The Canadian tourism industry is striving to showcase its best this Sunday, as it presents itself to more than 500 travel agents and international tour operators at Canada’s largest annual tourism conference.

However, while Rendez-vous Canada is taking place at the Edmonton Convention Centre, one of the biggest challenges facing the tourism industry in Canada is the emergence of artistic colors just a few hundred kilometers away: wildfires.

Federal Tourism Minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada said, "Climate change poses a fundamental threat to Canadian tourism and its reputation, and this is what we are witnessing."

Hot and dry weather in Western Canada, exacerbated by climate change, has led to a massive blaze in southwestern Fort McMurray, forcing more than 6,000 people to leave their homes.

Some of them are the same residents whose homes were destroyed by a major wildfire in the same city just eight years ago.

In 2023, Canada recorded its worst wildfire season ever, with over 6,400 fires igniting more than 150,000 square kilometers in nearly every province and territory.

This season started a bit slower, but quickly escalated over the weekend with large uncontrolled fires forcing evacuations and threatening cities and towns in both British Columbia and Alberta.

Beth Potter, president of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, said that the direct impact of wildfires is challenging enough.

But what makes things worse is the fact that many people around the world see headlines about the fires in Canada and think there is no safe place in the country to visit.

She added, "There are fires now in the northern parts of Alberta and British Columbia, but that doesn’t mean the whole of Canada is stopping to welcome visitors from around the world."

"The biggest challenge we faced last year was the scale of the fires compared to the size of our country."

Potter emphasized, "Many international visitors do not understand that wildfires have a limited impact on most parts of the country."

She said tourism operators in southwestern Ontario told her last summer about cancellations due to fires over 3,500 kilometers away in British Columbia.

On top of all that, some operators found that insurance is more expensive – if they can even secure it – because the risks posed by extreme weather are forcing the insurance industry to rethink costs.

Martinez Ferrada stated that there is no "miracle" fix, but that the government and industry must prepare for the worst, as climate change is not going away.