C-19 BULLETIN - December 14, 2020

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Sad news regarding TIAC's CEO

As Chair of TIAC, I am saddened to inform you that our President and CEO, Charlotte Bell, passed away peacefully this weekend surrounded by family. As previously announced, Charlotte fought a brave battle with an aggressive form of cancer. Words cannot express our collective grief, and I know the entire tourism community is saddened by this deeply personal and national loss. 

Charlotte was a proud, strong and passionate leader for our collective cause. She was a role model for young female leaders on how to be tough, effective, and a visionary, while still leading with kindness. She leaves a proud legacy across Canada and numerous political leaders have expressed their respect, grief and common loss.

In accordance with Charlotte’s and her family’s wishes, there will be no public memorial or service and they kindly asked that any donation be directed to the Canadian Cancer Society.

The TIAC Board will continue to offer full support to our TIAC team as we continue Charlotte’s mission to support the tourism industry past the Covid crisis and through to recovery. We will be making future operational announcements in a separate communication in the coming days and weeks ahead.

Sincerely, 
Dave McKenna
Board Chair
Tourism Industry Association of Canada
TIABC Responds to News About Valued Colleague & Friend

The board and staff at TIABC are deeply saddened by the passing of valued colleague and friend Charlotte Bell, president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC).

As our federal partner in tourism advocacy, we worked closely with Charlotte on policy directives, briefings for government, and many other important initiatives. Charlotte loved British Columbia and had many friends in our industry here and all over Canada. She was a tireless advocate, especially this year during the worst crisis in our industry's memory.

Charlotte left a legacy of compassion, commitment and resolve that we as an industry can learn from and appreciate for years to come. She will be sincerely missed.

On behalf of the entire BC tourism and hospitality industry, TIABC offers its condolences to Charlotte's family and friends, as well as her colleagues at TIAC.
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Update to Public Health Order on Meetings

Our partners at the BC Hotel Association have provided an update to industry that clarifies some of the confusion surrounding formal meetings and the Public Health Order (PHO):

We are delighted to share with you that the PHO has been updated to allow 'critical service meetings' and 'occupational training which cannot be provided virtually'.

Over the past week, many of you alerted us to the issue surrounding meetings; you had clients, who deemed their meeting to be essential and were looking to book, but that you were unsure if you were able to move forward with their business.

We thank each of you for bringing this issue to our attention as we immediately connected with Public Health to advocate for clarity and to have these essential business meetings added to the PHO. Hotels have consistently demonstrated an extreme dedication in abiding health and safety protocols to ensure properties continue to remain safe for visitation. The recent extension of province-wide restrictions delivered yet another devastating blow to our industry and formal business meetings where one of the limited revenue streams still afforded to businesses.

We also thank Dr. Brian Emerson and Dr. Bonnie Henry for listening to our concerns and updating the order.

While we know that for some of you, your meetings business has been lost, we hope the clarity achieved through the amendment of this order will allow you to confidently host 'critical service meetings' for the duration of the current PHO.

Click Here to View Gov.BC Public Health Order Landing Page
Click Here to View Public Health Order - Gatherings + Events
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YTD Overnight Visitors to Vancouver

Despite the pandemic, Vancouver welcomed over 1.9 million domestic visitors between January and September of this year. This includes over one million overnight visitors from within BC. However, this represents a decline of -69% in destination visitors compared to the same time period last year. 
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ITAC AGM

The Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) is hosting its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, December 15th at 11:00am (PST).

The agenda includes remarks from the Board Chair and Co-Chair as well as from the Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages; review of the audited financial statements; operational highlights; an update from Destination Canada and the reporting of election results.

Voting Members and Non-Voting Members of ITAC can join the AGM HERE. Login instructions for members will be sent out via email today.

The general public can watch the AGM HERE.
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Join TIABC Today

Are you considering supporting TIABC with membership?

Membership in TIABC has never been more important. The impacts of COVID-19 have been widespread in the tourism industry and coordination with industry partners to share concerns with government is critical.

You can join TIABC for free until December 31st and receive complimentary membership right through 2021. Simply send us an email to info@tiabc.ca along with your logo so we can add you to our online membership directory. Note - other membership options are also available to ensure TIABC has the operating revenue it needs to continue its important efforts.
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TIABC will be hosting a joint webinar next week with the BCHA and TOTA. In this webinar, we'll discuss the recent work done by the Tourism Task Force and the Tourism & Hospitality Coalition, provide an update on the industry, as well as an outlook for 2021.

Friday, December 18th
1:00pm PST
Register here
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Webinar Available to TIAC Members

Join TIAC and Twenty31 next Thursday, December 16th at 1pm EST (10am PST) for a candid conversation about how COVID-19 has impacted destinations and tourism operators in Canada, as well as globally, and what they're doing to manage the future of the tourism industry.

Tune in to hear Twenty31's take on high-level findings from the State of Tourism in Canada during COVID-19 dashboard report, joined by special guests to hear how they addressed some of the challenges and opportunities highlighted in the current report.

This month's panelists include:
  • Joe Naaman, Executive Vice President, Strategy, Twenty31 Consulting Inc.
  • Mandy Farmer, CEO, Accent Inns
  • Ross Jefferson, President & CEO, Discover Halifax

This webinar is available to all TIAC Members. Please note the webinar has a maximum capacity of 500 participants, and a recording of the webinar will be available on the TIAC Members' portal. The webinar will be presented in English.
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Together with the Tourism Cafe, the BC Regional Tourism Secretariat is pleased to announce expanded support through the BC Tourism Resiliency Network. Launching this month, Ideas Labs are a series of 30 online sessions on nine original topics selected from requests from tourism operators across the province. The labs will bring small groups together in a business-to-business learning environment to address hot topics where solutions to common problems are discussed and shared, and new ideas are incubated. These are 1-hour online peer-to-peer discussions led by an inspiring industry topic specialist.

Each session is limited to only 12 participants and space is limited. Ideas Labs is a program created and produced by the Tourism Cafe.

Learn more at:
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TIABC's C-19 Bulletin will be published on December 14th, 16th and 18th and then we will take a break until the new year.

Feel free to send us your ideas on what information would be valuable for TIABC to share through our COVID-19 Bulletin going forward. Drop us a line at info@tiabc.ca.