TIABC Voice of Tourism Newsletter – July 19, 2024

CEO MESSAGE

Last fall dozens of unexpected and unwelcome European visitors led to the destruction of my entire lawn. Seems the dreaded invasive species known as the Chafer beetle produced grubs that raccoons, skunks and crows all competed for. Compounded by lack of water and an industrious mole that set a new record for building tunnels on my property, there was virtually nothing left of the grass I once nurtured and mowed.

This spring I dug up more than six yards of dirt, rocks, roots and weeds and replaced them with double-screened, clean soil in an attempt to give my entire yard a fresh start. Rather than laying down artificial or pre-grown turf, I decided on Chafer-resistant seed to see if I could grow grass the old-fashioned way. However, it required a daily ritual of watering, and even though I followed local bylaws that stated I was permitted to soak the seed, in many respects it made me feel guilty given the necessary water restrictions all over the province.

These days I’m much more aware of and taking steps to reduce my household environmental impact, as well as at the office and now especially while travelling for pleasure or business. Even little things like partnering up with colleagues on cabs or declining the daily hotel cleaning service all help to some degree. In other words, I do what I can to emulate so many in our industry who walk the talk when it comes to sustainability.

To that end, you may recall TIABC’s three primary sustainability goals for the 2024 BC Tourism Industry Conference (BCTIC) in Victoria last March which included minimizing the environmental footprint of the event, engaging and educating attendees and suppliers on sustainable best practices, and giving back to our host destination communities. Recently we received the final BCTIC Sustainability Report produced by our conference management team (ConnectSeven Group) that pointed to many successes and some failures.

For example, while not all data could be collected and included in various measures, all suppliers were keenly interested in supporting the sustainability initiative as best they could with the resources and processes they had in place. Importantly, although we attempted to compare against measures from the 2022 conference, differences in methodology prevented us from doing so for certain actions.

That said, the 2024 baseline measurements are intended to be used as a guide to better understand our main impact streams for reducing carbon emissions for future conferences and as a case study for learning and capacity building. It should be noted that (not surprisingly) the two largest contributors to emissions were energy (64.2%) and travel (34.3%).

It’s worth stating again that as part of our commitment to the most recent conference sustainability objectives, TIABC provided a contribution to both Destination Greater Victoria’s Impact & Legacy Program for work undertaken by Peninsula Streams Society, and to the North Island Marine Debris Removal Project, coordinated through 4VI’s new 4Good charity.

The sustainability goals for BCTIC 2025 (March 5-7) in Vancouver will revolve around carbon footprint measurements, energy usage, procurement, travel, food & beverage, communications, and programming. More to come once we start planning for next year after the September Labour Day weekend.

Because of the persistent mole that has become a permanent tenant I should be charging rent to, there are many days where I’m tempted to do what greenskeeper Carl Spackler (Bill Murray’s character in the 1980 movie Caddyshack) did when he ultimately used dynamite to rid the prestigious Bushwood Country Club of a nuisance gopher. I think that perhaps some kind of explosive device might solve my grub infested, lumpy lawn problem but then I’m reminded that the gopher in Caddyshack survived and the golf course didn’t.

Walt Judas

CEO, TIABC