VisitBritain’s Gavin Landry on hitting major milestones in the Canadian market
Photo courtesy of VisitBritain – Robin Creative Media. Lede photo: Visit County Durham Critical Tortoise Andy Jones
As VisitBritain rolled out its new Starring Great Britain campaign in early March, Canada found itself in an award-winning supporting role as its visitor arrival and visitor spend hit milestone marks in 2024.
“We have been really encouraged by what we’ve seen in terms of our Canadian inbound visitation volume,” VisitBritain’s international director, Gavin Landry told Travel Courier in an exclusive interview during a stop in Toronto to help launch the Starring Great Britain campaign in the Canadian market.
“We’ve just crossed the one million visitor mark last year (2024) – it’s something that Cathy [Stapells, Director Canada for VisitBritain] and I have talked about for the seven or eight years that I’ve been here – trying to get to that one million mark and the $1-billion in spend [mark] and we met both of those thresholds last year,” Landry said.
Stapells qualified that a bit noting that Canadian spend was $970 billion in British pounds in 2024, but the $1 billion mark, based on VisitBritain’s forecasting, should be achieved in May 2025.
Which made Landry smile, observing “that’s close enough for me,” and continuing “those were two of our mile markers and then, the other bellwether or harbinger is seat capacity. It has always been really important, and I’m really pleased that there are some pretty big developments on that front happening in Canada.”
He pointed to Virgin Atlantic’s launch at the end of March, along with Air Canada introducing non-stops from Ottawa to Heathrow at the same time as well as expanding its Toronto to London and Manchester services and British Airways boosting its flights from Vancouver during the summer.
Photo courtesy of VisitBritain/ Royce Mackin and VisitBritain/Daniel Wildey
“I think the way we can look at this and the way that we can really forecast this the best is to see what’s going on when it comes to seat capacity and what’s going on with the other general sources that we point to and all signs are pointing to Go,” Landry said.
He continued: “I do think Canadians have very close ties with the UK and I think that is always helpful. Canadians tend to stay longer. They stay an average of 10 nights where, as an example, a US customer or consumer would be more around seven nights. Canadians do go around the UK and they’re more inclined to actually drive in the UK. So, those connections, those family connections, those close ties – as a Commonwealth [nation] – and the ways that Canadians, I think, just in general, are pretty intrepid in the way that they travel.”
And Stapells is quick to point out that for the UK, Canada is now in the top 10 for visits and in the top 11 for spend.
All that, Landry told Travel Courier, “really fits nicely with what we’re trying to do when we talk about regional growth, the regenerative visitor economy, some of those notions.”
An award-winning performance from Great Britain
In fact, VisitBritain’s newly launched Starring Great Britain campaign fits naturally into its regional growth and regenerative visitor economy strategy.
Landry explained that through consumer research and VisitBritain’s understanding of its consumers, it has developed three prime drivers – culture; coasts & adventure; and food & drink.
The Starring Great Britain campaign uses Great Britain’s “increasingly positive strength” in the area of film and TV to drive regional growth.
“It really is compelling. Something like 70% of people say that what they’ve seen on screen does influence where they want to travel. So, it fits really nicely into our culture bucket as well as supporting the concept of driving regional growth,” Landry said.
And he continued: “I think the other really cool thing about the Starring Great Britain campaign is it also connects to the broader picture of prosperity for the UK as a whole, because there is a tremendous amount of success being seen in direct investment by film and television companies or people that are associated with film and TV.”
Drawing on iconic film and TV moments from Mission: Impossible to Bridget Jones; Spider-Man to Succession; House of the Dragon to Harry Potter; Paddington to Fast & Furious to Mary Poppins Returns and more, the film takes viewers on a cinematic journey through Britain, giving them a front row seat to the destinations at the heart of the on-screen action.
Photo courtesy of VisitBritain/ Royce Mackin and Visit Birmingham and West Midlands
Uncertain, unpredictable time
Obviously, the new administration in the US is creating uncertainty in the world these days and it was only natural to ask VisitBritain’s international director for his observations as to possible impacts on tourism.
Landry told TC: “I think, like any national tourist office, we’re going to be aware of what’s happening in all of our markets, even though in some cases, it’s not under our control and in some cases, it could be good, it could be very positive. In some cases, it could be, you know, very challenging. So, I think that’s probably the best way I can answer your question. But certainly, you know, we’re a citizen of the world and we watch, and we want to be aware.”
For Canada, Landry’s message is straightforward: “We love Canada and Canada loves us back.”
And going forward, he said that it’s all about: “How do we make as many opportunities as possible for folks to experience Great Britain; to live out their dreams and have their holiday wishes all come true. How do we strengthen our product offering and the ties that we have with those that can deliver the products that Canadians are looking for.”
Seen from l to r, at an event in Toronto to launch VisitBritain’s Starring Great Britain campaign are British High Commissioner, Robert Tinline; VisitBritain’s International Director, Gavin Landry; British Consul General Toronto, Fouzia Younis; and TIFF CEO, Cameron Bailey.
Stapells agreed, observing: “We really value our travel trade partners here in Canada. We’ve been working together for a long time, and I think we’ve got a really strong relationship, and we certainly value that relationship and everything we work on together.”
She continued: “We’ve got the itineraries, the content, the imagery, the contacts to really build on new products; introduce that new product, help support that new product and we’re just going to continue building on the strength of that relationship.”
So, what’s the take home?
Said Landry: “We just want our Canadian friends to visit us as often and as much as they can, and we need to continue to support all those regenerative behaviours that we really appreciate about them and the Canadian market.”
