Canadian rapper Drake (born Aubrey Drake Graham) is singlehandedly changing the media channels of distribution priorities by which a major destination, Toronto, promotes itself. And in doing so, one study says, he has become responsible for generating about $440 million of the city’s $8.8 billion in annual tourism revenues.
The Toronto-born Drake, who is also a singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur, initially gained recognition as an actor on the teen drama television series “Degrassi: The Next Generation” in the early 2000s.
His growing audience and popularity has reached the point that, last year, his “More Life” album generated more than a billion streams in a month—from within the United States alone.
In a recent Vice News report, marketing and branding consultant Gordon Hendren said that Drake’s influence is responsible for about 5 percent of the Toronto’s $8.8 billion total annual tourism income. This translates into some $440 million coming into the city, due to the way he serves as a representative for the city, its Toronto Raptors NBA team and various restaurants and clubs around the city.
Said Hendren: “He’s helped to rebrand the city … He’s kind of made himself the same as Toronto.”
For more, click on the link to this Billboard video news report on the subject: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8464298/drake-5-percent-toronto-tourism-economy-expert
A new survey reveals that 74 per cent of Canadians are likely to stop traveling to the United States in response to a de facto trade war between launched by U.S. President Donald Trump in the form of trade tariffs and his disdain for NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement.).This and other results of the survey conducted by Nanos Research and commissioned by Canada’s CTV News and The Globe and Mail, came out last week, just as the 2018 peak summer travel season was in full throttle.
While the highlighted numbers in the last report from Destination Canada show that—based on just-released data covering the First Quarter of 2018—the country is experiencing another year of record inbound traffic, it is also increasing its tally of visitors to the United States in healthy numbers, ending a slump that saw Canadian arrivals to the U.S. fall by about 3.7 million visitors from 2014 through 2016.
The preliminary data are in. And they show that last year set a record for the number of international visitors to Canada. The latest report from Destination Canada, the nation’s tourism promotion arm, showed that international arrivals for the year reached 20.8 million, surpassing the previous annual record of 20.179 million visitors set in 2002. With the exception of a decline in visitors from the UK, all other countries in Destination Canada’s 11 target market either set annual records or had a very good year. (Statistics Canada is the source for all figures in this article.)
Looks Like a Record Year is Certain: The latest monthly data for international arrivals (for November 2017) to Canada seem to suggest that the year just ended will be the best ever for inbound tourism to the country. The snapshot below shows results for Canada’s 11 target markets. Note the number of source markets for whom November established “highest ever” records. In the second graphic below, not that the trend line is either at or above the line for 2016, which produced the second-largest total for all international visits to Canada.
