By Cheryl Jahn

Tourism Summit returns

Oct 24, 2024 | 3:37 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – A tourism summit was held in Prince George this week.

It was the first chance since COVID for tourism operators to have a chance to gather and talk about one of the most important industries in B.C. Tourism generates about $20 billion in revenue annually, and employs roughly 140,000 people in 19,000 different tourism-related businesses. And it is a time to focus on the future.

“It’s the first time we’ve had the opportunity since 2019 to bring the northern B.C. tourism industry together,” says Clint Fraser with Northern BC Tourism. Tourism was the first hit, the hardest hit and the last to recover from the pandemic. We’re finding this a really good opportunity to come together and have conversations about the road forward and how we build such an important sector in northern BC.”

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And Destination BC has been busy since the industry began to return from being so harshly hit, and is set to roll out a new campaign – the Iconic Strategy – to take advantage of the different aspects of B.C. And there is a theme to Northern BC with a target audience.

“Today I was speaking about the launch of the Great Wilderness, which is the new brand to bring people to northern B.C. from our international markets. It paints a picture of what the focus is for northern BC.”

Maya Lange paints a picture of that focus and what the region has to offer.

“Giving them really concrete ideas of itineraries, things that they can do when they see incredible things like volcanos and lava-filled valleys and the Northern Lights and wildlife that seems bigger than life. The idea behind it is to get that on that bucket list for people around the world and then give them clear ideas of what they can do to help bring what they’ve seen to life for themselves.”

With the industry slowly pulling itself back from one of its lowest moments, there is much to done.

“We think it’s about marketing,” says Fraser. “We think it’s about the promotional activities, getting visitors here. But at the same time, it’s looking at how we sustainably enhance and develop our products so that we have the experiences that consumers want when they come here.”