TIABC Voice of Tourism Newsletter – July 25, 2025

In many respects, the news of last week’s cabinet shuffle was usurped by the incident at the Coldplay concert in Boston where the stadium ‘kiss cam’ captured a married tech CEO cuddling his colleague before ducking for cover to avoid exposing an affair.

The images of the guilty pair sent the internet into a frenzy and seemingly dominated every online and in-person conversation, yet the story with notable ramifications for the province quickly got buried.

Nevertheless, I heard from many colleagues who were both surprised and disappointed by the shuffle and more specifically, the change in tourism minister. Minister Chandra Herbert was well known and liked, very familiar with the tourism sector, worked hard, and had built relationships in every part of the province over the last nine months (& dating back years prior) that gave us the confidence that issues would be addressed and opportunities pursued.

There is general consensus amongst tourism leaders that we stand to lose momentum by government’s appointment of a third minister in less than a year, which translates into valuable time and resources taken up by a series of briefings, relationship building, and other activities instead of tackling the priorities the industry has been advancing with Minister Chandra Herbert.

To be clear, this has nothing to do with the new Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture & Sport (TACS), Hon. Anne Kang who I spoke with on Monday. By all accounts, she is very smart, hard-working, passionate, personable, and keen to get stuff done. We look forward to working with her. But by the same token, the changeover process and bringing a new Minister up to speed takes time and to many stakeholders feels like we’re starting all over again. That said, our industry is grateful the core team at TACS remains in place which at least gives us some continuity and reassurance.

During my brief conversation with Minister Kang, I was able to outline some of the challenges and opportunities the tourism sector faces in the months and years ahead. I’ve referenced many of the files in this space before: land use, tenure renewals, rising costs, transportation, infrastructure, Destination BC funding, the list goes on. But I also spoke of ways the minister could be of influence and help our industry reach its full potential.

In the coming weeks I will brief Minister Kang more thoroughly on the full range of tourism priorities, but in the meantime, it’s also important for TIABC and its members to take note of the other cabinet changes that will affect BC’s visitor economy.

For example, Hon. Ravi Kahlon has shifted from Housing to Jobs and Economic Growth. Considering our sector contributes so significantly to BC’s workforce and to the well-being of the province, Minister Kahlon will be an important ally as we seek to elevate tourism as a primary economic pillar. You may recall that TIABC worked closely with Minister Kahlon when he held a similar portfolio during the pandemic.

Other notable changes include the aforementioned Minister Chandra Herbert now overseeing Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, which is a critical portfolio with tremendous influence on tourism activities that take place on crown land. Suffice it to say, virtually every one of the eight changes to cabinet has some impact on BC’s visitor economy and TIABC will be seeking to advocate to the new ministers on behalf of our sector in the days ahead.

Curiously, both of the stories folks were talking to me about last week contained work related consequences…albeit at different ends of the spectrum. The cabinet shuffle entails new roles for ministers and new relationships for me to nurture on behalf of TIABC and its members. For the cheating CEO , he’s apparently looking for a new job, along with trying to salvage broken relationships, neither of which I can help with.

Walt Judas

CEO, TIABC