Early Lessons From Vancouver Island Tourism’s Shift From Marketer to Social Enterprise
Photo Credit: Brentwood Bay, Vancouver Island Unsplash / Izzy Edey
Skift Take
Swapping its marketing role to focus on social impact is as inspiring as it gets coming out of a destination's tourism board. But Vancouver Island's 4VI will need to communicate at a whole new level of transparency — staying mindful of priorities that its resident communities may consider most important.
Tourism Vancouver Island announced in April it was dropping its traditional tourism marketing business model of more than 60 years to operate as a non-profit social enterprise — a business designed to invest all its revenue back into social goals. There's no doubt this represented a paradigm shift in the debate about the expanded role of tourism boards these last two years, from destination management to destination stewardship and regeneration.
Rebranded as "4VI" to reflect its four key pillars — community, businesses, culture, and environment — this "social enterprise tourism board" appears to be the first such entity of its kind to date.
But of particular significance behind Tourism Vancouver Island’s decision is this: it pulls back on the “why” of a destination management organization and defines what “tourism as a force for good” actually means.
“They’re making an incredibly clear statement of, this is why we are here �
