Daniel Paul Bork
(Originally published in TOURISM)Put together spectacular landscapes, unique experiences, and a vibrant living culture and you have a remarkable opportunity to thrive in the tourism business. Nowhere can this be more true than with Aboriginal tourism products, of which there are stunning examples across Canada. Aboriginal Tourism Canada's (ATC) new CEO, Daniel Paul Bork, has a vision to ensure these products reach into the marketplace to achieve the success they deserve, and to increase Canada's portfolio of these market-ready tourism experiences.
Bork, president of Manitoba‑based Cook Consulting, was appointed CEO of ATC this spring. He told TOURISM that Canada's Aboriginal tourism file has gone through a growth spurt, accompanied by a re‑focused mandate. In the past, the regional Aboriginal tourism associations were heavily represented on the ATC board of directors. The principal mission used to be to advocate for the interests of those associations while they were developing regional strategies, but now – at the request of funding agencies as well as some of the board members – the new mission is to enhance, facilitate and support the Aboriginal tourism industry to get market‑ready product into the marketplace.
To get things moving, Bork has embraced a very specific goal: to identify 25 internationally significant Canadian Aboriginal tourism products and get them into the marketplace. "We want to market those at the international level and have an impact with consumers who are interested in coming to explore Canada, getting them to include Aboriginal product when planning their itinerary."
Bork acknowledges there will be challenges dealing with regional imbalances when it comes to the availability of market‑ready product. "There are regions of the country where organization has been lacking – notably Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta as well as in the Maritimes," says Bork. "They have struggled trying to organize owner/operators to market their Aboriginal tourism product, which seems a bit strange especially on the Prairies where there is a very high Aboriginal population and some good product. But there has been a trend there to look at the success of the individual operation rather than at the industry as a whole to develop a strategy to get products into the marketplace."
"Marketing is both an art and a science," continues Bork, "and some marketing initiatives in the past have been less than effective. It comes down to experience, and hiring people with experience." Bork notes that – using BC as an example – Aboriginal operators tend to work well with their provincial marketing organization (Tourism BC) which is a very good marketing machine, and have been more effective than those operators in some other jurisdictions that have not embraced marketing partnerships.
Bork emphasizes that – under the new ATC mandate – product development for Aboriginal tourism will stay with existing regional (Aboriginal) tourism associations. "What we would like to do, from the ATC point of view, is facilitate product development where there is a move toward ecotourism, matching existing Aboriginal tourism specialists with effective strategies. That would be our role, but development won't be one of the things we do." The ATC has been contacted by the International Ecotourism Society, which is working on an ecotourism strategy for Aboriginals and has some 15 operations that concentrate on ecotourism; Bork sees an opportunity to match that expertise with developing Aboriginal product in Canada.
"We have noticed," says Bork, "that the Aboriginal economic development sector and the businesses themselves tend to work in isolation. My role is to bring them out of isolation and get them working together with mainstream partners to broaden their consumer base. A lot of this is based around building relationships."
Bork sees a burning need for better research, a facet of ATC's new mandate in which he hopes to engage the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC). "We have already decided to move forward with research into the German market, starting in the next couple of months. And, it will be important to disseminate the results of this market research and educate the tour operators and regional tourism associations, making the connection between the owner/operator – the product – and the tour operators. The research has to be accessible to ‑ and utilized to the benefit of – Aboriginal tourism products across Canada."
According to Bork, presentation is a key component of Aboriginal experiences. Too often, he feels, visitors have been encouraged to attend an attraction or an event, then provided with only a brief overview of what is going on and left to their own devices. Visitors want – need – to be engaged and fully informed about what they are seeing and doing from an Aboriginal perspective if they are to have a truly rewarding experience. As he points out, it is no longer (if indeed it ever was) good enough "to plop someone in a canoe and ride around all day" and consider it an Aboriginal experience.
Defining Aboriginal tourism products can be problematic. There are hotels and airlines in several parts of Canada which are entirely or partially Aboriginal‑owned, but may seem to have a connection with Aboriginal culture that is tenuous at best. "This can be a balancing act," says Bork, "because the tourism product or service that is 51% Aboriginal‑owned, for example, will want to be promoted and marketed along with other – perhaps even better – non‑Aboriginal products and services. And, there are products such as casinos and golf courses which are not traditionally Aboriginal experiences but are, in fact, fully Aboriginal products by any definition."
Given the challenges ahead, it is not surprising the ATC's new CEO emphasizes the concept of partnerships. The partnership inherent in the location of the new ATC office is a case in point: the office will share space with the Tourism Industry Association of Canada in Ottawa. "We want to align ourselves much more closely with mainstream industry, stepping out of our isolation and working in areas that are in all of our best interests.
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