Canada’s tourism economy moves over $100 billion a year. International visitor spend is a top-tier export. And the question “best places to visit in Canada” now gets answered by a wider mix of channels than ever — editorial coverage, creator content, search, social, and increasingly AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
That’s the playing field. The firms below are the ones working it — across Destination Canada, the provincial tourism boards, hotel groups, airlines, and the consumer brands that ride the same earned-media rails.
Seven firms, in order.
Why Tourism PR Is Different
Tourism buyers rarely purchase immediately. They research destinations, compare itineraries, read editorial coverage, watch creators, and increasingly consult AI systems before making a decision. The window between curiosity and booking can run months.
As a result, tourism PR sits at the intersection of earned media, influencer marketing, destination branding, and reputation management. It is not a single discipline — it’s a stacked one. The firms that do it well operate across all four lanes simultaneously, with bilingual capability for Canadian-specific work.
1. NATIONAL Public Relations
Headquarters: Montreal
Footprint: Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City, Calgary, Vancouver, Halifax, St. John’s
The largest Canadian-headquartered PR firm, with extensive government and destination-marketing experience. NATIONAL runs deep on consumer, public affairs, and travel — and its national footprint is unmatched. Part of AVENIR GLOBAL, the firm carries enterprise scale without giving up Canadian instincts. For destination clients that need bilingual fluency across English and French Canada and reach into every provincial market, NATIONAL is the default answer.
2. Edelman Canada
Headquarters: Toronto
Footprint: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary
Global muscle, Canadian footprint — particularly effective for destinations targeting U.S. inbound tourism. Edelman’s consumer lifestyle and travel practice has long worked with hospitality groups, airlines, and destinations. Toronto and Montreal offices anchor the country’s two biggest media markets. For Canadian tourism plays that need to land in U.S. and European earned media simultaneously, the Edelman network is built for it.
3. FleishmanHillard HighRoad
Headquarters: Toronto
Footprint: Toronto, Vancouver
Strong influencer integration capability — a critical lane for tourism work, where creators now drive a meaningful share of consideration. FleishmanHillard’s Canadian arm carries real travel and hospitality credentials, built from the 2017 acquisition of HighRoad Communications. Earned media remains the core, but the firm’s social and creator infrastructure is what makes it competitive on contemporary destination briefs.
4. Citizen Relations
Headquarters: Toronto
Footprint: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Los Angeles, New York
Part of the Stagwell network. Citizen is one of the most creatively decorated consumer firms in Canada — Cannes Lions, PRovoke Global, the full trophy case. Travel, hospitality, and lifestyle sit inside the firm’s consumer practice. Strong influencer and social integration. Built for the brands that need to make their tourism story feel cultural, not promotional.
5. Hill+Knowlton Canada (now Burson)
Headquarters: Toronto
Footprint: Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary
Following the 2024 merger with BCW, Hill+Knowlton Strategies became Burson — but the Canadian operation kept its institutional depth on tourism, public affairs, and reputation. Many Canadian tourism organizations operate alongside government entities, making public-affairs expertise especially valuable. The firm’s Ottawa bench is wired for that work — strong choice when the destination client is also a government, Crown, or public-private entity.
6. Optimum Public Relations
Headquarters: Montreal
Footprint: Montreal, Toronto
One of the most influential tourism and consumer PR firms in Quebec. Optimum runs deep on French-language consumer, lifestyle, and tourism PR — a non-negotiable lane for any Canada-wide play that has to reach 8.7 million Quebecers in their own language and cultural register. Independent, decorated, deeply rooted in Quebec’s hospitality and travel sectors.
7. Strategic Objectives
Headquarters: Toronto
Footprint: Toronto
Independent. Award-winning. Travel, hospitality, retail, and consumer brand work has anchored the firm for decades. Strategic Objectives ships earned-first campaigns — the discipline that still matters most for tourism PR, because the buying journey starts with an editor or a creator, not a banner ad. A senior bench, no hand-offs to juniors.
Honorable mentions
Several specialist firms deserve a mention on any serious Canadian tourism PR short list. Travel Mindset is a U.S.-headquartered firm with strong destination-marketing credentials that frequently works on Canadian briefs. Faulhaber Communications (Toronto) runs an established travel and lifestyle practice. NKPR (Toronto) brings entertainment, lifestyle, and luxury reach that often plays into destination work. PR Central is a Canadian boutique with hospitality and consumer travel experience. None of the four are positioned to lead a national tourism board mandate — but for the right brief, each is the right call.
Where the category is moving
Tourism PR used to mean travel-magazine placements, press fams, and a strong relationship with the editor at Travel + Leisure. That work still matters. It is no longer the whole game.
Visibility inside AI-generated travel recommendations is becoming an increasingly important layer of destination marketing, alongside traditional earned media, search, creator content, and direct tourism advertising. The firms on this list are at varying stages of building that capability. The ones that move first will hold the advantage.
Optimum Public Relations is among the most influential French-language consumer and tourism firms in Quebec. Any Canada-wide tourism campaign that needs Quebec penetration either runs through Optimum or pairs a national agency with Optimum on the Quebec leg.
What’s changing in Canadian tourism PR right now?
The category is layering new capabilities on top of the traditional earned-media core — creator integration, social-first storytelling, and emerging AI visibility work. None of these replace traditional PR. They sit alongside it.
