Olympic gold medalist Jon Montgomery keynotes TIAC Congress
A gold medal glitter was added to the opening keynote presentations at the recent TIAC Tourism Congress in Vancouver, when Winter Olympic medalist Jon Montgomery took the stage.
He addressed nearly 500 attendees at the Congress, held at the Sheraton Wall Centre in the city’s downtown last week.
At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Montgomery streaked to a gold medal victory in the skeleton ice sliding competition on the twisty track at Whistler. Since then, a stellar career as the host of the Amazing Race Canada has made Montgomery a champion of Canadian tourism. So, it was only fitting that as a current ambassador of Canadian tourism, he should have a speaking opportunity in the Olympic city where his life turned a monumental corner.
An “amazing” career
At the Congress, Montgomery delivered a 45-minute presentation that did a rapid-fire recounting of his life, before zeroing in on the day of his gold medal win – followed by a memorable celebration stroll through Whistler village with a beer pitcher in hand.
A few years later (2013), Montgomery accepted the offer to host the Amazing Race Canada, a travel showcase of Canada that is actually an entertaining reality game. It is the most popular TV show in Canada in terms of audience numbers, and “it is a love letter to Canadian tourism.”
“The Vancouver Olympics was a collective experience that gathered people from coast to coast to coast, and that we can be proud of. It was that collective experience that gave a lot of legs to tourism in Canada, and generated a lot of excitement amongst Canadians,” said Montgomery.
Montgomery has recently finished his 10th season as the host of the Amazing Race Canada and he says that tourism powers the popular show.
About the Tourism Congress
The Tourism Congress was officially launched by TIAC president and CEO Beth Potter last week. She spent most her time on stage reviewing the many achievements by TIAC for its members over the past year, but also tabled an agenda calling for essential changes to the marketing of Canada’s tourism sector.
Fundamental, transformative changes are needed to improve the story and image of Canadian tourism, said Potter. And tourism industry leaders and stakeholders are being challenged to take on this essential job.
“We need to change our story. We need a new narrative. We need to figure out a better way to tell Canadians and Canadian policy makers about our industry, and why it is so important,” said Potter on the official opening day of the Congress.
A year of milestones
The CEO said that the past year had been one of milestones and advancing TIAC’s goals. She pointed to the launch of the first regional tourism round table as an example, and described how TIAC had partnered with the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick for this initiative.
“The insights we gained were important. For example, participants highlighted the need for better infrastructure in rural areas, to support growing visitor numbers. These findings are helping to shape TIAC’s advocacy efforts and will influence future programming.”
The tourism roundtables program will be expanding to other regions and provinces, and TIAC will continue to build on this momentum to ensure every corner of the country has a voice in shaping the future of the industry, she said. Another first for TIAC was the inaugural TIAC investor forum. Designed to connect visionaries and investors with the immense potential of the tourism sector, the forum showed just how transformative those connections can be, said Potter.
Another success this year was TIAC’s national tourism job fair, which was held in partnership with Tourism HR Canada and Baxter Media, at no cost to either employers or job seekers. The job fair offered a new solution to labour shortages across the country by leveraging technology to connect the two parties.
The 2025 Congress will be held in Ottawa-Gatineau (95th anniversary of TIAC), and the 2026 edition is set for Fredericton. tiac-aitc.ca
