The British Columbia Tourism Resiliency Network (BCTRN) has been recognized with a 2022 BC Tourism & Hospitality Award in the category of Community Contribution and Impact.

The 2022 BC Tourism & Hospitality Awards recognize and celebrate excellence, leadership and innovation within British Columbia’s tourism and hospitality industry, showcasing the province’s most exceptional leaders and positive change-makers. See all Nominees.

“We are honoured to have served B.C. tourism businesses and communities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and support their survival,” said Anthony Everett, President & CEO, Tourism Vancouver Island and Chair, British Columbia Regional Tourism Secretariat. “This program was designed by the tourism industry for the tourism industry, utilizing our sector’s specialized understanding of our own needs to guide the recovery of BC’s visitor economy.”

Evolving from a program initiated by Tourism Vancouver Island shortly after the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the British Columbia Tourism Resiliency Network is a long-term resiliency program led by the British Columbia Regional Tourism Secretariat (BCRTS), providing BC tourism businesses with meaningful, one-on-one support to navigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, adapt and work towards eventual recovery.

The British Columbia Tourism Resiliency Network has helped 2,033 tourism businesses to-date, including 158 Indigenous-owned, 440 women-owned and six youth-owned businesses in communities spanning the province. 1,333 participants have successfully secured aid from government relief programs and an estimated 3,694 jobs have been preserved.

“As the British Columbia Regional Tourism Secretariat, we were able to collectively offer a program to the tourism industry that was consistent, that evolved as required and was delivered to industry during their greatest time of need during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Kathy Cooper, CEO, Kootenay Rockies Tourism Association, based out of Kimberley..

“We could never independently scale a program like this to the level that we did achieve with shared resources, subject matter experts and our combined teams’ committed efforts.  I am very proud of the way we came together to deliver the Tourism Resiliency Program to our tourism stakeholders in our respective regions.”

The British Columbia Regional Tourism Secretariat is a partnership between five of BC’s not-for-profit Regional Destination Management Organizations (RDMO), including: Tourism Vancouver Island, Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA), Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association (CCCTA), Kootenay Rockies Tourism Association (KRTA) and Northern British Columbia Tourism Association (NBCTA).

The 2022 BC Tourism & Hospitality Awards were announced and presented at an awards gala on Thursday, March 10, 2022, as part of the 2022 BC Tourism & Hospitality Conference hosted by the Tourism Industry Association of BC and British Columbia Hotel Association.

Lead image: Accepting the award – L to R: Clint Fraser, CEO, NBCTA; Kathy Cooper, CEO, KRTA; Anthony Everett, President & CEO, TVI & Chair, BCRTS; Ellen Walker-Matthews, CEO, TOTA.
Absent from the photo: Amy Thacker, CEO, CCCTA. Photo submitted

Kootenay Rockies Tourism

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