Thursday, April 21st, 2016 (San Francisco, CA) – The Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) is celebrating the successful Aboriginal showcase this week held during Canada’s Media Marketplace (CMM) in San Francisco by Destination Canada. CMM is an annual event organized by Destination Canada that brings together over 100 travel writers from throughout the United States. Destination Canada is increasing marketing efforts in the United States. Destination Canada and ITAC completed tactical marketing this week building on the Memorandum of Understanding commitments signed between the organizations in December 2015, in part, to increase travel media awareness about Aboriginal tourism in Canada. This latest work included increased ITAC brand presence, ITAC meeting key travel media representatives, and showcasing Aboriginal culture from throughout Canada during the closing CMM evening of Tuesday, April 19th.
ITAC was pleased to coordinate Aboriginal tourism industry partners to ensure CMM event success. ATAC, Destination Canada, Aboriginal Tourism Association of BC and Haida Wild provided financial and in kind support. Through these partners, ITAC featured Aboriginal culture including Haida Nation dancers (Raven Dancers), interactive Mi’kmaq cultural display from Membertou, and an interactive Squamish Nation traditional wool weaving activity. The event also included showcasing tourism industry partnerships by highlighted the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel and Haida Wild relationship in Vancouver. The unique partnership enables the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel in Vancouver to sell exclusively Haida salmon on their menu. The event theme also included Aboriginal music and a slideshow featuring Aboriginal experiences from across Canada throughout the evening,
Keith Henry, ITAC Chair/CEO stated, “This was another demonstration of the increasing strength within our Aboriginal tourism industry in Canada fuelled by the critical partnership with Destination Canada. This event was extremely successful and left many US travel writers and guests inspired to learn more about Aboriginal culture and Aboriginal tourism in Canada. The fact is US visitors are some of our largest visitation for Aboriginal tourism businesses across Canada and therefore working with Destination Canada will continue to be one of our top priorities as they invest more in the US. This work directly contributes to our ITAC Five Year Plan and we will be activity pursuing several travel media leads in the coming months to inspire new visitation for Aboriginal tourism from the US in 2016 and future years. I sincerely thank Destination Canada, Tartan Group, and MCI Canada for successful event planning and coordination. I also thank our partners Aboriginal Tourism Association of BC and Haida Wild for the investments. Finally, a very special thank you to the Raven Dancers, Jeff Ward from Membertou, and Allison Burns from the Squamish Nation.”
For more information on the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC), visit www.IndigenousTourism.ca.
About Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada
Originally formed as the Aboriginal Tourism Marketing Circle, in 2015 the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) was formally established as a national non-profit Aboriginal tourism industry organization. Today ITAC includes representation from 15 Aboriginal tourism industry representatives and organizations. Through a unified Aboriginal tourism industry voice, ITAC focuses on creating partnerships between associations, organizations, government departments and industry leaders from across Canada to support the growth of Aboriginal tourism in Canada.
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Media contact:
Keith Henry, Chair/CEO, ITAC: 1-604-639-4408 or k.henry@aboriginalcanada.ca