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Kananaskis, Alberta © Destination Canada

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With Aurora AI and its Traveller Twin, Destination Canada makes access to tourism data easier and helps professionals better understand their audiences, test their projects, and steer their business decisions more quickly. Canada is simplifying access to its data through Aurora AI.

In tourism, data is a powerful driver of performance. Yet for tour operators, online agencies, destinations, or activity providers, extracting value from it can still demand significant time and resources.

With Aurora AI, Destination Canada aims to make this knowledge more easily accessible and directly usable. This AI ecosystem enables tourism professionals to query reliable data in natural language and rapidly obtain insights that inform their decisions.

The objective is concrete: reduce the time spent on research and analysis, better target travelers, and mitigate risks before investing in a new product or a marketing campaign.

Tourism data accessible in seconds

Fruit of Canada’s tourism know-how, Aurora AI rests on an unmatched understanding of travel information at global and national scales. Built by Destination Canada, Aurora AI is a knowledge network that uses Gemini Enterprise and is fueled by the Canadian Tourism Data Consortium. This consortium provides validated research, reliable data sets, and insights from Destination Canada’s partners, ensuring credibility and relevance. It was launched in 2024 and won the Best Use of Artificial Intelligence for Nonprofit or Non-commercial Purposes at the 2024 DataIQ AI Awards.

Launched in November 2025, Aurora AI combines natural language querying, predictive models, traveler simulation tools, and AI agents in an integrated system that learns, adapts, and responds.

The Traveller Twin to test a project before launch

Among the features offered, the Traveller Twin lets you simulate how different traveler profiles would react. It builds on the segmentation program of the Canadian Tourism Data Consortium, created from research conducted with real travelers in Destination Canada’s ten major markets, including France.

“Its French version, launched in May 2026 at Rendez-vous Canada, can notably assist tour operators and reservation platforms marketing the destination.” explains Cyrielle Bon, CEO of Destination Canada in France

A professional can, for example, propose a stay idea, a new product, an advertising message, or a campaign concept. The Traveller Twin then helps identify the most receptive audiences, better understand their expectations, and anticipate their reactions.

The tool can also be used to refine a sales pitch or support a recommendation with structured traveler insights. The aim is to adjust a project upstream, before mobilizing production budgets or media buying.

A tool in service of return on investment

By easing the research, targeting, and testing stages, Aurora AI can help improve the effectiveness of marketing investments. It isn’t about predicting consumer behavior with certainty, but about providing extra data to make more informed decisions.

For tourism companies, the potential benefits show up in several ways: shorter analysis time, more precisely targeted campaigns, products more aligned with travelers’ expectations, and resources focused on the most promising opportunities.

This deeper understanding of audiences also serves as a differentiator. In a sector where travelers increasingly seek highly personalized offerings, the ability to quickly tailor products and messages can become a real competitive edge.

Commercial results already observed

Several Canadian tourism companies have already used the Traveller Twin to evolve their offerings.

Brett Soberg, co-founder and captain of Eagle Wing Whale Watching explains: “We leaned on the tool to identify new interests among our visitors and to explore experiences that complement our usual excursions.” By expanding their portfolio, they doubled the number of their specialized tours.

At Bay of Fundy Adventures, founder Jordan Jamison also used Aurora AI: it helped them identify refined globetrotters as the segment with the strongest potential to book guided experiences and stay in the region. They shifted their strategy from promoting individual activities to promoting a destination conducive to immersive experiences. This new approach was accompanied by a 200% rise in bookings compared with the previous year.

These results illustrate how a better understanding of traveler expectations can translate into product evolution and improved business performance.

Consortium de Données Touristiques canadiennes © Destination Canada

A technological expertise serving the industry

Participate in the development of Aurora AI

Aurora AI is developing new agents and continuously innovating to meet the evolving needs of the tourism sector. We want to hear your feedback on your experiences with Aurora AI.

Please send your questions, comments, and ideas to the Data Consortium team by writing your feedback here.

Emploi, salaires, attractivité : où en est le tourisme depuis le Covid ? - Photo ASIA

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TourMaG.com – How is the employment market in tourism performing today?

Julien Beaufreton : The situation has clearly improved since the end of Covid. Hiring hasn’t become easy, but there are more candidates available. The market is more fluid than it was during the two years that followed the health crisis.

TourMaG.com – How do you explain this evolution?

Julien Beaufreton : It should be noted that there was a significant wage inflation between 2019 and the end of the Covid period, largely linked to the rise in the minimum wage.

In 2018-2019, the gross monthly minimum wage was around 1,500 euros. It is now around 1,820 euros. Employers have integrated this inflation into mid- to long-term planning, which has notably manifested as upward adjustments to the minimum wage scales within the sector.

Furthermore, the post-Covid recruitment difficulties were also explained by the fact that many people were still in long-term unemployment, with no immediate pressure to return to work.

Still more progress to be made on gender equality

TourMaG.com – À votre arrivée à la tête de la CPPNI, vous aviez identifié trois priorités : l’ajustement des salaires minimums, l’égalité femmes-hommes et l’attractivité des métiers du tourisme. Où en êtes-vous aujourd’hui ?

Julien Beaufreton : On gender equality, we are still in a phase of reflection at the branch level. The main difficulty lies in accessing consolidated data. Companies have their own indicators, but aggregating them at the branch level is challenging.

We know, nonetheless, that tourism is a highly feminized sector, with about 75 % women. The challenge is therefore to promote their access to leadership positions, because imbalances persist, even if they are difficult to quantify precisely.

The question of pay equality also remains a priority area.

TourMaG.com – And regarding the attractiveness of tourism jobs ?

Julien Beaufreton : We participate in the Tourism Careers Week, but this scheme mainly concerns inbound tourism: hotels, amusement parks, outdoor hospitality.

In tour-operating and travel agencies, i.e., outbound tourism, recruitment difficulties are generally less pronounced.

Reopening of the Annual Mandatory Negotiations (NAO)

TourMaG.com – Quels seront vos principaux dossiers pour 2026 ?

Julien Beaufreton : We are opening the 2026 NAOs, which mainly focus on branch-level compensation: the hierarchical minimum wages, but also ancillary elements such as the seniority bonus, teleworking, or other peripheral benefits.

The NAOs occur every two years in our branch. We are currently in the first phase, that of listening to representative employee organizations. The goal is to move forward quickly and maintain constructive social dialogue.

TourMaG.com – What assessment do you make of your first year at the head of the commission?

Julien Beaufreton : The exchanges have been generally calm and constructive. In 2025, we held six CPPNI meetings, with a co-construction approach: shared diagnosis, listening to stakeholders, and seeking common solutions.

We have specifically worked on aligning the national collective agreement with regulations, on the implementation and monitoring of the new health and provident mutual, as well as on a branch-wide agreement relating to caregivers.

This agreement aims to support employees who care for a sick relative or someone nearing the end of life. It is particularly relevant in a branch with many seniors and a majority of women, who are statistically more likely to be affected by these situations. We hope for a signature in the first half of 2026.

TourMaG.com – Is the rejuvenation of employees and entrepreneurs also a challenge for the branch?

Julien Beaufreton : Yes, clearly. Many workers will retire in the next five to ten years, raising questions about the transmission of skills.

These challenges are, however, very company-specific. Large organizations can implement tutoring or bridging programs, which is much more complex for small agencies.

At the branch level, it is therefore difficult to set frameworks that apply to all company sizes.

See also : Young, female and on a permanent contract: the typical profile of tourism employees (Infographic)