GOCAL showcases Greater Ontario’s role as an international travel destination

(ONTARIO, California, May 22, 2023) – Greater Ontario is securing its place on the global stage as California’s fastest-growing international gateway.

In the past five weeks alone, Ontario hosted aviation industry leaders from around the world, the region’s premier convention and visitors organization launched a bold new branding campaign and Ontario International Airport (ONT) reported its busiest international travel month ever.

“Greater Ontario truly is coming into its own as a travel and tourism destination, and we’re thrilled about the opportunities ahead,” said Michael Krouse, chief executive officer of the newly rebranded GOCAL, formerly the Greater Ontario Convention & Visitors Bureau.

This week, GOCAL and ONT are taking the region’s show on the road, meeting with airlines and domestic and international travel buyers at the U.S. Travel Association’s International Pow Wow (IPW) conference in San Antonio.

With more than 5,000 participants, IPW is one of the largest annual gatherings of its kind, and presents a great opportunity to showcase the region’s travel and tourism assets.

For example, Greater Ontario offers visitors more than 6,000 hotel rooms, world-class dining options and some of Southern California’s most popular venues, including the Toyota Arena and the Ontario Mills Mall, which attracts more visitors each year than Disneyland.

ONT, honored as the nation’s fastest-growing airport each of the past five years, offers direct service to more than two dozen locations and in April recorded more international travelers than ever for a single month. Plans are being developed for a new international terminal, along with enhanced, state-of-the-art transit options to and from the airport.

All of this has created an economic boon for the region. According to a 2022 study from Oxford Economics, visitors traveling through ONT spend $2.7 million annually.

“Our airline partners love the fact that Greater Ontario and the Inland Empire have become such a popular destination. As we add more domestic and international flights, and combine that with the convenience and hassle-free experience that are an ONT hallmark, we see unlimited potential for our travel and tourism industry,” said Atif Elkadi, CEO of the Ontario International Airport Authority.
 

For more information on GOCAL, please visit. GO-CAL.org.