When the Spotlight Misleads: What Industry Leaders Celebrate vs What Small Operators Live

When the Spotlight Misleads: What Industry Leaders Celebrate vs What Small Operators Live

Record revenue headlines sound great until your local tour operator is still scrambling with cash flow. This post peels back what industry leaders celebrate as wins and what many small businesses are quietly battling.

Across Canada, industry leaders are heralding “record years” and booming spending. In Toronto, visitors spent $8.8 billion in 2024, driving a $13 billion total economic impact in the city. Nationally, the tourism sector reached an estimated $129.7 billion CAD in total revenue in 2024, up 3.5 percent from 2023’s $124.4 billion CAD. Overnight domestic trips hit 105.6 million, up 8.8 percent.

In 2019, total tourism expenditures in Canada were about $104.9 billion CAD. On paper, that makes 2024 sound like a record year, and like tourism has totally recovered, business is good and all is well. But when adjusted for inflation, 2024 likely comes in closer to $104.4 billion CAD in real terms, meaning we’re actually sitting just below one of our strongest pre-pandemic years. The headlines can say “record,” but for many operators on the ground, it doesn’t feel like one.

If you read between the lines, it’s essentially saying that revenue is the same as six years ago, but with operators juggling significantly higher costs (labour, supplies, insurance, utilities, property taxes, marketing, etc.), it means the margins are even narrower and many businesses are operating on the edge of survival.

Plus, many Canadian tourism businesses are still carrying debt from pandemic-era relief, while trying to keep up with rising costs that outpace their margins. The pressure isn’t just financial; it’s structural. Festivals that once anchored regional economies are disappearing, and community events that used to draw visitors are becoming harder to sustain. Inflation, staffing shortages, and shrinking sponsorships have turned once-reliable income streams into survival efforts.

Even when businesses and events manage to stay afloat, visibility has become another uphill battle. The digital spaces that once helped small operators reach audiences are now working against them. Social media algorithms reward post-event photos and viral moments, not advanced promotion or grassroots storytelling. By the time a festival or experience gains traction online, the opportunity to attend has often passed. The system amplifies what already happened rather than what’s coming next...and that’s a problem for small businesses trying to build momentum in real time.

Access has also become a growing barrier. Air travel in Canada remains expensive and unevenly distributed. Airline fees have risen faster than inflation, and the Competition Bureau has flagged that added charges and limited competition are making flights less affordable. Flight schedules continue to favour major centres, leaving smaller markets with fewer routes, higher fares, and less reliable service.

On top of that, lodging costs have climbed to the point where many Canadians are being priced out of their own destinations. In 2024, average daily hotel rates across Canada rose above CAD 231, while in Toronto the average rate reached CAD 242.30 in early 2025. In popular regions like Banff and BC’s mountain towns, limited supply and strong demand continue to push prices even higher. This lack of connectivity, both in transport and accommodation, doesn’t just restrict travel, it isolates communities from the tourism economy altogether.

The issue isn’t that the national data is wrong. The activity is real, and the wins are worth celebrating. But those numbers mask important questions: who is benefiting most, and who is being left behind? Are these gains distributed across communities, or are they concentrated among large destinations and well-funded experiences?

That imbalance deserves more attention.

If we want a fuller picture of the industry, we need our leaders to tell both sides of the story; the highlights and the hardships. Show the success of major markets, yes, but also the struggle of small communities still trying to recover. We can’t keep treating tourism like a monolith when it’s actually an ecosystem, one where every operator contributes to the whole.

I still believe deeply in what innovation and technology can do for tourism, but tech alone can’t bridge structural gaps. Without better infrastructure like transportation, broadband, equitable funding models, and fair visibility, these “record years” won’t translate into long-term resilience.

If we want those positive trends to reach more people, we need to shift how we measure success. Let’s reward innovation, not inertia. Let’s reform procurement so smaller players can compete. Let’s invest in infrastructure that connects people to places, not just in marketing that tells them where to go. And let’s tell the real stories, the ones that show both the beauty and the burden of building in this industry.

Because when we celebrate numbers without context, we risk mistaking prestige for progress. We applaud mega-events while local businesses fade quietly into the background. That’s not the future tourism deserves.

If we keep protecting giants and shutting out small businesses and startups, we’ll keep getting the same outcomes - high costs, slow adoption, and fewer choices for both travellers and communities. But if we make space for challengers, invest in long-term infrastructure, and actually support the needs of our smaller operators, we can build a system that values creativity, collaboration, and fair competition.

Canada doesn’t lack ambition or ideas. It lacks an environment that rewards courage over size. Until we fix that, we’ll keep measuring activity instead of outcomes. Real progress comes from solving problems that matter and adding value where it’s most needed.

That’s where the future of tourism will be built.

Let’s start celebrating progress that’s shared, not just reported. #GetRoaming and let’s build a tourism economy that values fairness, connection, and the communities that make travel worth experiencing.

Yours in tourism, innovation and startups,

Founder & CEO
Roamlii