As worn out as operators of fine dining restaurants might be, more than one-third cater in excess of 13 functions per month. Most of these take place in their restaurants.

Among the non-commercial operators, hospitals, colleges, and contract employee feeders wrack up the catering jobs. They serve patients, students and employees. And, they cater events, usually for fewer than 50 people, on their premises. These kitchens are running a type of room service with small groups eating and meeting in rooms throughout the facility.

The survey also shows sharp differences in the aggressiveness of kitchens run by contract operators over those managed by the institutions themselves. Most contractors tackled more than 13 events per month; whereas, almost 60% of the self-run operations settled for less.

Who works the jobs? Entering the catering business to offer staff more hours will probably work. Restaurants and hotels rely on existing wait-staff for catering jobs, often reinforcing them with casual hires, including family members. Social caterers show an especially high tendency to tap family, since their work force must ebb and flow in response to bookings.

Busiest seasons: "If you're not prepared to take a hit in January and February and think this is a flat-line business, then you shouldn't be in this business," says Shelly Pedersen, a longtime caterer and President of the National Association of Catering Executives (NACE). But, catering's seasonality makes sense. Family restaurants, with their casual fare, see catering opportunities rise with summer temperatures. Schools respond to busy classrooms and academic activities in spring and fall. Most other catering operations post their best receipts in winter — largely due to intensive holiday catering. Balancing Pedersen's warning against the fat winter numbers, one can fully appreciate the frenzied holiday party season.

Business vs. social: Hidden in the unremarkable splits between the business and the social markets is a surprising strength among family restaurants in catering business functions. They report that more than 71 per cent of their catering dollars come from business and corporate clients.

Businesses and corporations obviously keep the catering phenomenon alive. Even schools (66 percent of them) cater business events. In fact, there are more schools handling corporate events than handling community meetings, according to the survey.

Social caterers most often answer the call for ethnic theme parties. According to Kramer, the rise in international corporate affiliations has opened the field for ethnic themes. If a firm opens a new branch in China, for instance, get ready for dragons and fireworks. She also points out the care with which ethnic themes must be executed. "Corporations have to be in tune with their audience. Once you've done enough research, you can create a theme with wonderful ambiance. Anytime you can theme an event and be socially, politically, and morally correct, you've got a hit.

On-premises vs. off: Family restaurants serve more catered meals outside than inside. And even fine dining restaurants attribute 41% of their catering sales to off-premises events.

Social caterers rely on attractive facilities and settings for their parties. With demand rising, good rooms are scarce. Therein lies an opportunity that restaurants are seizing with banquet rooms and off-night functions. Besides, off-premise catering often presents unseen dangers. "The science of the food is different," says Shelly Pedersen. "As are the equipment needs and the demands on the staff."

Average size group: The flexibility and experience of social caterers seems to allow them to handle large crowds. Volume can widen profit margins and social caterers, who fight for budget against rent and liquor costs, often make their money head by head. On the whole, gatherings of 100 or less dominate the catering service.

Table service vs. buffet: The popularity of buffets continues with one notable exception. Within these figures, resorts and hotels report serving half their catered meals at table. Family restaurants boost buffet scores among commercial operators, since they offer table service at less than ten per cent of the events they handle. Even among fine dining restaurants, however, buffets remain more popular than table service.

Ginger Kramer sees the popularity of buffets continuing and increasing along with the demand for theme parties. "Themes are hot", she says. "And it's much easier to attach a theme to a buffet than to a single plate." She also points to the greater variety available at a buffet and its effect on social dynamics. Buffets allow party-goers to mingle throughout the room. Table service confines them to one table.

Where's the money? Commercial operations vary in their commitment to catering; social caterers live by it; and non commercials seem to take care of their own people. These variations make direct analysis of profit margins hard to ascertain. But one conclusion is obvious: with 50 per cent of the commercial operators, 78 per cent of social caterers, and a 25 per cent of non-commercial operators making more than $10,000 per year, catering is alive and growing.

The future: Results show that respondents see healthy growth in every market for catering. The highest numbers in each category reflect the strength of each type of caterer. Non-commercials see potential in on-premises events, as do commercial caterers. Ginger Kramer agrees. "There simply aren't enough banquet facilities and special event sites," she says. The survey confirms Kramer's assertion that caterers who do both on and off-premises events will achieve the greatest business success.

Tourism industry

At the federal level tourism is the responsibility of the minister of state for small business and tourism through Tourism Canada in the Department of Regional Industrial Expansion. The promotion and development of tourism through a designated federal agency dates from 1934. The recognized national industry association is the Ottawa-based Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC). It is an umbrella organization representing private sector companies, organizations, institutions and individuals engaged in tourism in Canada and working in partnership with provincial and territorial tourism-industry associations. TIAC has represented the Canadian tourism industry for 69 years and exists to lobby government, to communicate with industry, and to increase public awareness of the importance of tourism and the need for public support.

Tourism dates back to the early history of Canada. Writings by the early explorers and traders contributed to the growing knowledge of the Canadian landscape, still the primary attraction of Canada's tourism industry (see EXPLORATION AND TRAVEL LITERATURE). From the mid-18th to the early 19th century TOPOGRAPHIC PAINTERS recorded an idealized landscape, scenes that were often reproduced as engravings in travel books published in Europe. The CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY, through its rail and steamship services, its hotels and publicity campaigns, attracted affluent European and American tourists to Canada. Modern travel and the opportunity for mass travel came with the jet airplane. Business travel illustrates the degree of change: travel and related expenses are the third-largest expenditure of Canadian business, after payroll and data-processing expenditures. Canadian companies spent $3 billion in 1986.

The Canadian tourism industry requires sophisticated marketing, delivering value and service. Beginning in 1984 Canada experienced a turnaround following 10 years of decline during which its balance of payments deficit on the international travel account grew from $300 million to $2.2 billion. Nineteen eighty-six was an exceptional year: foreign visitors increased 18%. The primary reasons for this growth were EXPO 86 in Vancouver, a favourable exchange rate with the US, an aggressive federal government advertising campaign in the US and negative incidents in other parts of the world which discouraged N Americans from travelling overseas. The best potential new source for travellers to Canada is likely in the Pacific Rim countries. Arrivals from Japan and Hong Kong are expected to show an increase, continuing an upward trend that started in 1979. Australia remains stable. The US continues to be Canada's primary source of visitors; they comprise over 85% of our tourism market. Traditional European markets, including the UK, France, W Germany and the Netherlands, are expected to produce moderate growth over the next few years.

Contemporary Canadian tourist attractions are often the same as those extolled by early travel writers - the fjorded coast of BC, the majestic grandeur of the Canadian Rockies, the wide open spaces of the Prairies, the lakes, forests and rivers of central Canada, the Atlantic coast in its infinite variety of bays, coves, beaches and scenic vistas, the arctic environment and people, and, of course, such old favourites as NIAGARA FALLS. The works of humans have been added to these natural assets through the development of modern and sophisticated cities, and through galleries and museums, performing arts, historic sites, FESTIVALS, and events such as Expo 86, the CALGARY STAMPEDE and winter OLYMPIC GAMES. To most of the world Canada is known as a tourist destination through its scenery, space and environment.

During the review period, the travel and tourism industry was under constant pressure beginning in 2001 with the terrorist attacks. In 2003, the industry was tainted by the war in Iraq, which caused uneasiness about travel, the SARS outbreak in Toronto and a sluggish US economy. SARS was contained within two months of the outbreak, despite a second unexpected resurgence, but the damage brought on by a WHO travel advisory was done. The impact of these events was greatest on international tourism, followed by US visitors to Canada, but was not expected to significantly influence Canadians' decisions to travel.

Domestic tourism, which accounted for the bulk of the Canadian tourism industry, remained firm during the review period, with continuing popularity particularly among the older generation, highlighting the desire to stay close to home, which resulted from security and economic concerns. However, more cautious spending patterns emerged towards the end of the review period, per capita expenditure for domestic trip fell by 6% since 2000, but a drop of less than 1% over the review period as a whole. Overall, the WTO ranked Canada as ninth in the world's top 15 destinations for travel, capturing 2. 8% of the total international travel market at its last ranking, in 2001. Demographic trends remained largely intact. Greying populations worldwide, including Canada, will mean demand for structured tourism products such as pre-packaged and all-inclusive tours and cruises and quality accommodations.

Women are also increasingly becoming a larger proportion of Canadian travellers. The accommodation market suffered towards the end of the review period. Hardest hit was Toronto, suffering losses of C$5million per day in April, as many major conventions cancelled their reservations due to SARS. Accommodations across Ontario also reported losses, but not nearly as significant as those in Toronto. Through the review period, accommodation revenue increased by 9. 7%. Hotels struggled to keep up occupancy levels and in 2003 there were tremendous value deals available in hotels. In such a competitive environment, alternative, no-frills accommodation benefited, such as hostels and guesthouses. Consumers were also more likely to stay with international brand names, such as Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. Merger and acquisition activity dropped off significantly in almost all areas of the travel and tourism industry.

The tone in the industry as a whole was, at best, to maintain market share and revenue with strong efforts made to avoid losing ground because of the tough economic environment. There were no significant mergers and acquisitions in 2003, although as the economy improves, through 2004 and 2005 the levels of activity may turn around.

Canada's travel deficit, pushed down to its lowest level in more than 10 years, is benefiting from an influx of American tourism dollars.

The deficit declined by 42.1 per cent to $1.4 billion in the first nine months of 1998, down from $2.4 billion during the same period in 1997.

Foreign spending, up 11.2 per cent from the same period last year and valued at $11.1 billion, largely accounts for this decrease. Meanwhile Canadian tourism spending abroad also rose 0.7 per cent to $12.5 billion.

"The record number of Americans visiting Canada combined with fewer Canadians vacationing in the U.S. has resulted in a huge shift in the international travel account," explained Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) chairman Judd Buchanan. "This has buffered the impact of the drop in visits and spending by tourists from many of our primary overseas markets, particularly Japan, France and Germany."

What key factors are responsible for this boom in Canada's tourism industry?

"Canadians are doing more internal travel because of the low value of our dollar, but that's not the motivating factor for Americans," explains John Olsthoorn, a spokesman for the Canadian Tourism Commission. "The economic situation in the U.S. is positive, with low unemployment and high consumer confidence, which means that people have more discretionary funds."