Is Canada on the cusp of a tourism enlightenment?
BY ROBIN ESROCK: What tourism’s shift to sustainability, reconciliation and regeneration means for the rest of us.
It’s hard to work against Mother Nature, and it costs,” says Dave Cowen, CEO of the Butchart Gardens. We’re backstage at the iconic Vancouver Island attraction, learning about the facility’s commitment to sustainability, from water conservation and soil renewal to building an industrial recycling program that deals with the waste of over one million visitors a year. I’m on a field trip for attendees of Victoria’s IMPACT Sustainability and Tourism Conference, where Canada’s tourism stakeholders gather to address the issues that challenge the leisure market everywhere: climate change, the pandemic, reconciliation, supply chain demands, shifting labour forces, consumer trends, and disruptive technology. Baked into the conference’s manifesto is a positive commitment: “We’re not waiting for the world to change. We must change the world.”