Indigenous tourism group avoids closure, plans marketing campaign to help industry

By The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — A group representing thousands of Indigenous-led tourism operators says it has found the money to avoid going under, and has enough left over to launch a new campaign to help the beleaguered sector.

The Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada says it found the necessary funding from its partners to maintain basic operations and what it is calling a modest domestic marketing campaign for the summer.

The campaign launches today, on National Indigenous Peoples Day, and as provincial governments ease domestic travel restrictions and the federal government prepares to allow fully vaccinated Canadian travellers to forgo quarantine as of July 5.

The aim of the campaign is to help travellers identify and easily book authentic Indigenous experiences, as well as modernize perceptions of those experiences, to boost tourism operators.

Association CEO Keith Henry says about half of the approximately $5 million in funding the group pulled in will go to marketing efforts to drum up domestic businesses.

Henry says remaining businesses in the sector will need to have revenues exceed $300 million in sales this year to avoid any more permanent closures.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2021.

The Canadian Press

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