30 Years of CanaDream

The company name became CanaDream Campers on 16 November 1994. A Calgary location was purchased at 24th Avenue NE which also became the first CanaDream Head Office.

The Early Days

During the 1995 season, CanaDream Campers had a fleet of 300 vehicles with five locations: Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto and Whitehorse.  Brian spent many summers in Europe establishing the new CanaDream brand and building relationships with travel partners across Europe and Australasia. 

Development of a custom in-house system to enable the efficient running of the business began in 1997. This was revolutionary for the industry, moving us off manual booking boards. It became known as System Manager and is the backbone for growing the business to this day.

1998 saw CanaDream being listed as a public company on the then Alberta Stock Exchange (later to become the Canadian Venture Exchange/TSX Venture Exchange) and further growth followed.  Locations were opened in Montreal and Halifax that year, along with a depot in Winnipeg. 

Fleet Enhancements

Born adventurers, Brian and his ski loving friends did extensive R&D on many “ski trips” to work out design details and solutions.  Each ski trip further refined the winter design.  This diligence to design and manufacturing detail led to many unique inclusions still featured in the fleet today including:

• The CanaDream Sleep-System to ensure the perfect night’s sleep
• The extended overcab design offering more space for twin-single bed mattress configuration
• Solar panels to increase battery performance
• Higher BTU furnace
• Extra coach batteries
• Insulated holding tanks and water lines
• High quality kitchen and linen kits, and many more …

The CanaDream Guest fleet mix became well established with a range of small to large units and is largely the same today (with 2024 updates!).  The fifth wheel camper was discontinued as a rental option around 2008 and other models have since been added.

CanaDream Club

The CanaDream Club was launched at the travel trade show “Rendezvous Canada” in May 2007, gaining around 100 tourism partners.  Today, we have 10-fold partnerships, offering over 3,000 Canadian tourism experiences that our Guests can enjoy whilst on their RV vacation.

From small beginnings, CanaDream had by 2009 taken a substantial share of the Canadian RV rental market and this sparked investment interest from Australian company, Apollo Motorhome Holidays, who purchased a 20% shareholding in the company.

Numerous milestones were reached over the following eight years, including new purpose-built premises for Vancouver and Calgary and growth of the Guest fleet to over 850 units.

The CanaDream Guest fleet became well recognized over the next decade thanks to the establishment of a well crafted brand strategy - forging the way ahead and presenting RVing in a new fresh way thereby opening up the market to a younger generation of adventure hungry explorers.  Tourism in Canada was growing during the next decade and the CanaDream Guest fleet continued to grow alongside expansion of low-cost direct air access into the key Canadian International airports.  CanaDream was an early adopter of social media, attracting and engaging an international audience with a passion for RVing and Canada.
 
In July 2017, Apollo Tourism & Leisure acquired the remaining 80% shareholding of CanaDream.  The company delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange, as Apollo was a listed company on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Further growth followed with new locations for the already well-established Toronto and Halifax stations.

In 2018 CanaDream launched a new industry-leading website, combining the best of internet browsing and e-commerce strategies. This included the vast content of the CanaDream Club and Itinerary planning tools, along with the introduction of Trustpilot reviews to endorse CanaDream as the top brand in Canada as reflected in the words of our Guests.

CanaDream navigated the many challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The quick thinking and passion of the leadership team kept business going by providing the early pandemic efforts with RVs as temporary offices, accommodation, workspaces etc when social distancing became the norm.  When domestic travel resumed, CanaDream serviced a new market of Canadian RVers looking for a place of solace, safety and nature.  The CanaDream crew kept wheels constantly turning and was ready when the international borders reopened in September 2022.

Aquisition by Tourism Holdings Ltd (thl)

CanaDream became a brand under the Tourism Holdings Ltd (thl) group of companies in December 2022 following a merger between Apollo Tourism & Leisure and thl. CanaDream is now part of a Global organization specializing in motorhome holidays across Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK & Ireland & the USA.

It’s with great excitement and enthusiasm that the entire CanaDream crew look forward to the next 30 years.  With a fleet of over 1,500 units, Our RVs may still look as similar today as they did back in 1994, but we have a good feeling that by 2054 they might be significantly different.  We are ready for the challenges of the next generation in travel and know that whatever comes our way, we’ll keep Guests experiencing Canada at their own pace in the best possible way ... in a CanaDream RV.