Destination BC's DEIA Strategy
Destination BC is committed to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. We worked with subject matter experts on the creation of this people-focused DEIA Strategy.
This is a long-term Strategy that acts as our foundation towards becoming a more equitable and inclusive organization and inspiring change across the tourism industry.
To submit feedback regarding our DEIA Strategy,
please contact us at deia@DestinationBC.ca
Building a Better World, Together
British Columbia’s beauty, strength, and identity are deeply rooted in Indigenous history, culture, and traditions, and the diversity of people living here today. People differ in race, ethnicity, culture, gender, identity, ability—among others—and this is what makes us individually and collectively unique.
Destination BC understands that we have a responsibility to ensure everything we do is equitable and inclusive, and we recognize that we can champion diversity, amplify the voices of all people living in BC, and more authentically connect people, places, and experiences.
Tourism is one of the most diverse industries in the world, and changing systemic inequalities will take all of us working together—our employees, suppliers, partners, tourism communities, and the tourism industry as a whole. We have a great opportunity to better authentically represent communities in BC, understand how others encounter the world, and ensure tourism experiences are safe, accessible, and inclusive for everyone, and we will all be better for it.
Our Areas of Focus
We want to shape meaningful change within our organization and across the tourism industry through our work. Our areas of focus include three core themes. Each theme is supported by clear goals and actions that touch every part of our organization and will require all employees to develop and apply diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility knowledge, skills, and behaviours to their work. Progress will be measured throughout the year to hold our organization accountable for the change we seek to achieve.
A Culture of Belonging
Barrier Free and Inclusive Policies, Processes, and Programs
An Inclusive and Accessible Tourism Industry
We’re Listening, Learning, and Taking Action
Learn more about the concrete actions we’ve taken to create a more just and equitable workforce and improve our policies, processes, and programs.
Well-being
Accessibility
Marketing and Partnerships
Growth and
Well-being
HIRING
- We established an Accessibility and Inclusion Committee (AIC), in compliance with the Accessible British Columbia Act and to support our work towards a more accessible and inclusive tourism industry.
- We continued to deliver on our three-year Accessible Tourism Strategic Framework & Action Plan, and forged relationships with a number of disability subject matter experts to help inform our work towards supporting a more accessible tourism industry. Experts include Spinal Cord Injury BC, Rick Hansen Foundation, Community Living BC, Inclusion BC, CNIB, Autism BC and others.
- We continued our outreach to tourism businesses and encouraged them to add mobility, vision, hearing, cognitive, sensory or general accessibility information in their HelloBC.com listings. Almost 700 tourism businesses have listed accessibility attributes.
- We created an Accessible Tourism section on our Learning Centre with a number of resources to help tourism businesses towards being accessible and inclusive for all employees and travellers.
- We’ve developed a shared action plan for marketing with Indigenous Tourism BC.
- Our brand strategy, including content, advertising, and how we procure content creators, underwent an extensive inclusive marketing audit to help us understand how we can better reflect the diversity of British Columbia’s people and a big part of our journey to becoming an inclusive brand.
- While this audit was occurring, we partnered with a greater diversity of content creators through our influencer partnerships, ‘Stay Local, Support Local’ guides, and our ExploreBC with Locals campaign.
- We began to use Social Impact Procurement Guidelines on our Requests for Qualifications (RFQs).
- We’ve built an inclusive and intentional content calendar and content planning approach for Destination BC’s digital channels.
- We’ve developed guidelines to improve the inclusivity of Destination BC’s marketing communications through an inclusive language guide, content accessibility guide, and inclusive visuals best practices.
- We’re piloting a more inclusive approach to visual production and the way we store and select photography and video for marketing content and advertising.
- We signed on as an employer partner with the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion, providing employees with unlimited access to webinars, a knowledge repository, and various other resources to support their DEIA learning journey.
- Destination BC underwent a DEIA culture audit for the purpose of better understanding the representation of diversity in our workforce and the employee experience. Specific analysis was done to understand the different experiences of equity-deserving groups, and the work we can do on our processes, our policies, and our structure.
- We expanded our internal DEIA Steering Committee to be more inclusive of a diversity of backgrounds, voices, and lenses.
- We have a multi-year learning plan to support employees in developing intercultural competence.
- DEIA learning webinars for employees were provided on the following topics: Importance of Intersectionality in Diversity and Inclusion, Safe Spaces for Dialogue, Activating Allies, Combatting Tokenism, Accessibility, Inclusive Marketing, Building Belonging, Microagressions, Safe and Brave Spaces, How to Work Effectively with Indigenous Peoples, and Meaningful Engagement.
- We established a corporate process to understand what makes each employee feel valued and how they wish to be recognized.
- We’re developing an action plan for employees who identify as having a disability to understand their needs, and improve barriers to belonging and inclusion.
- We made updates to our hiring processes, such as using a gender decoder tool on all of our job postings to help identify and eliminate gender biased language for the purpose of attracting diverse talent.
- We also introduced the availability of Indigenous Applicant Advisory Services to all job applicants who self-identify as Indigenous and are seeking work or already employed in the BC Public Service.
- We’ve made a commitment to ensuring accommodations are in place to support job applicants who self-identify as having a disability in our hiring process and in our workplace.
- We are applying inclusive language to all job postings, understanding that language will continue to evolve.
- We have incorporated best practices of DEIA into exit interview templates.
What We’re Doing Next
Dismantling discrimination within processes, systems, and language, and unlearning attitudes or behaviours needs to be thoughtful and intentional. We understand that this process of change will take time, and we are committed to implementing our learnings around diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) into everything we do, and sharing these learnings with our industry partners.
Through to 2025, we are focused on implementing the actions outlined within our three-year DEIA strategy. This strategy sets our vision to be a more inclusive organization, with clear accountability for change. Destination BC will be deeply exploring possibilities, with more expressions of bridging and empathy.
Previous Corporate News
Destination BC Forms Accessibility & Inclusion Committee
Read ArticleDestination BC: Applications Now Open for Accessibility and Inclusion Committee
Read ArticleBuilding a Better World, Together: Destination BC Launches Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Strategy
Read ArticleDestination BC’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
Read ArticleDestination BC’s Roadmap for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
Read ArticleDiversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Tourism
Destination BC Adds Accessibility Information to HelloBC Listings
Accessible Travel Guides Launched for the Vancouver Island Region
Northern BC Tourism Association Helps Advance Accessibility and Welcome Visitors Back to Barrier-free Attractions
Accessible Infrastructure Added to Northeast BC
Rainbow Registered LGBT+ Friendly Accreditation Program
Get in Touch
To find out more about Destination BC’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility efforts,
or to submit feedback regarding our DEIA Strategy, contact us at deia@DestinationBC.ca
