comes as Russian forces launch an operation in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, marking the most serious border incursion since the full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022.

China claims to be impartial in the crisis, but it has supported the Kremlin’s accusations that the West led Russia into attacking Ukraine, and it continues to supply vital components required by Moscow for weapons manufacture.

China And Russia Reaffirm Their Close Ties As Moscow Presses Its Offensive In Ukraine

China, which has not condemned the invasion, suggested a broad-based peace plan in 2023, calling for a cease-fire and direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv. Both Ukraine and the West rejected the idea because it did not call on Russia to vacate Ukraine’s occupied territories.

China also lent a verbal nod to Russia’s narrative about Nazism in Ukraine, with a joint statement issued Thursday saying Moscow and Beijing should protect the post-World War II order and “severely condemn the glorification of or even attempts to revive Nazism and militarism.”

Putin has claimed the “denazification” of Ukraine as a primary purpose of the military action, falsely referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government as neo-Nazis.

The mostly symbolic and ceremonial visit emphasized cooperation between two countries facing challenges in their relations with the United States and Europe.

“Both sides want to show that despite what is happening globally, despite the pressure that both sides are facing from the U.S., both sides are not about to turn their backs on each other anytime soon,” said Hoo Tiang Boon, a Chinese foreign policy researcher at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

While Putin and Xi stated they wanted to stop the war, they made no new ideas in their public remarks.

“China hopes for the early return of Europe to peace and stability and will continue to play a constructive role toward this,” Xi said in prepared remarks to the media in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. His statements echoed China’s overarching peace initiative.

Earlier in the day, Putin was greeted in Tiananmen Square with military fanfare and cannon fire.

On the eve of his visit, Putin stated that China’s proposal may “lay the groundwork for a political and diplomatic process that would take Russia’s security concerns into account and contribute to achieving long-term and sustainable peace.”

Zelenskyy has stated that any negotiations must entail the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the departure of Russian soldiers, the release of all captives, a tribunal for those responsible for the assault, and security assurances for Ukraine.

China And Russia Reaffirm Their Close Ties As Moscow Presses Its Offensive In Ukraine

Putin said he would brief Xi on the situation in Ukraine, adding, “We appreciate the initiative of our Chinese colleagues and friends to regulate the situation.”

Following Russia’s latest attack in Ukraine last week, the war has reached a crucial point as Ukraine’s depleted military awaits new supplies of anti-aircraft missiles and artillery rounds from the United States, which have been delayed for months.

China and Russia’s joint statement also harshly slammed US foreign policy, citing US-formed alliances as having a “Cold War mentality.”

“Both sides expressed serious concern about the consequences caused to the strategic stability of the Asia-Pacific region by AUKUS,” according to the statement, referring to the acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

China and Russia have accused the United States of installing land-based intermediate-range missile systems in the Asia-Pacific region under the guise of joint drills with allies. They claimed that the United States’ operations in Asia were “changing the balance of power” and “endangering the security of all countries in the region.”

The united declaration underscored China’s support for Russia.

“There’s so much Chinese falling over themselves to give Russia face and respect without saying anything specific, or committing to anything,” said Susan Thornton, a former diplomat and senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center.

The meeting was another endorsement of China and Russia’s amicable “no limits” friendship, which they signed in 2022, just before Moscow invaded Ukraine.

Since then, Russia has been increasingly economically dependent on China since Western sanctions have limited its access to most of the global commercial system. China’s expanding commerce with Russia, which reached $240 billion last year, has helped the country buffer some of the worst effects of sanctions.

Moscow has transferred most of its energy exports to China and relied on Chinese enterprises to purchase high-tech components for Russian defense sectors to avoid Western sanctions.

China And Russia Reaffirm Their Close Ties As Moscow Presses Its Offensive In Ukraine

“I and President Putin agree we should actively look for convergence points of the interests of both countries, to develop each’s advantages, and deepen integration of interests, realizing each others’ achievements,” added Xi.

Xi congratulated Putin on the start of his fifth term in office and commemorated the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the former Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, which were formed after a civil war in 1949. In the March election, Putin eliminated all significant political opponents and faced no serious threat. He, like Xi, has not spelled out a succession strategy.

“In a famous song of that time, 75 years ago — it is still performed today — there is a phrase that has become a catchphrase: ‘Russians and Chinese are brothers forever,'” Putin stated.

During the war, Russia and China expanded their military ties. In recent years, they have conducted several cooperative war simulations, including naval drills and long-range bomber patrols over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. Russian and Chinese ground forces have also moved to the other country’s territory to conduct joint training.

China continues to be a major market for Russian military hardware, while the country’s defense industry is rapidly developing, including the production of aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines.

Putin has already stated that Russia has shared highly sensitive military technologies with China, considerably improving its defense strength.

SOURCE -(AP)