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

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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

A healthy organization has a strong culture of belonging at the centre, and that culture begins with each of us. We must demonstrate a commitment to team members and our organization that we turn toward each other and not away. By listening to different perspectives, we become open to new ideas and demonstrate we are willing to create a safe place for everyone where each team member is valued.

Barrier Free and Inclusive Policies, Processes, and Programs

Destination BC’s policies, processes and programs impact equity deserving groups both inside and outside of the organization. From human resources and corporate policies to funding programs, visitor information services, research and others, it is important that all areas of the organization are continuously examined to identify barriers and remove them.

An Inclusive and Accessible Tourism Industry

An inclusive and accessible tourism industry means eliminating and preventing barriers to ensure greater opportunities for equity deserving groups. This work spans well beyond our built environment and includes employment and marketing efforts, and it begins by creating awareness.

Learn more

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.

Accessibility

Diversity and Partnerships

Growth and
Well-being

HIRING

Accessibility

Diversity and Partnerships

Growth and
Well-being

HIRING

We continued to execute 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 600 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.

Destination BC underwent a DEIA culture audit, led by consultants at Inclusion Incorporated, 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.
Our brand strategy, including content, advertising, and how we procure content creators, underwent an extensive audit led by an inclusive marketing agency, AndHumanity, to help us understand how we can better reflect the diversity of British Columbia’s people. This is one component of a two-part approach on 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).

Recognizing the impact of events highlighted in the media related to racial trauma, we secured dedicated counseling services for all employees who self-identify as a member of the BIPOC community.
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.
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 and How to Work Effectively with Indigenous Peoples.

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.

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.

Posted: March 20, 2023

Destination BC: Applications Now Open for Accessibility and Inclusion Committee

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Posted: March 16, 2023

Building a Better World, Together: Destination BC Launches Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Strategy

Read Article

Posted: July 17, 2020

Northern BC Tourism Association Helps Advance Accessibility and Welcome Visitors Back to Barrier-free Attractions

The Northern BC Tourism Association worked with local tourism businesses and not-for-profits to build accessible infrastructure, operations and tourism experiences.

Accessible Infrastructure Added to Northeast BC

Northern BC Tourism Association has funded the installation of Universally Accessible Infrastructure at eight high use visitor sites in the region.

Rainbow Registered LGBT+ Friendly Accreditation Program

Canada’s LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce, with Tourism HR Canada, have collaborated to launch the 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

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Destination BC's DEIA Strategy

Building a Better World, Together

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.