The latest Thompson Okanagan tourism industry news from TOTA, tourism businesses, and communities.
The Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) is launching a sustainable tourism training program to build awareness and capacity for tourism to develop more sustainably. The program is complementary and is available to all Canadian tourism businesses, not only TIAC members.
The program includes specialized workshops, one-on-one coaching, and certification support around several topics, provided by industry experts.
Read MoreFollowing a consultation request from government on a Canadian Tourism Growth Strategy, industry advocates across Canada have submitted their recommendations.
Read MoreTourism Week is an annual invitation for all tourism partners to come together to champion and promote Canada’s destinations, tourism businesses, and employees – from coast to coast to coast.
Operators and communities around BC are encouraged to share their Tourism Week celebrations on social media using the hashtags #BCTourismCounts and #GreenMeansGo.
The Tourism Industry Association of Canada has created a toolkit with resources to make it easy to share Tourism Week.
Destination BC and TIABC have provided a toolkit with B.C. specific resources.
TIABC created a series of Value of Tourism Videos that you can share through your channels. Videos range from about 0:35 seconds to 2:57 minutes, and feature different parts of the province.
Read MoreThe Government of Canada unveiled its 2022 federal budget on April 7. Spending was largely focused on housing and defense and notably excluded targeted support for the tourism industry by means of wage and fixed-cost support, and an extension of the Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program. It also did not include amendments to the Tourism Relief Fund, nor extensions and amendments to debt relief such as the RRRF and CEBA programs.
The Office of the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development spoke to Budget 2022 and noted that it is an innovation-forward budget that is focused on fiscal responsibility as Canada recovers.
Many initiatives in the budget are designed to support Canadian businesses as they scale up, including investments in the Canada Growth Fund, the Canada Innovation and Investment Agency, and the Coordinated Accessible National (CAN) Health Network.
Other commitments include investments to build a world-class IP regime, grow global innovation clusters, and ensure the resilience and stability of supply chains.
View Recording → (Password: ZtWrptm2)
To learn more about how the federal budget relates to the tourism industry, view the following summaries:
On October 21, 2021, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, announced that the government was taking targeted action to create jobs and spur economic growth, including the Tourism Hospitality and Recovery Program (THRP), which would provide support through wage and rent subsidy programs to tourism and hospitality operators, with a subsidy rate of up to 75%.
While the program is currently available until May 7, 2022, the subsidy rates were decreased by half as of March 13, 2022.
TIAC has been advocating for the original rates to be maintained and extended to September 2022.
As discussions with government officials continue, TIAC wishes to obtain more up-to-date information from tourism operators on the impact this cut will have on your business.
Please help TIAC advocate on your behalf to increase support by answering this brief survey.
Read MoreThe Tourism Industry Association of Canada has been advocating for the faster roll out of Tourism Relief Fund (TRF) support to the industry and asked the government to consider supporting projects under this Fund that help tourism operators recover and relaunch their businesses from the pandemic in addition to projects which:
Create new or enhance existing tourism experiences and products to attract more local and domestic visitors; and
Help the sector reposition itself to welcome international visitors.
To properly advocate and make changes, TIAC needs up-to-date information from operators on whether the Fund is responding to your current needs, where you are experiencing challenges in accessing the program and the nature of those challenges, as well as how you believe improvements to the Fund could be made.
Read MoreThe BC Meetings & Events Industry Working Group has successfully received a distinction for business events in the latest provincial health order. This is relevant because now business events are allowed as standing events. Networking, receptions, and mingling are all acceptable. Holiday parties associated with businesses are considered “business events.”
This distinction in the health orders is a big step in the right direction.
Read MoreThe Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) and the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) have agreed to formalize their partnership through a signed memorandum of understanding (MOU). This represents a concrete collaboration between these two national organizations. The MOU is to work collaboratively and coordinate efforts to provide leadership, advocacy and engagement opportunities, supporting the recovery of the Indigenous tourism sector in Canada. ITAC and TIAC will work together to share and develop knowledge, complementary expertise, and market intelligence.
Read MoreThe Tourism Industry Association of Canada's (TIAC) Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held Wednesday, January 19, 2022 from 10:30 am. to 1:30 p.m. PST virtually – details still to come.
To access the proxy vote or nomination form, click on the following:
These documents and the link to register to the AGM require you to log in to your membership account with TIAC.
If you have forgotten your login information to access benefits or renew your membership, click here and input your email address and check your inbox.
Read MoreTIAC launched its Elevating Canadian Experience (ECE) program to provide tourism stakeholders with free learning resources in culinary tourism and tools for the winter/shoulder seasons.
The ECE program provides content ranging from strategy development to practical tools and tips - all designed to help grow and adapt your tourism business as an operator and build tourism capacity in your region as a destination partner.
The latest module "Embracing Canada’s Winter and Shoulder Season" has been developed to assist tourism operators and destination partners in broadening the shoulders of your tourism season and provides valuable insights, worksheets, tips and strategies.
Read MoreThe Tourism Industry Association of Canada is working to research and collaboratively design a strategy to attract more international visitors and business to Canada. This strategy needs to be responsive to its changing environment, instill confidence in the industry, look to a future where Canadian tourism is flourishing, and strengthen our advocacy efforts.
Everyone’s unique perspective is valued, and opinions on the future of collective international business development efforts are important to the tourism sector as a whole.
Please take the time to complete this 5-question online survey before the end of day on November 4. You will have the opportunity to have your name entered into a random draw taking place on November 8 for one in-person ticket to the 2021 TIAC Tourism Congress being held from November 30th – December 1st, valued at $795-$995.
Read MoreA critical pillar of advocacy work over the past 20 months has been TIAC’s position as co-chair of the Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses. This is a coalition of over 120 tourism, hotel and events businesses including TIABC who are fighting for industry-specific support. Not just businesses - but also the organizations that represent hundreds of businesses behind them.
Check out the website for current campaigns and how you can get involved.
Read MoreBuilding on the previous announcement regarding the Canada-U.S. land and ferry border progress, the U.S will allow travellers with mixed doses of vaccinations to cross for non-essential travel. U.S land borders with Canada and Mexico will be open to fully vaccinated tourists by November 8.
While the U.S. will not require Canadians to show negative test results to cross at land borders, returning to Canada requires a negative PCR test within 72 hours of crossing the border.
Read MoreThe issue of rising insurance premiums in the tourism industry continues to be a concern, including commercial insurance access, premium increase, and limited liability coverage. Insurance is a fundamental element in the industry’s ability to build back stronger post pandemic.
TIABC and TIAC are collecting feedback from the tourism industry to support advocacy efforts. Please complete the survey by September 24.
Read MoreTIAC has developed a number of tools to assist you in getting involved on behalf of the visitor economy at TourismVotes.ca. While TIAC continues to meet with key decision makers and candidates in Ottawa and across the country, which is an extremely important part of advocacy, it is equally important for industry to make an effort to meet with their local candidates from all parties. Local constituents are able to provide their candidates with a more specific community perspective on issues related to tourism industry local impact.
Read MoreTIAC will be running a proactive tourism advocacy and media campaign. This will include direct TIAC activity, as well as TIAC’s leadership of the Hardest Hit Coalition fighting for business survival support for the tourism suite of sectors. For more information, check the TourismVotes.ca microsite, a one-stop shop for election information for tourism businesses, including detailed Platform Analysis for impact on tourism, messaging guidance, email updates, and more.
Read MoreIf you have a business or an employee in mind that deserves to be recognized for their success in one of the 2021 Canadian Tourism Award categories, submit your nomination before August 31, 2021.
Read MoreThe Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) continues to work closely with the Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses, working to establish a COVID Tourism and Events Business & Employee Survival Program, in order to provide qualified and limited financial support to tourism and events businesses with significant revenue losses from September 2021 to May 2022. Tourism businesses can get involved by sharing key messages with local MPs, and community and social networks.
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