Almost 52 years ago, my wife and I honeymooned at Banff in Canada. We stayed at the Banff Springs Hotel, a beautiful, beautiful hotel, in that wonderful part of the world. And I took my wife up to Lake Louise and took her for a canoe ride. She was absolutely terrified because she was afraid I'd tip the canoe over. She forgot about all my canoeing experience when I was a camper at the age of 10 at Camp Idlewild in New Hampshire. We had a successful canoe ride - nothing happened and we got back to shore without getting wet.
We didn't have a Marriott in Canada back then, so when we stayed at Banff Springs, I said, "Someday, maybe we'll have a Marriott hotel in Canada." Twenty years ago, we opened our first Canadian hotel, the Toronto Airport Marriott. Since then, we've added more than 50 hotels in Canada.
As a businessman in a global company with more than 2,800 hotels in 68 countries, I'm a strong believer in free trade. I think travel should be as free as possible, because travel is trade. When a Canadian visits our Times Square Marriott and takes in a Broadway play, that's a U.S. export; when a newly married couple honeymoons in Banff on Lake Louise, that's a Canadian export to the United States. And even more than other forms of trade, travel creates human bonds of friendship and understanding between nations and people.
Canada and the U.S. are each other's largest trading partners - with $2 billion Canadian dollars-worth of trade crossing our shared border every day - and a big part of that is travel. But travel between our countries, particularly U.S. to Canada, is suffering. Overall, trips by U.S. residents to Canada are down more than 17 percent from last year. Same-day automobile trips are down a startling 23 percent. In fact, it looks to me to be about the worst it's been in 20 years.
We can look at several reasons, including high gasoline prices, but one big reason is the confusion over our government's new passport requirements. These came into effect on the 23rd of January as part of what we call the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, or WHTI. WHTI means that everyone traveling by air between the United States and Canada, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean, must have a valid passport to re-enter the U.S. It won't apply to automobile travelers for over a year from now, but confusion over the new law is clearly contributing to the free fall in car travel.
No industry is more aware of the incredible importance of security than we are. Our company was very hard-hit by the terrorist attacks on 9/11. We lost two of our associates that day in New York and our Marriott World Trade Center hotel was reduced to dust. Security is absolutely critical. But getting it right doesn't mean closing our borders, and it can't mean choking the lifeblood of travel between our nations, because if that happens, the terrorists win.
Right now, our Department of Homeland Security is working on a pass card that will be a lot like the "E-Z Pass", the electronic passes many Americans stick to the windshield of their car to zip through toll gates without stopping. It's critical that the government gets it right this time - that it's ready, that it works, and it's not too expensive.
I'm going to keep pressing on this issue because we simply can't afford a permanent drag on cross-border travel. Thanks for helping me keep Marriott on the move.
I'd love to see a Marriott in Tahiti & Islands.
Posted by: Lois | 05/17/2007 at 04:56 AM
I am sorry for bad English. Canada - very interesting country. I hope, I sometime will arrive to Canada
Posted by: Monas | 05/17/2007 at 01:48 AM
very nice informations.thank you very much...
Posted by: evden eve nakliyat | 05/08/2007 at 02:47 PM
Each quarter I receive an account statement which is great. What isn't great is I also receive one or two brochures with pages of special offers. The trouble is they all expire 2 weeks after I recive this account. It happens every time. Thanks for your time
Posted by: Russ Fair | 04/30/2007 at 08:41 AM
Hi,
We just came back from a vacation trip to Canmore, Baniff and Calgary. We stayed in the Calgary Downtown Marriott and enjoyed the stay. I was disappointed to find you no longer had the Canmore Residence Inn. One other area that may be impacting the US-Canada travel is the strengthening of the Canadian Dollar.
Doug
Posted by: Doug Lynch | 04/30/2007 at 04:08 AM
Dear Mr. Marriott,
I just had to chuckle when I read about your canoing experience on Lake Louise, as I had the exact same reaction as your wife, when my husband had the bright idea to rent a canoe for a romantic row around the lake, too many years ago. We were out for a total of about 5 minutes and barely managed to get away from the dock when I made him turn around and take me back. He still bugs me about the 5 minute $40 canoe ride.
We love staying in your Residence Inns and do so at every opportunity, particularly when we visit the States. In the past year or so we have stayed in Las Vegas, Anaheim and Minneapolis Residence Inns.
We are usually in Minneapolis once a year to visit friends, attend the State Fair or shop, and have been going back to the Residence Inn in Eden Prairie for about 10 years.
We will be there again in mid-May, but have been kind of concerned after reading recent reviews by other travelers commenting on less than friendly customer service by front desk staff at this location. This trip will tell whether we will be looking for a different Residence Inn in the Minneapolis area.
We wish the governments of both our countries could iron out the differences with regard to passport regulations as we miss the opportunities to share our lovely country with our American neighbours. You just aren't visiting us as often, and that truly is a shame.
Take care and best regards to your wife.
Heather Arnould
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Posted by: Heather Arnould | 04/29/2007 at 02:56 PM
I've been a reader of your blog for quite a while now.
I love Canada, and I am so glad to hear that you are in support of cross-border trade. Awesome.
Quoting you travel creates human bonds of friendship and understanding between nations and people very true statement, I agree!
Posted by: Rhonda | 04/28/2007 at 04:26 PM
I just came back from Banff, and like you said, the place is so gorgeous. Unfortunately, there's NO marritt hotel neither in Banff Springs and Lake Louise. The nearest marriott hotel will be only in Calgary in which it's 2 hour driving to Banff. We really enjoy the view and the area of Banff. Fairmont is the 5 star hotel who dominate the area. I believe there will be more many of us visiting Banff if only there's a Marriott hotel in the area.
Posted by: SSS | 04/28/2007 at 07:42 AM
Mr. Marriott, I couldn't agree more with your comments. My parents met in Banff a few years after you honeymooned there with your wife. We had a family Christmas at the Banff Springs hotel a year and a half ago. If I can make a comment, perhaps you should focus more on making your hotels in Canada mirror those in the USA. For example, an all studio Residence Inn in Vancouver is not really a Residence Inn to me. Do you have any other residence inns that do not offer one and / or two bedroom suites? I've never seen one. You should buy (or have your real estate arm buy and you manage) the Banff Springs, it would benefit from Marriott's marketing abilities. We need Courtyard Inn and Residence Inns across Canada so you can handily stop in at one wherever you may be, just like in the United States. When I drive to my parents' who now are on the West coast, and I stop midway, I have to stay at a competitor's hotel as there isn't a Marriott property on the way. As for 9/11, I felt very badly for the loss of life, and being a Marriott customer, your losing a hotel and associates was especially unsettling. I can only imagine how troubling it was for you and others inside your firm. I have come to realize that you care about everyone in your Marriott family and this is to be admired.
Posted by: Bill | 04/27/2007 at 05:27 PM
Why can't customers of Marriott add a Blog.......I would like to share my thoughts with other Marriott fans also...
Posted by: Jim L. Burden | 04/27/2007 at 11:30 AM
Mr. Marriott- I am so happy to hear that you are a supporter of cross-border trade. A large number of my family members live in Canada and I, myself, spent some time living in Montreal. I love visiting my family but it's becoming extremely expensive to go to Canada. Sometimes it is cheaper for me to fly to Cancun, Mexico then to fly into Montreal or Toronto. I hope that we can find away to encourage cross-border travel because it's the best way for us to learn about each other and move beyond stereotypes... I love both countries for different reasons as they both offered me a home away my politically unstable native land.
Posted by: G.S | 04/26/2007 at 02:14 AM