Amidst this wilderness bliss sits The Lodge at Chilko Lake, a ten million dollar private guest ranch built by eccentric multi-millionaires, Phil and Anne Huston of Omaha, Nebraska. The Huston’s recognized the significant value of this area and built their dream retreat. Unlike their profit-driven neighbour, Warren Buffet, there is no business model to support such a venture. However, “ROAM Adventures has capitalized as the exclusive operators of this world-class facility” says ROAM founder, Brian McCutcheon.

Greg Klassen, the CTC senior vice president of marketing, said through the country’s Economic Action Plan, a national stimulus spending program, the government body spent about $3 million in marketing and advertising costs in 2011 targeted at prospective Chinese tourists. Through the promotion, “Hello Canada,” it was the first time the agency had been able to “communicate directly” with the Chinese public after previously working through tour operators and travel agents.

Since then, he added, an additional $2 million in promotions targeted directly at Chinese travelers, a group that spent $411 million in the country last year, has been invested.

“We’re in the business of attracting tourists from around the world and we look to invest where the opportunities and the growth are. China is certainly one of those kinds of markets,” Klassen said, adding Chinese arrivals to Canada in January were up more than 10 percent compared with the same period of the previous year.

With spring in full bloom in most of Canada’s major centers in May, Klassen said the CTC doesn’t promote special events to Chinese visitors during golden weeks and key travel periods per say, rather it is focused on ”communicating the breadth and depth of experiences” tourist can have in the country’s four iconic tourism destinations – Vancouver, the Rockies, Toronto/Niagara Falls and Quebec.

“Those (destinations) tend to be the first time (visitors) or the people who don’t know a lot of about Canada. But what we’re actually finding is the growth in Chinese travel to Canada is beginning to become fully independent travelers,” he said.

“These are people who aren’t necessarily traveling in groups but are more comfortable traveling on their own. They’re probably seasoned travelers and have been to many places around the world and they are quite comfortable renting a car and creating their own trips and experiences.”

To publicize Canada beyond the big-four destinations, the CTC is launching its “In Canada you can be a star” promotion on April 24 to 70 editors of leading Chinese publications and online portals. Through a partnership with China’s Travel Channel, five couples will be selected from submitted videos to go to Canada.

Klassen said a camera crew will follow the couples on their Canadian journey and the results will be broadcast in China. An American Idol-style panel of judges and viewers will then select the winning couple who best portray the Canada experience.

“It’s almost a bit of a contest, a game show, but the prize is really the opportunity to broadcast (the Canadian experience) in China.”

A century after its sinking the Titanic haunts this Canadian port where some 150 victims are buried, but has helped spur a tourist boom as it commemorates the sombre anniversary.

The Titanic is everywhere in Halifax. The flags of the ship’s owner, the now defunct White Star Line, are draped across the city’s streets on the 100th anniversary of one of the worst nautical disasters in history.

Models and photos of the ship adorn store windows, as artists, historians, researchers, local authorities and naval museums commemorate the sinking.

“Our goal is to help Nova Scotians and visitors make a connection with Halifax’s very historic role” in the days following the disaster, said Kyla Friel, spokeswoman for the Nova Scotia culture ministry, which is helping to coordinate events.

The Titanic, billed as the world’s most luxurious passenger linerand reputedly unsinkable, left Southampton, southern England, for New York City on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic on April 10, 1912.

Four days into the voyage it struck an iceberg and sank 604 kilometres off Newfoundland with the loss of 1,514 of the 2,224 people on board.

Survivors were picked up by the liner Carpathia and taken to New York, while four Canadian ships dispatched from Halifax with embalming supplies, undertakers, and clergy recovered 328 bodies.

The port itself went into mourning for the loss of one of its favourite sons, George Wright, a millionaire philanthropist who perished with the Titanic, said Garry Shutlak of the Nova Scotia Archives.

Rescue ships recovered numerous objects from the Titanic,including deckchairs. Purchased by the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, these form part of the largest collection of Titanic memorabilia in the world.

Visitors to the permanent exhibition are invited to sit in the chairs and “imagine what it would have been like to relax aboard the most luxurious vessel in its time.”

Other events include a “musical memoir” by Rosalee Peppard who portrays the only Nova Scotian to have survived the disaster.

And there are performances of a play by Anthony Sherwood about “the only black on the Titanic,” Haitian engineer Joseph Laroche, denouncing the racism of the era.

Shutlak says it is difficult to calculate the huge impact the ship has had on tourism in the Canadian province. But it is certainly on the minds of every passenger of the 120 cruise ships that dock here each year.

Rather than putting his active life on hold and adding his name to a wait list, Smith took his business abroad and outsourced the surgery to India.

He contracted a medical tourism company based in Kelowna, B.C., to book the trip, travelled with his wife to Kerala and for $20,000 he had his knee replaced in less than a month. After the surgery, he spent two weeks recovering in hospital with a private nurse, then moved to a five-star hotel while his wife went sightseeing.

Their every need was attended to, right down to a “get well” message written in rose petals on his bed.

“We were concerned (about going abroad for surgery), but we were treated first-class,” says Smith, now 79.

“To me, they had a better system there than they did here.”

“The knee’s still good today. To me, instead of having to wait a year-and-a-half to get something done, if you could afford it, why wouldn’t you?”

When he signed on for surgery abroad in 2005, Smith became one of a rapidly growing number of international health consumers who are fuelling the global medical tourism boom.

The U.S. research firm Frost & Sullivan expects the industry to hit $100 billion this year, and to increase by 20 per cent a year across 50 countries.

For some patients, the cost of surgery is cheaper than in their home country. Others don’t want to wait, or they may be seeking procedures not available in their own country.

A growing number of developing countries now have top-notch doctors, facilities and equipment that reassure Westerners, and the Internet makes it easy to book procedures overseas and allows countries to heavily market their services to consumers.

But there are concerns about the medical tourism industry. In 2010, the World Bank reported the sector has “considerable implications for public health.” There is potential for abuse. Hospital accreditation with the U.S.-based Joint Commission International is voluntary, and medical tourism “facilitators” — brokers — are unregulated and often work on commission.

Then there’s the impact on countries where health resources are being funnelled into private hospitals, possibly depriving local patients of expertise. Some governments give tax breaks to for-profit health centres in countries that lack basic care for their poor.

There is little or no research about how many Canadians travel abroad for medical procedures, the impact of medical tourism on our health-care system, or the effect on destination countries, says Simon Fraser University associate professor of geography Valorie Crooks.

Crooks has spent four years trying to determine the real cost of medical tourism through her SFU Medical Tourism Research Group.

“I think people would be surprised to know that people are choosing to go abroad for medical care more often than they’d think,” said Crooks, who won the first Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant in 2008 to study the issue.

“There’s a lot of public discussion of wait times as the reason people go abroad for surgery, but from our research we know the things prompting Canadians to go abroad are much more diverse.”

The government doesn’t track medical tourists, which leaves researchers and policy-makers in the dark. And although shopping abroad for medical care is perfectly legal, Crooks is concerned with its consequences.

“There’s no international regulation scheme for the industry that assesses things like surgical outcomes and safety,” said Crooks, a health geographer.

“There are a lot of health and safety risks involved . . . the industry is growing so rapidly and there is such a need to know more about what is happening.”

She cites concerns about safety of blood supplies, incomplete medical records, and the risk of flight following surgeries. There can also be pressure on the health system in patients’ home countries to provide follow-up care, especially in the case of organ transplants, and some patients have returned to Canada with hospital-acquired superbugs.

Crooks and her team will visit Mongolia this month and will conduct studies in Mexico, Guatemala, Barbados and India to examine the role of caregivers and the impact of medical tourism on local health care in developing countries.

Crooks hopes more data will lead to ethical buying guidelines for medical consumers to help them minimize their risk. At the moment, Canadians have to fend for themselves or turn to unregulated brokers to arrange surgeries for a fee.

One of the biggest medical facilitators in B.C. is Vancouver’s Surgical Tourism Canada, which has arranged to send more than 1,500 clients abroad since it was founded in 2005. Most of the clients are Canadian; 30 per cent are British Columbians.

“Many people need and want the option of medical specialists to get treatment faster than waiting in line here,” said the company’s spokesman Glenn Sergius.

“People want to go to a place where they get the best medical treatment immediately, if they can afford it.”

Sergius argued patients are as safe abroad as when they undergo procedures at their local hospital.

“The risks faced for those needing medical treatment and surgery — with or without travel — are much the same, perhaps less, because the hospitals have more trained staff per patient,” Sergius said, adding that by using a medical facilitator, the risks are reduced “because an experienced expert . . . is looking after the details relating to choice of physicians and hospitals, travel and accommodations.”

Shaz Pendharkar, of Kelowna, B.C., is the first to admit he isn’t a trained medical professional. He is a retired school principal who connects patients to doctors he knows in India and works part-time as a facilitator. His business, Meditours, is small; he said he’s arranged 60 surgeries since he started the company in 2003.

“I’m not a medical broker,” Pendharkar said. “I really know the doctors well that I send my clients to. I’m more of a niche marketer.”

He arranges all travel details, exchanging medical information with doctors and organizing accommodations. He says he can get a patient into a hospital bed in India in as little as two weeks. Patients generally pay $10,000 to $12,000 for the package, depending on the surgery and not including airfare, and Pendharkar charges a fee of 10 to 15 per cent.

He stresses he doesn’t offer medical advice — just logistical support — and that he’s never had a patient who had a surgery go wrong, save a Vancouver woman who wasn’t entirely happy with her butt-lift.

Pendharkar doesn’t see the need for regulation, but admits patients do take risks, especially dealing directly with foreign hospitals.

“My biggest problem with that sort of system is not knowing the doctors,” he said. “You don’t know what you are getting.”

The heady statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce follow national polling results released last month that show Americans have never had a more positive view of Canadians than they do today – and no wonder, given the unprecedented number of travel and tourism dollars being showered by Canadians on their next-door neighbours.

The latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that the record 21 million Canadian visits to the U.S. last year – each visit defined as a minimum one-night stay – generated just under $24 billion, a record haul for American firms serving Canadian tourists and business travellers.

The 2011 numbers trumpeted this week by U.S. officials topped last year’s totals of 19.96 million Canadian visits to the U.S. and $20.8 billion in spending by Canadians south of the border.

The high value of the loonie relative to the U.S. dollar has been a key factor driving the surge in both the number of Canadian visits to the U.S. and crossborder spending, said spokesman Tim Truman of the U.S. Inter-national Trade Administration, a branch of the country’s commerce department.

The contribution of Canadian travellers to the U.S. tourism and travel industry is huge.

More than one-third of all foreign visits to American destinations were made by Canadians, with second-place Mexico – which generated 13.4 million stays of at least one night – far ahead of Britain (3.8 million), Japan (3.2 million) and Germany (1.8 million), which rounded out the top five sources of international visitors to the U.S. in 2011.

Meanwhile, the $24 billion spent by Canadian travellers in the U.S. in 2011 was up significantly over the previous record of $20.8 billion in 2010.

Canadians aren’t just travelling to the U.S. in record numbers.

This week, the Mexican embassy in Ottawa released figures showing that Canadians made more than 1.5 million overnight visits to Mexico in 2011.

It was the highest number of Canadian visits to Mexico ever – up seven per cent over 2010 and up 29 per cent over 2009.

In February, an annual Gallup survey in the U.S. measuring how “favourable” Americans felt towards Canadians yielded the most positive results since the question was first posed by the polling firm nearly 25 years ago.

A record 96% of U.S. respondents said they felt “very favourable” or “mostly favourable” towards Canadians. Favourability ratings for Canadians of 93% in 1987 and 1989 were the previous highs, with lows of 87% and 86% registered in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

The heady statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce follow national polling results released last month that show Americans have never had a more positive view of Canadians than they do today – and no wonder, given the unprecedented number of travel and tourism dollars being showered by Canadians on their next-door neighbours.

The latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that the record 21 million Canadian visits to the U.S. last year – each visit defined as a minimum one-night stay – generated just under $24 billion, a record haul for American firms serving Canadian tourists and business travellers.

The 2011 numbers trumpeted this week by U.S. officials topped last year’s totals of 19.96 million Canadian visits to the U.S. and $20.8 billion in spending by Canadians south of the border.

The high value of the loonie relative to the U.S. dollar has been a key factor driving the surge in both the number of Canadian visits to the U.S. and crossborder spending, said spokesman Tim Truman of the U.S. Inter-national Trade Administration, a branch of the country’s commerce department.

The contribution of Canadian travellers to the U.S. tourism and travel industry is huge.

More than one-third of all foreign visits to American destinations were made by Canadians, with second-place Mexico – which generated 13.4 million stays of at least one night – far ahead of Britain (3.8 million), Japan (3.2 million) and Germany (1.8 million), which rounded out the top five sources of international visitors to the U.S. in 2011.

Meanwhile, the $24 billion spent by Canadian travellers in the U.S. in 2011 was up significantly over the previous record of $20.8 billion in 2010.

Canadians aren’t just travelling to the U.S. in record numbers.

This week, the Mexican embassy in Ottawa released figures showing that Canadians made more than 1.5 million overnight visits to Mexico in 2011.

It was the highest number of Canadian visits to Mexico ever – up seven per cent over 2010 and up 29 per cent over 2009.

In February, an annual Gallup survey in the U.S. measuring how “favourable” Americans felt towards Canadians yielded the most positive results since the question was first posed by the polling firm nearly 25 years ago.

A record 96% of U.S. respondents said they felt “very favourable” or “mostly favourable” towards Canadians. Favourability ratings for Canadians of 93% in 1987 and 1989 were the previous highs, with lows of 87% and 86% registered in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

Jim Watson, the Ottawa mayor, said the expo would give Canadians the latest information about tours offered by travel companies around the world.

Vietnamese Ambassador Le Sy Vuong Ha, said the embassy would invite other Vietnamese travel agencies to take part in the next tourism fair in Canada.

General Director of Ky Nguyen Company, Pham Xuan Nhat, said his company’s participation at the expo was part of the country’s strategy to expand tourism in North American markets and Canada in particular.

At the event, several Canadian and international leading travel agencies such as Tours Hai International and Voyages Symone also introduced visitors to their tours in Viet Nam.

In partnership with a local reseller, Electro Tel, EthoStream will provide hardware, including EthoStream Gateway Servers, as well as 24/7/365 support to 34 properties owned and operated by Canalta throughout western Canada. Telkonet has provided equipment and support to each of the hotels for several years, but this agreement formalizes the relationship and demonstrates Canalta values the convenience, quality and performance of the end-to-end solution the company provides. EthoStream offers hardware, software and in-house technical support to enable remote maintenance of the network infrastructure as well as provide technical assistance to guests.

Brooke Christianson, Vice President of Hotel Operations for Canalta, said, “The EthoStream solution provides both the technology and the responsive in-house customer support necessary for us to offer a seamless Internet experience to hotel guests. When we need onsite assistance, Electro Tel is always there for us.”

The EthoStream Hospitality Network reaches across all of Canada to include Canalta properties in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Through its reseller program, EthoStream services the needs of customers in all areas of North America, Central America and the Caribbean. EthoStream resellers enjoy the benefits of an industry-leading HSIA platform and are able to concentrate their efforts on meeting the needs of their customers. Most resellers perform onsite installation and maintenance while offering EthoStream’s HSIA Gateway, Remote Management Console reporting engine, brand-standard portal solutions and 24/7/365 customer support.

Federal officials see Canada’s failure to take advantage of a rapidly growing market for international tourism as a key economic challenge facing the country.

Canada has seen its ranking as a destination for international tourists fall from eighth in the world in 2000 to 15th in 2009, according to documents from Industry Canada officials used last year to brief Maxime Bernier after being appointed minister of state for small business and tourism.

These documents, attained through an access-to-information request, highlight how Canada’s share of international travellers had declined from 2.9 per cent in 2000 to 1.8 per cent in 2009. That was despite a trend of expanding world travel that’s seen international trips made by people rise from 440 million in 1990 to 935 million in 2010 and to be on track to reach 1.6 billion by 2020.

“Long-term growth of the tourism sector in Canada is dependent on improving competitiveness in the global market and capturing a greater share of the growing number of international travellers,” the government documents say.

These briefings point to the importance of tourism to Canada’s economy, saying it accounted for about two per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product in 2010 and 3.6 per cent of the country’s employment with 617,300 jobs. It also said the industry generated $19 billion in revenue for various levels of government in 2009.

The information also indicates that 80 per cent of the revenue generated in Canada’s tourism industry comes from Canadian travellers, and the remaining 20 per cent from people of other countries.

Quinn Newcomb, spokesman for the Canadian Tourism Commission, said the country’s share of international travel fell further in 2010 to 1.7 per cent, adding it’s part of a trend that’s been ongoing since the 1950s as more countries become players in the world tourism market.

“It’s definitely a more competitive marketplace now,” Newcomb said. “There are a lot more players in the field; a lot more well-funded marketing organizations, especially from some new emerging markets.”

Scott French, a spokesman for Bernier, said the government is taking steps to make Canada more competitive in the world tourism industry.

“Tourism is an important industry that creates jobs in every region of the country,” he said in an email. “In order to seize upon the opportunity to attract more travellers to Canada, our government launched the federal tourism strategy this fall.

“Working with industry, our government’s strategy will better co-ordinate governmentwide efforts to support Canada’s tourism industry while positioning tourism businesses to become more competitive internationally.”

Newcomb said the tourism commission, a Crown corporation, is responding to the situation by more aggressively promoting the unique experiences one can have in Canada, ranging from the Calgary Stampede to seeing polar bears in Churchill, Man.

The government briefings show the Americas and Europe received 87 per cent of international travellers in 1980, but that had fallen to 76 per cent by 2000 and is expected to drop to 64 per cent by 2020. More tourism in Asia was cited as a main factor.