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GVPOD is the podcast of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. President and CEO Bridgitte Anderson talks to leaders in the business community about the challenges and opportunities they experience, as well as issues impacting our region.
Bridgitte Anderson (00:04):
Welcome back to another episode of GVPOD, greater Vancouver's Business podcast where we delve into the challenges and opportunities facing our region. I'm Bridgitte Anderson, CEO, and president of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. You are listening to hosting rights, our ongoing series, discussing Vancouver's role as a world-class destination, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of us to ensure our city also offers a world-class stay. In this latest installment, we turn our lens towards a vibrant and essential facet of our regional identity, indigenous tourism as we navigate the post pandemic recovery. The significance of indigenous tourism as a conduit for sustainable growth and cultural preservation has never been more pronounced. It stands as a testament to resilience, offering unique insights and experiences that enrich our understanding and appreciation of the land and its original stewards. Joining us today is Keith Henry, president and CEO of the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada or iac. IAC is a national leader in the development and marketing of authentic indigenous tourism experiences. Under Keith's leadership, IAC has pioneered initiatives that only bolster the socioeconomic conditions of indigenous peoples across 10 provinces and three territories, but also position indigenous tourism as a cornerstone of Canada's appeal to the world. Welcome, Keith.
Keith Henry (01:33):
Yeah, good day. Good to see you again, Bridgitte.
Bridgitte Anderson (01:35):
So why don't we just start maybe and setting the table, it's clear that tourism right across the board suffered a lot during the pandemic. Everything came to a screeching halt. What would you say is the state of indigenous tourism today? A few years out from the pandemic?
Keith Henry (01:53):
Yeah, I think there's lots of reason for optimism, but I would say it's cautious optimism. I know that often my experience, even amongst our own indigenous network at times, times we like to put a really brave face on, but there's still many challenges. So I think I've meant we've spoken in the past before, but it kind of depends where you're located in terms of the recovery and the current state of how successful your indigenous tourism business has been. So for example, here in the Vancouver area, yeah, I mean, our indigenous tourism businesses are returning to pre pandemic levels in 2019 and beyond, but again, Vancouver's a major international gateway. Tourism is returning very quickly here. That's not the same for some of our rural remote, northern, even in British Columbia or the rest of the country experiences. So again, it is on the supply side, there's still challenges on the demand side, it's very, very strong. We've just never seen so much interest and desire to visit indigenous destinations, whether it's domestic or international. So it's a really good time in terms of thinking about marketing, promoting destinations and having indigenous culture and content as part of it. And we're just really trying to work at iax and national organization with partners like Indigenous Tourism BC here in British Columbia and others across the country to really elevate our game, if you will, to become more market and export readiness.
Bridgitte Anderson (03:26):
Now, you recently released an action plan to talk about some of the challenges and opportunities that indigenous tourism sectors facing. What were the kinds of priorities that you're really focusing in there?
Keith Henry (03:38):
Well, there's a number of them. Some of the things that we want to, I mentioned it briefly, we're continuing to implement market readiness programs. So we have our original accreditation. It's a brand that's now trying to help whether you're domestic or international consumers, just to recognize how do they differentiate between authentic indigenous experiences or not. And so part of that is the branding we created with the original, original. And behind that brand is a program of accreditation. So in our plan this year, we continue to invest in no less than 300 indigenous tourism businesses across the country, many of which in British Columbia and some in Vancouver, of course, to actually continue to develop their market and explore readiness. And so that's part of the plan on that side. On the marketing side, we continue to activate spring and summer campaigns around how do we help.
(04:32):
So we're not just waiting for other destination organizations to promote indigenous tourism. We have truly an indigenous led strategy. Our tagline going into the summer season of 2025 will be our new era. Last year we had a certain call to action. This year we really feel that we're continuing to raise sort of a bit of a renaissance time for indigenous experiences in the country. So we feel the fitting tagline is our new era. So we'll be doing a series of things around our destination, indigenous consumer platform and sort of the tactics of our new era. And I know in Vancouver you may see buses wrapped again this summer and things like that and so forth. So there's a number of these sort of things some of your followers today might be aware of. We continue to try and make Canada the world leader in indigenous tourism, and we just held a very successful, our 11th international indigenous tourism conference in Ottawa. We had about a thousand delegates from all over the world, I might add. And we're really trying to position Canada as the global leader as an indigenous destination. And so this next action plan talks about, we've announced now our 12th international indigenous tourism conference, February 24th, 25th, 26th in Montreal. So we'll be building to continue to make that sort of Canada, that world leading sort of destination. So a number of these kind of tactics strategies in our four areas work we do.
Bridgitte Anderson (05:58):
Maybe we could back up a little bit and you could talk more about the role that indigenous tourism plays in truth and reconciliation. I mean, I can clearly see the benefits and how there would be more educational opportunities for Canadians and for international visitors, but maybe speak a little bit more about how that is embedded into all of the experiences that one would have.
Keith Henry (06:24):
Well, yeah, I mean I think what we're trying to help travel agents, tour operators, the sales channels of tourism, understand that being in Canada is not just a Canadian story of RCMP officers, as many of us might think in a colonial context of the beaver of some of the historical trading of this country, maple syrup, depending on the geographic location where you are, these are sort of some of the iconic images people watching today could probably relate to our killer whale right here on the coast where we are filming from today. I think what we're trying to help the industry on a marketing side is that Canada truly is an indigenous, was indigenous lands. And so we want tourism to help really shape that understanding of, it's not really a Canadian destination experience unless you've added indigenous content at the very least. So that's visiting some of our restaurants, our cultural centers, some of our outdoor adventure.
(07:25):
I mean, right here in the lower mainland, of course you have salmon and bannock. You can go for many of your followers and people watching today will definitely know, be very aware of that bistro restaurant and indigenous restaurant here in Vancouver or Taka tours in North Van with the slave Wtoo nation. Or you can go up to Whistler in Squa Li Cultural Center or right in Stanley Park. There's different adventures in that for that provide indigenous experiences. And I think that what we're really trying to help continue the industry is if we support bringing that true history, the true information of what this country was, that should be part and parcel of all the things we do as an indigenous or arts as destinations generally. So I think it's just helping the visitor understand that there was people here on these lands for time. I memorials many nations say, but we have to help visitors understand what that meant and we have to help 'em understand the cultural symbols and location and place, and that's all part of a great experience and that's what we're doing
Bridgitte Anderson (08:29):
Well, that really would give visitors a much more full and rich experience of being here in Canada.
Keith Henry (08:36):
Absolutely. I mean, as mentioned Stanley Park, well, tall state tours, I mean, many folks would be somewhat familiar if here in the Vancouver area, but visitors going to Stanley Park only know if Stanley Park is like a Parks Canada slash Vancouver Parks board. It's like generic thing. But the truth is there was villages there, there was a whole indigenous story there. And that particular tour guide in that company that's indigenous owned and of course local indigenous ownership, they share what that island, what did Stanley Park look like and was village sites there. There's, there's a rich history there. And I think it just gives people a really unique lens on these kind of iconic places that where Stanley Park has six to 7 million people go through a year, but how many of them really know that that was indigenous lands at one time, and how many understand the relevance of that location to the Squamish bum and slave tooth nations? So that's why I feel indigenous tourism is so important to this country.
Bridgitte Anderson (09:38):
It's really great to hear that there is lots of demand for the kinds of offerings that indigenous tourism brings. And I want to focus a little bit on the supply side because that's one area that we have heard that since the pandemic, it's really tough to get the kind of talent that you need. So that labor supply, what is it that you're facing in the sector and what's being done to address it?
Keith Henry (10:04):
Yeah, well, it is a challenge. Like I said, we are trying to be brave and trying to be positive, but the truth is we need indigenous trained individuals as well in our indigenous tourism businesses that are located across the country. And the pandemic had, we were the hardest of the hard hit even amongst the tourism businesses. So our businesses, when the pandemic hit us, were hit about 15 to 20% harder than just regular non-indigenous owned businesses. And part of that is because location, et cetera. So on the labor side, we're still not back to 2019 levels. We estimate right now we're at about 70 to 80% recovered. So what does that mean? Well, there's about 1900 tourism businesses in the country. And as it stands right now, in 2019, we had about 39,000 or so people working in our industry. We estimate right now we're at about 35, 30 6,000 that have recovered, if not a little less.
(11:05):
So it's kind of changes by the month as things continue to recover and demand continues and seasons shift. So we're still dealing with that. And what we've been trying to continue to implement is a targeted indigenous tourism wage subsidy program across the country where we really just continue to invest directly with businesses to develop weight subsidy programs. Now, we haven't got all the mechanics that's still working, we're still working through that piece of it, but nevertheless, we feel that's the faster way to recovery. Yes, there's many post-secondary and other institutions in this mix, but we really feel empowering the employers to rehire and bring more people back on board and giving 'em the runway to build that sustainability is really what our priority is and will continue to be. So that's one of the ways I would suggest or answer that. But more than that, the bigger challenge we have is that for labor, the current demand in the country, we know we need at least 2,700 indigenous tourism businesses.
(12:06):
And as I mentioned before, we're at about 1900. So that along with that will mean about another 21,000 people above where we were at 2019 levels. So the economic potential is massive, but the gap to get there in terms of attracting the investments, seeing our communities develop more of their own nation owned businesses, or our indigenous entrepreneurs build, we're trying to find ways to attract the investments to continue to create that runway. So there's many partners in this space. We're one of many that are trying to shepherd that, if you will, but it's rebounding. But the truth is the demand is much bigger than what we have in place, and we're still trying to tackle that in, as we mentioned earlier, even within our upcoming action plan for this upcoming fiscal year, there's many steps we're trying to do to address that.
Bridgitte Anderson (12:56):
One of the things that occurs to me, Keith, is that indigenous youth is the fastest growing demographic in the country. And when you think about tourism, you often think about youth. I worked in tourism and hospitality when I was young a long time ago. And you think about the young people in the indigenous communities. How do you get them interested in these tourism and hospitality opportunities?
Keith Henry (13:18):
Well, yeah, I mean absolutely. And we have many of our nations and communities, the younger population, but anything everyone's competing for those indigenous youth and many companies and from many different sectors are actually competing right alongside our indigenous owned businesses to attract them. And so first of all, we're trying to continue to work with our 1900 businesses in the country to make sure that give them the tools that they can pay fair market value for the individuals, make sure they're an employer that of choice, not just because they're indigenous. The other side of it is we want to create, and we have created new platforms for our finding work in indigenous tourism experiences. And so we've created a national platform now as well to help guide people to finding those indigenous tourism jobs. So for me, it's more about how do we help indigenous youth be excited about the opportunity to promote your own culture? And so we created a series of, the marketing tools aren't only for our consumers actually, sometimes they're actually for our own communities to realize the power that they hold by just celebrating their culture of who they are. And so these are things that will continue to evolve in the coming years, but they're tools that aren't really there yet. And they're important pieces of our 2030 vision where we think we can triple the industry if we can invest in development and marketing and the things that I'm talking about.
Bridgitte Anderson (14:47):
And British Columbia and Greater Vancouver has just got an opportunity in front of us in the next few years. If you think about, I don't know, gray Cup, Invictus Games, Taylor Swift concerts, fifa, I'm sure that I've missed a few because there's so many of these major events just stacking up where we're going to have visitors from across Canada and visitors from around the globe coming to our region. And so I would think that indigenous tourism, anybody working in that sector is thinking, wow, what a great time to get involved. What do you think those events offer for the sector?
Keith Henry (15:24):
They're huge. I've been in the industry just about 18 years now, and I would say when I think about when I saw indigenous tourism not just take shape in British Columbia, but really propel nationally, it was during the 2010 winter Olympic games. And so when I see these upcoming events like FIFA coming to Canada and 2026 in the locations in Toronto, Vancouver, and so forth, or I see the upcoming events that you mentioned, whether it's concerts and other opportunities, I think we should be banging the drum, if you will, at all of these events because they really introduce a different set of consumers in many cases to taste, feel, participate in indigenous culture, and that's actually what shapes identity of this country. So I just look at all those as tremendous opportunities. We at itac and our strategy is certainly trying to find ways to meaningfully engage in all those events, whether they're in British Columbia or anywhere in Canada, because those are really, we've always seen the potential because of the things that some of us have learned from past games and past major international events coming to this country. They're extremely important for indigenous tourism.
Bridgitte Anderson (16:36):
Now, at the same time, and I feel like I'm helping you with your marketing here, but I do think it's such a great opportunity. You look at travelers around the world who are looking to have maybe a smaller footprint or to think about just being more engaged really at that local level. And I think about the role of indigenous peoples when it comes to sustainability. How does that layer into an indigenous tourism experience?
Keith Henry (17:00):
Well, quite honestly, I think what I'm finding is that people are trying to find how do they marry the concept of what indigenous communities are, indigenous people are. Because so many, if you look at Germany, there's been, there's a certain fairytale style indigenous story of what they think indigenous people are. And it was taught in schools, and it was taught in the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties until recently. And so now we're out there promoting in Germany and we're actually dispelling some of the myths and showing that diversity. And we didn't all stereotype in one way. So I think the whole point of indigenous tourism is in Canada, it's not homogenous, it's diverse, it's different. The nations aren't the same. There's First Nation, Metis, Inuit people, urban indigenous people, and it's okay to be we to be curious and explore. We want indigenous tourism to be that safe platform where everyone can kind of come together and learn. And that's kind of the vision of what we're trying to do at itac with our industry across the country. And it always comes back to investments and so forth. And that's what we continue to try and show people is that there's a way to invest in indigenous tourism that's more effective in our opinion. So that's kind of the impetus of all the work we're doing today.
Bridgitte Anderson (18:16):
I'm so glad you mentioned that about the diversity within the indigenous communities because an indigenous tourism experience in the lower mainland to Northern British Columbia to Ontario would be completely different. So there's just so many different ways to engage and to experience it that will be very diverse. So thank you for mentioning that because I think maybe not so much, maybe in Canada, but certainly for anybody who's coming from outside of Canada might have a different view of what an experience could look like.
Keith Henry (18:52):
Oh, and I don't blame them because Hollywood has positioned us in certain ways, and I understand the movies are movies, right? Mean, but to the average person that doesn't know, and it's okay not to know, but that the whole point of reconciliation in this day and age, the whole point of what we're trying to do is just provide that truth to what our indigenous communities, what is authentic, what's not? What does indigenous artwork that's authentic look like versus the stuff you might see in some gift shops and give consumers an educated choice. And I think what we see from the research we do, whether it's domestic or international as Canadians or the world, they do want authentic experiences. They want to feel touch, smell, taste. They want the centuries. And I think that's a great opportunity for us in tourism. And I think that diversity of nations really gets an opportunity to showcase that when we realize that that's what indigenous tourism is. It's bringing together of all of these beautiful nations and all of our beautiful cultures and trying to make it easy for everyone to get some education and not feel overwhelmed or threatened by it. Because that truthfully is what some people we know feel.
Bridgitte Anderson (20:05):
Talk about the role of collaboration and partnership with government, in particular at the three levels of government. I get the sense that government writ large has heard the concerns from the tourism, the broad tourism industry in the last couple of years and is trying to support in many ways. Is that the case with specific indigenous tourism operators or is there more support that's needed to really get you back to those pre pandemic levels?
Keith Henry (20:34):
Well, we try and work really effectively with all levels of government. So our main partner at iTech is obviously Ottawa, the federal government. That's our main role as a national body, is to continue create the channels where businesses become more export ready. And we're working with Destination Canada as a really important partner of ours and to bring indigenous export ready businesses to major markets. However, I will say that we work with many provincial territorial partners. iTech was instrumental in building new ones in just about every province or territory in the country today. And it is challenging, it's not unified at all, and that it's actually one of the bigger challenges of the industries. How do we attract the kind of important investments that are going to actually build jobs, build the industry, and actually become effective? We look to the federal government to set that policy and articulate the priorities.
(21:32):
And in all fairness, the government of Canada did do that with the new federal tourism growth strategy released last July, and indigenous tourism was one of the top five priorities. However, the problem is that it's not enough to say it's policy. How are we going to invest in labor? How are we going to invest in development? How are we going to invest in marketing so we can actually reach the potential of indigenous tourism? So we're a lot more relevant today than we were 18 years ago as a sector, if I can call us that. I hate using that for us because I don't think that's what we are, but we have a long ways to go still. And so we've taken steps on our own to sort of attract investments and so forth, and that's what we're going to continue to help continue building. There's not enough investment across the country to really build indigenous tourism the way we think it could be built.
Bridgitte Anderson (22:18):
And are you talking about investment? Obviously you're speaking about some government investment, but are you speaking from the industry itself?
Keith Henry (22:26):
Yeah, so we've launched a new volunteer consumer program called the Indigenous Tourism Destination Fund. So most people in the business in the tourism business sector will understand that tourism marketing for destination happens through things like hotel taxes and things like that. But indigenous tourism doesn't have the same levers. It doesn't have the same marketing programs that people can invest in to help us market indigenous tourism. So we've created a volunteer destination fund program, and we are just voluntarily asking partners to ask their consumers to put 25 cents per transaction into this fund. And we just
Bridgitte Anderson (23:03):
Lost that doesn't seem like much, does it? 25 cents. You can't buy anything for 25 cents these days.
Keith Henry (23:08):
Well, we knew that if we didn't do it as cost effective as possible, we know that there's a bit of a skepticism always right, and we want to build people's trust over time that with IAC facilitating that, bringing those investments, that money we raise down to our indigenous provincial territorial partners down to our businesses, and then seeing the industry grow, that's what's really going to benefit us all because if indigenous tourism reach reaches the potential where we think we could be by 2030, the spinoff economic benefits to every single major destination in this country will be massive. And so we can't reach all the consumers yet. We just don't have enough major product. And I hate to use that word too, because our communities and our businesses don't like being called a product, but that is from an economic lens. We need more businesses and we need them sooner rather than later.
(24:00):
So we just keep urging the business community to think about how they can participate with the indigenous tourism destination fund. It's one small way to contribute to helping build indigenous tourism in this country. Our point to this, we just can't rely on governments. We can go beat on governments, and often we do get frustrated and we're partners, but yet it's never enough. And we know that. I think anyone at this time knows that government coffers are challenged. It is difficult economic climate. So let's not be waiting for the perfect economic climate. Let's create our own. And we, from our research, consumers don't have a problem providing 25 cents. It's not a big tax by any means.
Bridgitte Anderson (24:43):
So maybe a good place to wrap up the conversation is you've mentioned this vision for 2030 and 2030 isn't really that long off actually. And we've got all these major events and opportunities ahead of us here in British Columbia. So paint a picture for us of what you hope it's going to look like in 2030 for indigenous tourism.
Keith Henry (25:04):
Well, in 2030, we hope to have 2,700 operational markets slash export ready, indigenous owned and operated tourism businesses. That'll be 800 more than what there was in 2019, a hundred of which would be major infrastructure projects, resorts, hotels, cultural centers. We have them on the books, and we're just trying to continue to unlock the potential of those by continuing to attract ways to invest in those projects. So we have about 60,000 indigenous, not all, but a very large indigenous workforce, majority indigenous workforce. And what does that mean to British Columbia? Well, of that new piece, essentially that would be 151 roughly new businesses in British Columbia and another 4,000 people from where they were in 2019. So this says huge economic spinoffs. And our revenue and revenue generation will be 6 billion up from 2 billion in 2019. So this is not small business. This is really about supporting the artists and bringing important economic power to entrepreneurs and communities in this country. So it's exciting, but it's a big task. But we all love a big task here at itac.
Bridgitte Anderson (26:18):
Well, and I think one of the things that really strikes me, and I have traveled a fair bit, not everywhere I'd like to go for sure, but you think about wanting to go to a unique place and having a unique experience, and I couldn't think of something that is more unique than coming to Canada and experiencing our true rich culture. So Keith, thank you so much for making time today. I really do appreciate it, and I wish you all the best, especially with all these major events coming up.
Keith Henry (26:47):
Yeah, thank you for having me, and I really honestly keep up the great work. And I appreciate your willingness at the Board of Trade here in Vancouver to really continue to raise the importance of the indigenous business communities, part of the work you guys do. It's very important for us. Thank you.
Bridgitte Anderson (27:02):
Thank you.