U.S.-based organizations have recently cancelled as many as five large corporate gatherings set for major Vancouver hotels, several tourism advocates have told BIV.
“They don't want to be seen as having a large conference and spending money in the Canadian economy,” said Hotel Vancouver general manager Adam Laker, who confirmed that his hotel has lost some U.S.-based convention business.
“They think it's better and safer if they have events in the U.S.”
Executives who spoke with BIV did not want to identify the organizations for privacy reasons.
"For a five-day conference, you'd have a gala dinner thrown in there as well, so it's fairly sizable," Laker said. "If you have a domestic event, normally they're not for five days, and normally, one or two days, and they're smaller."
Laker said the conferences that have been cancelled tended to be for between 300 and 500 people. Some have been for the near future and some are for a year away, he added.
"The conferences that were coming from the U.S. were international conferences, which were driven by the U.S., and so they were much larger," he said. "We are replacing that business. I can only speak for us. We are replacing some of that business with domestic [events] but it's not to the same size and volume that the American conferences were."
Sean Antonson, general manager of the Sheraton Wall Centre, said no large U.S. corporate events have yet been cancelled at his hotel but he has heard other hotels have had cancellations.
One rationale he has heard being given by conference organizers is that U.S. residents who are not U.S. citizens do not want to attend Canadian events because they fear not being allowed back into the country.
Those fears have been stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration taking a range of actions to reduce immigration, deport non-citizens and revoke visas. , according to the publication Skift Meetings, which covers the meetings and events industry.
The conference cancellations are not widespread, Graeme Benn, general manager at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver and Douglas hotels, told BIV.
Indeed, U.S. clients are booking conferences for hundreds of people at Benn’s two hotels, he said.
“Last week we booked a large U.S. corporate strategy meeting for August into Vancouver, and we booked a U.S. association group for April of next year,” he said.
“We have a group in our hotel right now that booked early in March with us, and they are entirely from the U.S.”
He said near-term bookings are increasingly common and that those events would entail the client putting up deposits almost right away. That means that the new clients are committed to come to the city.
“As crazy as it sounds, I am very bullish on the demand we may see,” Benn said. “Yes, there are certainly changes and pieces moving around, but I think Vancouver is an exceptional value and an exceptional destination.”
U.S. groups planning Vancouver events sometimes hire Vancouver event planners, such as Pacific Destination Services Inc., said that organization’s CEO, Joanne Burns Millar.
She told BIV that she is concerned about U.S. groups cancelling Vancouver plans and that she has heard that it is happening at local hotels.
“About 70 per cent of our business this year is from a U.S. client base, roughly, and we haven't had any cancellations to date,” she said. “Our clients seem very keen to come. The majority do tend to be from Blue [Democratic-governed] states.”
She believes that a related phenomenon is that Canadian companies are pivoting away from holding events in the U.S. because event attendees may not want to spend money in the U.S. or they may fear being turned away at the border.
“We've seen some issues with people at the border being banned from the U.S.,” Burns Millar said.
Destination Vancouver CEO Royce Chwin told BIV in a text that he has heard of five large conferences involving U.S. clients recently cancelling events.
“We’re not aware of any others at this time,” he said. “We also know some [organizers of] Canadian meetings planned for the U.S. decided to hold their meetings in Canada.”
Tourism Industry Association of BC CEO Walt Judas said he has not yet heard that U.S. organizations are cancelling large events outside Metro Vancouver, in smaller centres.
“That said there are some concerns, I think, within the business events sector,” Judas said.
