The Province of British Columbia has formally extended the provincial State of Emergency, allowing health and emergency management officials to continue to use extraordinary powers under the Emergency Program Act (EPA) to support the Province's COVID-19 pandemic response.

The state of emergency is extended through the end of the day on July 6th, to allow staff to take the necessary actions to keep British Columbians safe and manage immediate concerns and COVID-19 outbreaks.

In keeping with BC’s Restart plan and recommendations from PHO Dr. Bonnie Henry, the State of Emergency may be cancelled before July 6th if BC continues to see solid progress on case numbers, hospitalizations and vaccination rates.

The Province continues, with the support of police and other enforcement officials, to use measures under the EPA to limit the spread of COVID-19, including issuing tickets for owners, operators and event organizers who host an event or gathering contravening the PHO’s orders.

Click here to read the news release.

Tourism, business, labour, and cruise industry leaders have come together to call on the Government of Canada to take immediate action to signal the safe restart of Canada’s multi-billion-dollar cruise ship industry.

With more than 17,000 jobs in British Columbia alone at risk, a coalition of industry partners is asking Ottawa to send a clear signal that Canada is open for safe cruise service and tourism by announcing a scalable restart of the cruise industry and rescinding the order on the suspension of cruise in Canada by the end of the year.

“This is about clarity, certainty, and confidence for the cruise industry, tourism operators, and the thousands of British Columbians who depend on this vital industry,” said Walt Judas, CEO of Tourism Industry Association of BC. “The cruise and tourism industry has been battered by the pandemic and now it is being challenged with further uncertainty. Providing a clear and immediate roadmap for the safe resumption of Canadian cruise in 2022 is essential to the many businesses and jobs the cruise industry supports.”

Direct communication of a roadmap to resumption is critical because the cruise industry and their passengers are currently making plans for 2022. Industry and tourism partners have been advocating for months on the importance of developing and sharing plans for the safe resumption of cruise in Canadian waters.

It is important that the reopening plan addresses plans for the marine borders. Further uncertainty around the cruise industry and the thousands of workers who depend on it will be created by not including the marine borders in the reopening plans.

The cruise industry generates $4.3 billion in total output, with $2.7 billion contributed to the BC economy alone, and supports 30,000 jobs across Canada, including food and beverage suppliers, hotels, retailers, taxis, visitor destinations, port workers, and maintenance contractors.

The call for Government of Canada action comes as U.S. lawmakers are considering a permanent change which would allow Alaska-bound cruise ships to bypass BC destinations such as Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, and Prince Rupert.

Click here to read the complete joint news release.

Earlier this month, TIABC hosted a Sector Roundtable with 19 association partners participating in the 3-hour session, each with presentations that included:

The session was extremely valuable for all participants and will allow TIABC to identify current, short-term and long-term priorities going forward. The discussion also defined areas of support TIABC may be able to provide to the individual partners as they look to recovery and restart efforts on behalf of their members.

Details to the outcomes of the sector roundtable will be available in the weeks ahead.

Click here to view the 3-hour session in its entirety.

Restaurant customers, industry professionals and suppliers are calling on the federal government to keep current levels of support in place for foodservice businesses still operating under ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.

Working together as part of a Restaurant Survival Coalition, they are demanding an exemption from the scheduled phase-out of the rent and wage subsidies for the highly affected foodservice sector. This continues to be the top measure that Restaurants Canada is advocating for as part of a critically needed Restaurant Survival Support Package.

Canadians are calling on elected officials to save their local restaurants. Restaurant operators are innovative and resourceful, but the COVID-19 crisis has stretched their resiliency to the limits. According to survey data from Restaurants Canada:

• Eight out of 10 restaurants have been operating at a loss or barely scraping by throughout the entire pandemic.

• Nearly half (45%) of all foodservice businesses have been consistently losing money for more than a year.

Click here for the full media release.

If the rent and wage subsidies are scaled back this summer, most restaurants won’t be able to continue paying staff and suppliers. At least half of all Canadian foodservice operators will have to consider going out of business for good unless the plan changes.

To help raise the voice of foodservice and ensure our hardest-hit industry receives the continued support needed, Restaurants Canada has launched a grassroots campaign calling on industry and the public, to help keep restaurants in the picture by taking action as part of the Restaurant Survival Coalition.

Send a postcard, at no cost to you, to your Member of Parliament and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, sharing why your foodservice business is important to you and your community, and why our industry needs an exemption from the phase-out of rent and wage subsidies.

Take action today to help raise the voice - send your postcard in 3 easy steps;

We are keeping our foot on the gas with the #OpentheBorder campaign, calling on the federal government to commit to a plan for reopening the Canada-U.S. border. TIAC is engaged in ongoing conversations with PMO, Small Business, Transportation, Immigration, CBSA and Health.

The continued pressure is two-fold – ensuring the government commits to a plan to open the border, and ensuring that hardest hit businesses will continue to receive financial support through federal subsidy programs as we move into the summer tourism season with continued restrictions.

Click here to view the CBC News story on how the tourism industry is pushing for plans to reopen the Canada-US border.

On Monday, the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority (GVHA) had hoped the federal government would release new information about the reopening of US and Canadian marine and land borders, but the announcement only included information about how fully vaccinated Canadians can now return quarantine-free starting July 5th.

On Tuesday, the GVHA announced a partnership with 13 other tourism organizations. TIABC CEO, Walt Judas spoke to CTV Vancouver Island News on the urgency for an immediate plan.

The group, which includes TIABC, BCHA, TIAC, the Business Council of BC and the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, among others, is calling on the Minister of Transport to immediately announce a restart plan for the cruise industry.

The group says if a clear signal is not made to major cruise operators soon, Canadian ports could be passed over during the 2022 season.

Click here to view the full story and interview.

Yesterday, TIABC CEO Walt Judas was a guest on CKNW's "Mornings with Simi" featuring guest host Jill Bennett.

He spoke to the terms of Phase 2 of the border reopening plans and the concerns that the federal government has yet to lay out a detailed plan. The question posed was "How do tourism operators function and prepare when they don’t know what the future holds for their industry?"

Click here to view the full podcast. Note: Episode 7465, Chapter 2 "The Return of BC's Tourism" at the 6:05 mark.

ABLE invites you to their monthly Q&A with ABLE BC's Executive Director Jeff Guignard

Thursday, June 24th at 10:00 am PT.

REGISTER HERE. A Zoom link will be provided prior to the meeting.

What to expect during this one-hour meeting:

If you have any other questions or concerns, please contact Danielle Leroux (Director of Membership and Communications): danielle@ablebc.ca.

Tourism Richmond has just launched a new promotional video aimed at featuring some of their stakeholders. The video is intended to help share the information that tourism and hospitality operators in Richmond are ready to safely welcome British Columbians.

Click here to view the video.

This event is an opportunity to recognize the strength and perseverance of Indigenous communities.

Join the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade for a conversation with Chief Terry Teegee, Regional Chief of the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations, as he addresses the business community to discuss the path to truth and reconciliation.

During the event, space will be made to remember and acknowledge the 215 children whose remains were recently found on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School as well as all those that suffered as a result of the residential school system. Every Child Matters.

Please click here  with details for this webinar and to register.

Back by popular demand! Join TIABC Monday, June 28th in welcoming our guests from Rogers Sports & Media. This webinar will take you through a Canadian broadcast overview – the facts and myths on media consumption - and show you where to find Canadian travellers.

10am to 11am (PDT)

15 minutes of Q&A at end of session

Brad Kubota - VP Local and Regional Sales Canada – Rogers Sports and Media. Based in Vancouver, Brad has over 30 years of national, regional and local sales experience. He represents a wide range of sports and media assets and tools including TV, radio, digital, out of home and research.

Peter Kambo – Senior Manager Media Insights. Peter’s extensive Vancouver agency experience provides clients with best in class media strategy, planning and buying expertise. While agency side his long list of clients included GM, Bell, BCLC, BC Honda and Destination BC.

Dan Lessons – Western Canada Digital and Out of Home Sales Manager. Dan began his advertising career in publishing in London. Now based in Vancouver and with Rogers for 10 years, he designs and oversees national, regional and local digital strategies for all levels of marketing needs.

TIABC recognizes that many of our members have been supporting our organization's advocacy efforts for a very long time. In this new feature, we will be showcasing those businesses, associations, organizations and DMOs that been TIABC members for more than 10 years.

The Hotel Association of Vancouver has been representing the Vancouver Hotel industry since 2009.

Serving as the collective voice of hotels within the City of Vancouver, the Hotel Association of Vancouver represents the interests of these businesses on a local, provincial and national level. Through collaborative activity and an engaged membership, their goal is to collectively address the wants and needs of Vancouver hotels.

By providing member hotels with important information impacting the local hospitality industry, they work to ensure that Vancouver hotel general managers are informed and active in the larger community. In addition, their Board of Directors is involved in collectively representing our members on issues of concern to local hoteliers.

Click here to find out more about the Hotel Association of Vancouver.

As an industry that continues to face enormous challenges during COVID-19, every once in awhile it's important to share a laugh, a good story, a beautiful image or an interesting anecdote to provide moments of levity during this most difficult time. Feel free to share your photos, etc. with TIABC to share in our C-19 Bulletin.

Learn more at:

Self-Guided Webinars 

Developing Winter / Shoulder Season Tourism Toolkit

Made up of six learning modules, this webinar will give you actionable advice on how to define your strategy, develop products and experiences, build collaborative partnerships and more to boost seasonal tourism in your business or region.

Winter / Shoulder Season Consumer Demand Research Report

Get access to free tools and strategies to grow your business and tourism in your region at the ECE content hub: https://ecehub.tiac-aitc.ca/en/