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National tourism week kicked off on Monday with a $6 million tourism investment.
The funding is through Destination British Columbia’s Cooperative Marketing Partnerships program to support destination and activity-specific tourism initiatives across the province.
“The program helps partners drive consumer demand and increase tourism revenues in communities throughout the province by investing in seasons and areas where capacity exists, leveraging a variety of funding sources to maximize impact, and creating deep collaboration within the industry,” read the Destination British Columbia news release.
“A made-in-BC approach that has continued to be a competitive advantage on the global stage.”
According to Destination BC, this year’s program was expanded through additional Provincial one-time funding and will support 70 initiatives for key tourism activity sectors and community consortiums.
“Consortiums help visitors better understand the diverse areas of the province, the unique experiences available within them, and the numerous ways to travel among them, while increasing visitation and room night revenue in shoulder seasons,” continued the release.
One of the recipients is a new local initiative called ‘Traveling Out in the Thompson Okanagan’ which focuses on inclusive tourism efforts.
The initiative is being led by Tourism Kelowna in partnership with Travel Penticton, Destination Osoyoos, Tourism Vernon, and Tourism Kamloops.
“Destination British Columbia has a co-op marketing program which we’ve been participants in for a number of years, we’ve participated in a number of programs and this year this is a new one that we’re really excited to participate in,” said Tourism Kelowna Marketing and Communications director Chris Shauf.
“Really what we’re doing is taking our individual efforts many of us have been working to invite the 2SLGBTQIA+ travel segment to our destinations. But really this allows us to work together to combine forces and to really enhance our offering. With the support of Destination British Columbia, we’re really able to take it to the next level.”
Shauf went on to say that the program is to act as an enhancement to inclusive tourism efforts that are already in place within each community.
“Really what we want to do here is to let 2SLGBTQIA+ plus travellers know about the Okanagan, know that we’re here year-round, we’ve got great travel experiences throughout the year,” said Shauf.
“Of course, you come here in the summer, come for the Pride festivities, but we want to make sure that people know and can come throughout the year – we’ve got something in every season for them. We want them to come to spend more time, see more communities, travel around the region.”
Tourism Kelowna says it’s important to the organization to ensure the community is welcoming for everyone.
“We know that inclusive travel is important for everyone and making sure that everybody feels that they’re safe, they’re taken care of and have a space and that’s something that the entire travel and tourism industry has been doing for a number of years,” said Shauf.
“We’re really excited to get started on this partnership with the surrounding community’s destination British Columbia to further our efforts in this regard.”
Now that funding has been announced, planning is underway and more information is expected to be announced in the fall by each community.
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