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Destination BC Bulletin 28: COVID-19
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Hudson Bay Mountain in the Smithers backcountry
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Welcome to the Honourable Melanie Mark, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport
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Congratulations and welcome to the new Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, the Honourable Melanie Mark, Hli Haykwhl Ẃii Xsgaak. Minister Mark was first elected MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant in 2016 as the first First Nations woman to serve in the BC Legislature. She previously served as the Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training. Before entering politics, Minister Mark advocated for youth, the homeless, sexually exploited children and Indigenous peoples in the justice system. She co-founded the Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre, led a national project with Save the Children Canada, and served as an advocate with British Columbia’s Office of the Representative for Children and Youth. Minister Mark is Nisga’a, Gitxsan, Cree, Ojibway, French and Scottish and a proud mother of two girls. Destination BC would like to express thanks to the outgoing Minister of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Lisa Beare, for all her hard work representing the tourism sector.
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Messaging Guidance for BC’s Tourism Industry
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BC tourism businesses can refer to the Messaging Guidance for November 20-December 7 related to the latest Provincial Health Orders and Recommendations. The document includes messaging and a FAQ. This messaging will be updated as soon as new information is available from the Provincial Heath Officer.
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Stay local and support local businesses with just your immediate household or bubble.
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Three Sisters Winery with COVID-19 safety measures. Credit: Destination BC/@vancouverfoodie
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Stay Local, Support Local: 2020 Gift Guides
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Leading up to the holidays this year, we have a unique opportunity to position gift giving as a Stay Local, Support Local endeavour. We are currently building a BC Holiday Gift Guide that we recently published on HelloBC.com, and sharing stories in our social channels that encourage BC residents to support businesses in their local community. Here’s how you can work with us over the next 2 weeks to add your content—and local businesses!—into this initiative.
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The COVID-19 Safety Plan can also be completed on any mobile device using the COVID-19 Safety Plan app.
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WorkSafeBC COVID-19 Safety Plan
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Businesses are required to develop a COVID-19 Safety Plan that outlines the policies, guidelines, and procedures they have put in place to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. This WorkSafe BC tool will guide you through a six-step process to help you create your plan. The tool is provided as a fillable PDF you can download and save at workplace. Safety plans must also be posted and publicly available on business websites.
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Share your COVID-19 Safety Plan with consumers to rebuild confidence.
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Add Your COVID-19 Safety Plan to HelloBC.com
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Posting a copy of your COVID-19 safety plan on your consumer-facing website and at your workplace is a requirement of the Workplace COVID-19 Safety Plans Order. Reassure customers that you have implemented measures to protect them and your employees from COVID-19, and link to your online safety plan directly from your business listing on HelloBC.com.
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Small Business BC Partners with Destination BC
Submitted by Small Business BC
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In BC, 98% of all businesses are small businesses. They are the backbone of our provincial economy, providing millions of well-paying jobs and helping to sustain our communities. At Small Business BC, we exist to help small business owners start and grow sustainable businesses. Through our partnership with Destination BC, we are offering tourism businesses free access to Advisory Services, Educational Webinars and Business Strategy Advice. These free services will help your business navigate the unique challenges posed by the pandemic and hopefully emerge stronger from the other side.
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Access free advisory services, educational webinars and business strategy advice.
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Thank you to the Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, The Honourable, Melanie Mark, and Deputy Minister Neilane Mayhew, for joining the December 3rd call.
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Destination BC Industry Call: December 3, 2020
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We have resumed our bi-weekly COVID-19 Industry Calls. These calls are a great opportunity for industry to hear more about our programs, services and campaigns, including how we are supporting BC tourism recovery efforts. The recording of each call is available on our website.
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CO-OPERATIVE MARKETING PARTNERSHIPS PROGRAM
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BC Golf Sector Pivots During COVID-19 Pandemic
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The BC Golf Alliance, which partners with the Destination BC's Co-Operative Marketing Program, paused all activities for more than 2 months during the initial pandemic restrictions. Once back in market, they modified marketing activities, using Co-op funds, to include "Stay and Play in BC's Backyard" messaging in their e-newsletters, retargeting campaigns in BC, content acquisition, and inspiration for 2021 BC golf vacations. By September 2020, rounds played were up 20.4% in BC, the highest of all provinces, and well above the national average.
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Golfing at Eagle Ranch Golf Resort and Mt Nelson.
Credit: Destination BC/Kari Medig.
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Government of British Columbia Restoring Confidence App
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By using the Restoring Confidence App, businesses can re-engage customers, restore customer confidence and encourage repeat business by promoting their compliance with health and workplace guidelines. The Restoring Confidence App allows participating businesses to generate a local business poster, which includes a unique QR code that customers can scan to read the business’s COVID-19 Safety Plan. Participation is easy and the application can be completed in under 10 minutes.
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Sign up using the online application form and create your own poster, complete with a scannable QR code.
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COVID-19 Resilience Infrastructure Stream
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The Provincial and Federal governments have partnered to develop the COVID-19 Resilience Infrastructure Stream (CVRIS) as part of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP). Local governments, Indigenous communities and not-for-profit organizations are encouraged to apply for grant funding for public infrastructure projects, including projects that focus on active transportation, COVID-19 resilience and disaster mitigation and adaptation. The program accepts applications until January 27, 2021.
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Adaptation, Resilience and Disaster Mitigation Program
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This Provincial funding program is available to local governments and Indigenous communities for structural and natural infrastructure projects to address the impacts of flooding and flood-related hazards. Applications are accepted until January 11, 2021.
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Canadian Government Proposes Funding for Tourism in Fall Economic Statement
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On November 30, the Federal Government announced their Fall Economic Statement, including proposed funding for the tourism industry, recognized alongside hospitality as hard-hit sectors that require enhanced support. The Federal government has also extended the application window for the Canada Emergency Business Account, or CEBA, loan program to March 31, 2021 (eligible applicants will soon be able to apply for a higher loan amount).
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The government proposed new, low-interest loans for the hardest hit businesses under the Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program (including tourism, hospitality, arts and entertainment businesses).
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Federal Government Launches ArriveCAN
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On November 2, the Government of Canada announced new mandatory requirements for travellers to Canada. As of November 21, 2020, air travellers whose final destination is Canada will be required to submit their information electronically through the ArriveCAN application or website before they board their flight (exceptions will be made for those unable to submit electronically due to personal circumstances, such as disability or inadequate infrastructure). Learn more about the program through the ArriveCAN Awareness Toolkit.
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BC’s Residents Public Perceptions COVID-19 Travel and Tourism - Wave 14 Report
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This report monitors BC resident’s current views on travel and tourism as well as tracking travel and tourism behaviour intentions in order to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry.
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Our Learning Centre provides access to resources and tools, best practices, workshops, and training programs for BC’s tourism industry.
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Five Steps to Manage your Online Presence During Recovery
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Is your online presence up to date? As travellers stay home and dream, planning for trips around BC in the future, managing your online presence can help increase future interest in your business.
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Let visitors know how your business is responding to COVID-19.
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This webinar will walk through the process step-by-step, and share hands-on help in claiming, creating, or optimizing your business listings on Tripadvisor and HelloBC.com.
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Manage your Online Presence: Tripadvisor and HelloBC.com
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Review sites like Tripadvisor have been shown to influence up to 95% of all travel bookings, and – whether you created a business listing or not – almost every tourism business in British Columbia is already on the site. Now, with Tripadvisor content also being pulled automatically to HelloBC.com, the time has never been better to optimize your presence online for visitors who are actively planning a trip to BC. Register for this January 13 webinar to learn more.
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Accessible Website Recognition for HelloBC.com
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The team at the TravelAbility Summit, an event that connects disability travel thought-leaders to travel industry suppliers and destination marketing organizations, recently recognized Destination BC’s consumer website, HelloBC.com, as one of two Canadian provincial tourism organizations that have successfully incorporated accessibility information on their consumer website. If you are a tourism business and have not added your accessibility attributes to your HelloBC listing, log on to the Tourism Business Portal and add yours today.
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The research survey of 122 Canadian and US destination websites and found that only 40 of them included an accessible landing page.
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Implementation of recommendations is expected to begin in early 2021.
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BC Ferries launches next phase of community engagement for the Sunshine Coast
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BC Ferries is inviting community feedback on a shortlist of potential solutions to improve ferry travel for the Sunshine Coast, as part of the second phase of its “Moving Ahead Together” engagement project. Surveys will collected until Wednesday, December 9.
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Revelstoke Tourism Stakeholders Raise Almost $10,000 to Mask Up Revy
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In a collaborative effort, the Revelstoke Recovery Task Force, Tourism Revelstoke, Revelstoke Mountain Resort, the Revelstoke Chamber of Commerce, and passionate community members share a unified message: Mask Up Revy. The initiative encouraged mask wearing by providing free face masks to businesses, residents and visitors. 20,000 masks were purchased with funding from the city of Revelstoke, the chamber of commerce as well as the CSRD and given out to businesses, residents and visitors starting in mid August. Food and monetary donations were collected as the masks were given out. In total 350lbs of food was collected in addition to the money.
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Revelstoke community organizations created to Revy Rules to protect residents and visitors.
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December 3 is International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
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December 3 is International Day of Persons with Disabilities
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December 3 is International Day of People With Disabilities, an annual occasion designated to support people with disabilities in our communities, and raise awareness of the importance of creating a future where people with disabilities experience equal opportunity and face no barriers in all aspects of their lives. This year, the theme of the day is “Not All Disabilities Are Visible” – a focus on the fact that not all disabilities are immediately apparent, such as mental illness, hearing impairments, diabetes, brain injuries, chronic pain or fatigue, cognitive and neurological challenges.
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Indigenous Tourism BC Announces the Indigenous Community Business Fund
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Indigenous Tourism BC in partnership with Indigenous Services Canada and the Aboriginal Financial Institutions in BC are delivering a $5 million dollar Tourism and Hospitality Fund through the Indigenous Community Business Fund. This fund will provide non-repayable grant contributions of up to $250,000 per community to First Nation and Inuit community-owned and Métis collectively owned businesses and microbusinesses in response to the economic impacts of COVID-19 over the period April to August 2020.
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Cultural Ambassadors in Regalia at the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre in Whistler. Credit: Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre/Blake Jorgensen/Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre
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Destination BC COVID-19 Communications
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Here's how to stay connected on the latest from Destination BC:
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If you have questions that can't be answered through the various resources on our website and official channels, please send them to [email protected] and we will work to address them.
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