ITAC president Keith Henry celebrates new funding, bold goals for Indigenous Tourism
Over the past decade, the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) has proven time and time again that it knows how to meet a challenge.
Whether that challenge is accessing adequate funding to run its operations, help its members grow their businesses and promote Indigenous tourism to the world or to meet the existential threat of a global pandemic, ITAC has found a way to weather the storms.
So, it was clearly a reason for celebration when ITAC announced last week (July 15) that it had secured a seven-year, social impact funding commitment from a U.K.-based group of investors (the Passion Project Foundation) who have directed targeted resources toward strengthening Indigenous tourism in Canada.
That funding will provide about $35 million per year to support long-term development across the Indigenous tourism sector.
ITAC president and CEO, Keith Henry said in announcing it during an event at the Spirit Garden at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square that: “This new funding marks an important step forward and reflects both the resilience of the Indigenous tourism industry and the growing demand for Indigenous experiences across Canada – from coast to coast to coast.”
That announcement coincided nicely with ITAC’s release of its 2025-2026 Operational Plan, with Henry observing that: “Despite global uncertainties, including U.S. tariffs, ITAC remains committed to supporting our 1,300+ members and advancing one of our most ambitious operational plans to date.”
Speaking to Travel Courier during the Toronto event, Henry explained that the new funding will allow ITAC to address a number of critical issues.
Connecting with the travel trade
“We know there are certain problems that we have to deal with. One of them is marketing, so a significant portion each year [will go to marketing],” Henry said.
He continued: “We plan to invest $6-million to $8-million a year in domestic and international marketing. It’s not a huge marketing budget, but for us [ITAC], we’ve never had that before.”
Outlining some of the areas that ITAC will be using the funding, Henry told TC: “We’ll help our members directly. We’ve got trade work we’re going to do. We’ve got certain mission work we want to do. We’ll do direct-to-consumer stuff. We’ve got campaign work that we’ll do that we can actually put some horsepower behind – that’s a big part of it.”
However, key for ITAC will be the development that will help its members become market ready.
“The bulk of our [member] businesses are small businesses, so they’re missing the opportunity for sales with the trade, travel agencies. There’s just too much of that being missed and so a big part of that will be enhancing [their] market readiness,” Henry said.
“We’ll launch it in September, but the concept is we’ll be helping in two buckets. One will be at the sort of earlier stages of market readiness – I’m not going to say brand new businesses, but [businesses] in the less sophisticated area – there’ll be up to $25,000 investments for certain things. For the more market-ready], there’ll be up to $75,000 investments. We just want to help them build that infrastructure so that they can work more effectively with the trade, travel agencies, and make sure that they can really understand how to handle that,” he explained.
The drive to ramp up its members’ market-readiness comes as ITAC is talking to a number of tour companies, including Collette.
With the growing trend of small group tours, Indigenous tourism is a perfect fit, with Henry telling TC: “That’s our niche. We are not mass tourism. We are a small group – whether it’s work, school group, whatever. We have been talking to Collette about how do we execute more of these [tours] … how do we actually make some more itineraries.”
Noting that Collette is a good example of the kinds of initiatives that are in play, Henry also said that ITAC has “other partners that we’re talking with, but you have to put some money and some energy into it. So, that will be a big part of the marketing side.”
Back to the plan
ITAC’s 2025-26 Operational Plan serves as the first step of many to rebuild and grow Indigenous tourism in Canada to meet the 2030 vision.
By 2030, ITAC aims for the Indigenous tourism sector in Canada to reach 2,700 businesses and 60,000 jobs, and contribute $6 billion annually to national Gross domestic product (GDP).
While it is an ambitious plan, with ambitious goals, Henry said that: “This plan is backed by targeted investments that support every part of the Indigenous tourism ecosystem. The Operational Plan lays out its commitment to our members across the country through significant new investments in marketing, development and other business support.”
These investments include more than $6 million in marketing efforts such as campaigns, trade shows and media outreach; business support programs aligned with The Original Original accreditation at $8 million annually; and the launch and development of the Indigenous Tourism Heritage Fund (ITHF), which will support large-scale Indigenous tourism investments, beginning with a $1 million startup investment.
Workforce development remains a priority, with over $5 million committed each year to address labour shortages and build sector capacity. The plan also includes more than $3 million in annual support for provincial and territorial partners, and a $1.8 million annual investment to continue hosting the International Indigenous Tourism Conference (IITC).
An anniversary of accomplishments
As ITAC marks its 10th anniversary, it seemed only fair to ask Henry to talk about some of the association’s accomplishments.
“I think what I’m really proud of is that we’re actually still here,” he told TC. “You know, we’re the fourth iteration of a national indigenous tourism body – and I’m sure you’re aware of some of the past ones – and so, I’m really proud that we’re still here after this long.”
He continued: “We built things like the International Indigenous Tourism Conference and that’s one of the best conferences in the country, I believe. We get 1,200 people at this conference now, so that’s an example. I love that we have a stable Board [of Directors]. I love that we have a mostly Indigenous staff – we didn’t have that [before].”
Said Henry: “I started this [ITAC] out of the trunk of my car, building a national body [for Indigenous tourism] 10 years ago. So, I’m really thankful to see [how far it has come].”
As for what’s to come in the next 10 years, well said Henry: “The next 10 years – I want to see us really triple the industry. It’s an ambitious goal, but I know the market is there.”
In fact, during the Toronto event, Henry made it clear that going forward ITAC’s mission was to make Canada the leading Indigenous tourism destination in the world.
Go to www.indigenoustourism.ca for more.
