Page 39 - TFWA World Exhibit 2024 Special Edition

INSIDER

Connection to community along with Sault Ste. Marie’s connection to different customers. We were so happy
Each year Sault St. Marie Duty Free its customers and community. to have so many customers back buzzing
provides young students with summer work “We were thankfully able to through our store, making Duty Free fun
opportunities, which has turned into long- experience a wonderful summer this year once again,” says Caria.
term employment for many of them. at our store. As mentioned, we focus on “We continue to use social media to
“We prioritize the positive experience hiring youth and young students during the our advantage, to push awareness and thus
we provide for our customers, and summer. Each summer, we look forward to gaining exposure for our store and using
the foundation of this is based on the collaborating with the new and ambitious it as a tool to connect and reach out to our
experience our staff has at the store. We workers as well as our loyal returning customers. We also enjoy getting involved
strive to maintain a fun and welcoming summer students. We really try to make with the community. This year, our staff
environment for our staff, which in turn, this job a beneficial experience for them. worked collaboratively to design and
they are able to provide to our customers.” It is important to us as a store family to hand-make a float for our local Rotary Fest
These summer work opportunities really embrace the different talents of our parade.”
for youth and university students are key, employees in order to appeal to all of our

The Sault Ste. Marie staff celebrates Canada Day; The 2024 Rotary Fest Parade.

June 2024 arrivals to

Canadian overnight land visitors to U.S. jumps in Canada up 12%
2023 Overnight arrivals to Canada were up
12% through June 2024, with 8.3 million
Overnight visitors to the United States Alberta/British Columbia (22%). people visiting the country halfway through
from Canada were up 38% in 2023 versus New York was the top state visited the year.
2022 as travel south across the border (2.5 million), with Washington State Of those visitors, almost six million
recovered after the pandemic. (1.0 million), Florida (826K), California (5.8 million) came from the United States,
In its latest annual report, the U.S. (638K), and Michigan (540K) rounding out Canada’s most important market.
National Travel and Tourism Office the top five. Year to date, these total overnight
(NTTO) documents that there were 9.8 Three quarters of these overnight arrivals are 92% of the January-June 2019
million Canadian overnight land visitors to visitors were taking a vacation/holiday in numbers.
the United States in 2023. These almost ten the United States, while 80% arrived by The summer is a key moment for
million Canadians spent 64.8 million nights auto/motorcycle. Canadian tourism. In June, 2.4 million
in the United States in 2023, staying an The average visitor spent $906 during people visited Canada, up 7% versus June
average of 6.6 nights in the country. the trip and $232 per day. The Average 2023. 1.8 million Americans crossed the
Ontario was the top source Canadian Annual Household Income for these border, up 8% versus the same period last
province, with 40% of travelers arriving visitors was $93,737. year. More than one million Americans
from there, followed by Quebec (24%), and arrived by land into Canada in June (1.02
million), while 690,000 Americans flew
into Canada during the month.

39 October 2024