Business Events Canada (BEC) recently launched a new website designed to attract international meetings, conventions and incentive events to Canada and its myriad event and tourism destinations.

Supported by BEC’s content team, the digital hub is geared toward U.S., U.K. and international meeting and event planners and decision-makers.

According to BEC officials, more than 8,000 international conferences are held across Canada each year.

“International meetings and events are important drivers of the Canadian economy,” said Chantal Sturk-Nadeau, executive director of Business Events Canada, which is a division of Destination Canada, the country’s national tourism marketing organization.

She continued, “This new website aligns with Canada’s export strategy by incorporating vertical sectors into each destination profile. Most planners already know that Canada offers tremendous opportunities. By aligning with our vertical sectors and showcasing the unique experiences available here, we will expand on that knowledge base.”

As just one element of BEC’s marketing and communications strategy to engage key audiences, the new online hub is intended to:     

• focus on Canada’s diverse destinations and meeting and incentive experiences
• offer an improved visitor experience and easy access to information important to planners
• enable Canadian partners to play an active role in contributing to content
• provide dynamic content to keep up with evolving destinations and experiences
• feature Canada Meetings, a blog on the latest news from across the country’s meetings and incentive industries.

Aligned with the Canadian government’s export strategy, the site integrates all of BEC’s strategies to provide targeted content for association, corporate and incentive markets, along with content about Canada’s key economic sectors.

Visitors to the hub will find easy-to-navigate destination profiles along with at-a-glance information, including:

• meetings infrastructure by location
• contacts to help organizers plan their events
• a sampling of creative events and team building activities unique to each destination
• case studies and curated articles highlighting Canada’s standing as a popular international meeting location

“Canada is one of the world’s premier meeting destinations (and) the new digital hub reinforces that Canada is a smart place to meet,” Sturk-Nadeau said.

She continued, “The possibilities really are almost endless: from city-wide conventions for thousands, to extraordinary incentive experiences, to cosmopolitan luxury getaways and indulgent terroir-driven culinary experiences, we hope after they’ve spent some time on the hub that meeting planners come away so inspired that they’ll put Canada in the mix for their next bid.”

At this time, BEC’s digital hub features 27 destinations, with additional destinations and group experiences to be added in the coming months.

To check out the new BEC website, go here.