Recognizing the importance of helping Canada recover from recent tourism industry struggles caused by the outbreak of SARS, the National Tour Association and Tourism Toronto officially announce that…
Recognizing the importance of helping Canada recover from recent tourism industry struggles caused by the outbreak of SARS, the National Tour Association and Tourism Toronto officially announce that Toronto will be the site of the NTA Board of Directors meeting September 11-14, 2003.
Since September 11, we in the industry have all learned how fragile tourism can be, and while it can be turned off virtually in the blink of an eye, it takes a concerted and collective effort to turn it back on, said NTA President Hank Phillips, CTP. We are very pleased to offer our support to Toronto in recovering from its recent struggles and to quickly re-emerge
as one of the world`s top tourism destinations.
The NTA Board of Directors worked in tandem with Tourism Toronto to hastily put together a plan that includes meeting facilities, hotel sites and transportation options for the tourism professionals. NTA holds a special affection for those cities that host our Annual Conventions, and Toronto is the site of our 2004 Convention said Charlie McIlvain, CTP, 2003 NTA Chairman. They do so much for us before and during a Convention that when an opportunity presents itself for us to support them, we are very happy to do so.
According to Tourism Toronto representatives, its members were very enthusiastic to have worked with NTA and were delighted when it was decided that they would hold their Board of Directors meeting this September in Toronto.
This decision only encourages faith from an industry standpoint, that Toronto is safe. It will also assist us in our Assurance Phase of the recovery plan and will send a message loud and clear to the market that Toronto is open for business, said Bruce MacMillan, president & CEO of Tourism Toronto.
This is not the first time NTA has helped an Annual Convention host city during a time of recovery. In 2001, preceding the convention, a severe flood hit the host city of Houston. NTA members stepped in and collected flood relief funds to aid Houston. I am very proud of our Chairman Charlie McIlvain and our entire board of directors in entertaining this idea of bringing our board meeting to Toronto and for acting upon it in such a timely fashion, said Phillips.
The National Tour Association is an organization of nearly 4,000 tourism professionals representing the packaged travel industry, which had a direct economic impact of $166 billion worldwide in 2001. NTA provides unsurpassed business opportunities, knowledge and information to businesses involved in tour operator packaged travel. NTA also serves as a consumer advocate through it code of ethics, stringent membership requirements and
education.
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