TIABC Voice of Tourism Newsletter – September 19, 2025

Guest CEO Message

Why Tourism Belongs at the Centre of BC’s 2026 Budget

Dear Colleagues,

BC’s first-quarter fiscal update projects a record deficit and rising debt through 2028. While that’s cause for concern, it also represents an opportunity for government to deploy near term, high-yield investments in the tourism sector to generate export revenue, jobs, and tax receipts this fiscal year and next.

Our industry’s case is laid out in TIABC’s spring submission to the Premier’s Task Force on Trade & Economic Security, as well as our recent federal budget submission. With the right signals in Budget 2026, we can scale quickly.

Recently, there have been more calls for funding for parks, trails, access roads, and community-led recreation. While essential, any government investments in these areas must be matched by revenue-generating, market-ready investments that convert access into visitor spending, room-nights, and MRDT growth.

There are many examples of commercial outcomes with export dollars arriving in small towns and staying local as wages, leases, taxes, and supplier purchases.

Focused trail investment and destination development efforts over recent decades in the Sea-to-Sky corridor helped transition Squamish from a mill town to an outdoor capital. In 2023 alone, mountain bike visitor spending injected $26M into Squamish’s economy during a six-month window according to research from Squamish’s Off-road Cycling Association. Total MTB impacts were even larger across the region and province, representing significant taxable commerce supporting guides, retailers, restaurants, lodging, and events.

Campbell River, a long-term forestry and fishing hub, is embracing a visitor economy anchored in sport fishing, wildlife viewing, small-ship touring and Indigenous-led experiences. Reports indicate sustained positive trajectory with rising Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT) revenues and hotel occupancy peaking close to 90%…all signs of healthy, monetized demand when access and products align.

Homalco Wildlife & Cultural Tours, an Indigenous social enterprise directs tens of thousands of dollars annually from tour fees to salmon conservation at the Homalco Taggares Hatchery, illustrating regenerative tourism that funds the very assets visitors come to experience.

Despite a loss of revenues from mill closures in Valemount and the Robson Valley, strategic snowmobile and trail investments yield approximately $6-7M per year in visitor spending, supporting many businesses and shoulder-season jobs.

Crucial actions for boosting tourism, enhancing infrastructure, increasing workforce stability, and ensuring climate and emergency readiness include:

1. Invest in Destination BC’s core budget to boost marketing efforts and stay competitive in the international marketplace. Pair this with secure, longer term event funding to fill compression windows in destinations across BC.
2. Co-fund shovel-ready destination development initiatives such as trailheads, way-finding, rest stops, boat launches, port upgrades, and priority roadway fixes enhancing resident and guest experiences.
3. Streamline land tenure applications and permitting to secure future certainty for operators.
4. Create a dedicated PNP tourism stream and targeted housing supports for seasonal staff to help businesses fill workforce shortages and stabilize service levels.
5. Boost funding for destination emergency management and the Tourism Climate Resiliency Initiative, ensuring operators can continue through disruptions while protecting tax revenues when the province needs them most.

I lived the transition in Squamish from pulp-mill identity to an outdoor recreation and clean-tech hub, made possible by intentional investments and conservation of Howe Sound. The same playbook is working in Campbell River, Valemount, Houston, and beyond. When BC aligns access, product, and marketing with regulatory clarity, communities don’t just host visitors, they thrive.

Tourism is crucial because visitor dollars quickly cycle through the many connected sectors like accommodation, guiding, restaurant, retail, and transportation, generating significant tax income. Additionally, tourism exports are resilient to trade frictions and AI-automation risks, providing stability to communities. Indigenous-owned experiences, such as Homalco’s model, keep benefits local and fund habitat restoration, sustaining the natural assets and wildlife that coastal economies depend on.

By the end of 2026, success will be evident through MRDT growth across funded communities, higher shoulder-season occupancy and average daily rate, more jobs, and increased Indigenous tourism revenues.

If BC’s budget sidelines commercially-minded tourism investment, then short-term, tariff-free revenue is left on the table at the exact moment the province needs it. Let’s choose proven, near-term multipliers and keep building a visitor economy that pays today’s bills and sustains tomorrow’s destinations.

Cassandra Zerebeski

Director of Policy, TIABC