Release Notes

Data Collective Website

What’s New

• Generative AI Search Playbook: A Practical Guide To Smarter GEO is now available
  Learn why Generative Engine Optimization matters, how to get your website and your organization prepared for Generative AI, and how to get cited by AI search – fast. Access plug-and-play checklists, best practices, and tools to support AI readiness

Aurora AI

What’s New

• Introducing Aurora AI
  Destination Canada has launched Aurora AI, a trusted, accessible digital layer combining trusted research and data with the speed of generative AI. Built by our industry, for our industry, Aurora AI transforms complex intelligence into actionable insights, empowering faster, data-driven decision making for Canada’s hosting economy. Learn more about Aurora AI’s at the new Aurora AI landing page. Here, explore Aurora AI’s purpose, its data sources, the agents available today, and the advancements still to come.
• Aurora Search Now Available
  Aurora Search, the Data Collective’s generative AI-powered search was designed to simplify discovery by allowing users to search using natural language and providing clear, grounded answers with access to full source material. Aurora Search has been merged with the existing traditional search within the Data Collective platform, allowing all users access to this faster, smarter, more intuitive tool for sourcing and acting on trusted tourism data.
   

TourismScapes

What’s New

• National Parks filter
  Filter on the ‘explore’ page identifies communities within 100 kilometers of a National Park
• Visitor origin spend categories
  Visitor spend origin now shows the share of spending by domestic, US, and overseas visitors.
• Data refresh

Data Collective Website

What’s New

• Tourism GDP Infographic 2024
  Destination Canada and Statistics Canada have released an infographic showcasing tourism’s contribution to Canada’s GDP in 2024. This visual highlights the sector’s economic impact at the national level and is designed to support storytelling, public engagement, and to assist industry stakeholders.
• Resident Sentiment Index 2024
  This annual infographic summarizes Canadian residents’ attitudes toward tourism across four key areas: openness to visitors, perceived benefits, concerns about impacts, and confidence in community readiness. Results are benchmarked against global norms and provide valuable insights to support sustainable tourism planning.

Global Traveller Research

What’s Next

• GTRP Mexico Report
  The latest GTRP market report for Mexico will be available next week on the Data Collective. Stay tuned for insights into traveller behaviours, motivations, and perceptions through a segmentation lens.

Data Collective Website

What’s New

• In honour of the 1-year anniversary of the Data Collective platform launch, we’ve enhanced the design of the homepage and navigation based on user research collected over the last year and to ensure the seamless growth of the platform.
• An all-new Resources section and dedicated release notes page to serve as a hub for all you need to stay up-to-date on the Data Collective
   

Wealth & Wellbeing Index

What’s New

• Experience Subindex: The Experience Subindex provides insights into tourism products, travel demand, and place brand.
   

TourismScapes

What’s New

• Expanded Asset Map Layers
• Tourism Business Size Insights
• Tourism Region Boundary Change
• Removal of Distance to Nearest International Airport
• Removal of Visitor Spend Index
   

Lodging Aligned Spend Reporting

What’s New

• Finalization of 2024 Estimates
• Expanded SFTP Delivery
• Enhancements to Nunavut Estimates
• Launch of ML-Powered Forecasts - Premium

What’s Next

• Federal Riding Estimates Targeted for July
• Non-Accommodation Enhancements Planned
• US State-Level Estimates in Development
   

The Traveller Segmentation Program

What’s New

• How-to-guide publication

What’s Next

• Canada traveller profile updates
• Workshop material package
• Google / Meta Variable Recipes
   

Tourism Outlook

What’s New

• Destination Canada’s Tourism Outlook 2025-2030

What’s Next

• The Outlook will undergo an update in 2025 to account for the most recent changes in travel patterns.

Tourism Performance Indicators

What’s New

• Key Takeaways / recent insights will be available alongside each key performance indicator chart to support interpretation of the latest results.
• Data and insights will be updated on the TPI dashboard within 3-5 business days of initial data release.

What’s Next

• Additional content and functionality may be added to the dashboard later in 2025.

Data Collective Website 

What’s New 

• International Convention Attraction Fund (ICAF) Visualization: A new data visualization added to the homepage focused on demonstrating the success of the ICAF program. This visualization represents a number of statistics including the projected direct economic impact, funding commitment, and win rate. The data will be updated on a quarterly basis with year-end holding numbers updated on an annual basis. 

What’s Next

• Newly designed Release Notes page within the platform
• New Resources landing page for easy access to new reports, training materials, webinars
• New Contact Us form for inquiries to the Data Collective team
• New navigation layout and information architecture

Data Collective Website

What’s New 

• Automated Subscription Renewals for 2025–2026: Existing partner organizations can now renew their subscription for the April 1, 2025 – March 31, 2026 period. As we move into a new program year, Destination Canada continues to enhance the Data Collective, reinforcing our commitment to making data-driven decision-making more accessible for the tourism industry.  

What’s Next

• Notification Center: To keep partners informed without interruption, the rotating Notification Bar and Notification Center will soon be available. Updates will be automatically ingested and displayed in real time, ensuring users always have the latest product information.
   

Wealth & Wellbeing Index

What’s New 

• Wealth & Wellbeing report: The Wealth and Wellbeing Index report is available for download. The report contextualizes insights for Canada and for each province and territory. 

What’s Next

• Experience Subindex: The next phase will focus on the development and release of select indicators for the Experience index, which will provide insights into tourism products, travel demand, and place brand.
   

TourismScapes 

What’s New 

• Parks and heritage sites filter added to the ‘Explore’ page. When a user selects the filter, all Census subdivisions with at least one national park or provincial park or national heritage site or provincial heritage site will appear in the sort pane. Users can continue to sort by total Indigenous tourism employment or total tourism employment.

What’s Next

• Asset Map: Asset map will be updated to reflect tourism business subsectors and tourism business sizes in Q2 2025.
• Data Refresh: Market profile data will be updated to reflect 2024 in Q3 2025
   

Lodging Aligned Spend Reporting 

What’s New 

• LASR Monthly Refresh Update: The January estimates have been released via SFTP and Data Collective Dashboards. With this update, 2024 data has been moved to Full Year Pages, while Year-to-Date pages now display only January estimates. Please note that 2024 data remains "Preliminary" and will be marked "Final" in late April following the last data update from NTI.
• AI-Powered Forecasting in Minutes: LASR leverages advanced machine learning workflows and MLOps best practices to deliver precise visitor spending forecasts at national to regional levels across five categories, serving Premium Tier partners for unmatched speed and efficiency. This feature has been released to select group partners for preview and feedback.