Through the Indigenous Tourism Accord, Indigenous Tourism BC (ITBC) aims to increase inclusiveness and awareness of Indigenous cultures and communities, with a goal of ensuring Indigenous Peoples are leading and determining the future of tourism in their communities.
Integrating Indigenous values and perspectives within provincial tourism brands overseen by Destination British Columbia (DBC), including Super, Natural British Columbia™️ and Invest in Iconics, ITBC works to elevate Indigenous stories, voices, and tourism businesses through collaborative marketing campaigns, content, and market development programs. Indigenous Tourism BC and Destination BC's Brand & Marketing Action Plan is the first direct-to-consumer program for which ITBC and DBC have collaborated holistically.
ITBC aims to provide skills development and training where needed to increase employment opportunities for Indigenous Peoples. In collaboration with DBC, ITBC has created Guiding Principles, which re-affirms the shared commitment to a unified tourism industry in BC, now and for the future.
The response to award-winning digital campaign Find Yourself was a catalyst in the creation of new campaign Illahee. Released in video form on YouTube and performed by local Indigenous creators, the Find Yourself narrative was developed to authentically speak to the deep connection Indigenous Peoples hold with the land and ecosystems.
Find Yourself highlighted the province's unique natural wonders and encouraged reconciliation and recovery through further education of Indigenous culture. In addition to the video and billboards, the campaign included a dedicated landing page that promoted travel ideas, places to go, and things to do while visiting BC.
An immediate success, the Find Yourself video has been viewed approximately 5.8 million times on YouTube. The project was guided by ITBC marketing members, with ITBC's Cohen Bradley providing the written words for the poem that is recited throughout the campaign video.
"Find yourself in a performance of human and nature.
Spirits embracing, catching what we were chasing.
And the silence is our thunderous applause.
For we are connected.
In these moments we will find ourselves again,
Through these places that we have been.
We will be in awe, not of their beauty but of ourselves,
That we can feel so deeply, be filled so completely.
We will dig in our toes deep, and be rooted.
For the soil contains the layers of our past,
stories from ancestors not passed, but still living,
in us.
Our grounding force.
So we are supported to spread our arms as we are welcomed into the forest
Not by the name with which we arrived,
But an ancient one we have revived.
We will reflect,
In the darkness of night,
On when we whispered, trading stories with the sea,
When we roared with the storm unapologetically,
And when we bounced with the trees in laughter.
We will reflect,
On when we went home and found ourselves in nature."
Following the renewed agreement between ITBC and DBC, the new campaign, Illahee, represents the first DBC program that is solely Indigenous-focused. The campaign features a collection of stories told in documentary-style videos, which uplift Indigenous voices and focus on the connection Indigenous people have with the land and wildlife in BC.
Illahee was conceived as an evolution and content extension of the global brand campaign Find Yourself, and is a key priority for both organizations. This program has been outlined in the ITBC Action Plan and DBC Marketing Roadmap, and represents an important step towards the advancement of reconciliation.
ITBC and DBC have worked collaboratively to produce a series of Illahee videos. The collaboration will continue with the planning and implementation of consumer-direct and owned channel activities.
The Illahee project - which is an adaptation of the Find Yourself video - can be easily adopted and replicated within other communities as a simple way to amplify voices, stories, and businesses that need to be heard and supported. Its approach and ideation can be applied across multiple organizations.
Lesson learned - when Indigenous engagement happens at the start of a project true partnership unfolds and makes any inclusive campaign authentic.