Meaningful Travel Summit

Tourism Cares with Victoria, BC | September 28 - 30, 2022

Our Meaningful Travel Summit is an event connecting industry professionals with local changemakers in places around North America. By coming together in-destination, we action and actualize the power of travel. Our goal is to learn from one another, infuse more sustainability into our businesses with the knowledge we’ve gained and roll up our sleeves to volunteer in and with the local community.

Our North America Meaningful Travel Summit provides:

• Connections to and volunteering with vetted non-profits and social enterprises

• Education sessions around universal topics in sustainability and meaningful travel

• Networking opportunities with other travel and tourism professionals

• Actionable best practices in destination stewardship

Our event in Victoria

Nature-based experiences are some of the fastest-growing elements in tourism, and one the travel industry can play a direct role in helping to responsibly manage. Wilderness areas across Canada share a symbiotic relationship with Indigenous communities, a heritage teeming with stories that define Canada’s culture today. Conservation of our natural resources is critical for our travel product, our destination communities, and the travel experience.

During Tourism Cares with Victoria, we will meet in a destination dependent on Indigenous lands, healthy marine life, and wild green spaces. Through facilitated education sessions, visits to meaningful travel experiences, and volunteering, attendees will learn from environmental and Indigenous groups to discuss how we can be better destination stewards for all to thrive.

Themes addressed throughout our education/volunteering:

• Travel and tourism’s role in the conservation of natural resources and preservation of biodiversity (exploring land and water use, animal welfare practices)

• Exploring the intersection of Indigenous practices + destination stewardship

More about National Truth and Reconciliation Day:

During the Meaningful Travel Summit event week on Friday, September 30, Canada honored the second annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, or Orange Shirt Day, in Canada. This day honors the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a day to stand with Indigenous peoples.

“For more than a century, Indian Residential Schools separated over 150,000 Aboriginal children from their families and communities. In the 1870's, the federal government, partly in order to meet its obligation to educate Aboriginal children, began to play a role in the development and administration of these schools. Two primary objectives of the Residential Schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. These objectives were based on the assumption Aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, "to kill the Indian in the child". Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country.” - Quote from the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada. Statement of Apology to former students of Indian Residential Schools, on behalf of the Government of Canada made Wednesday June 11, 2008. View the full letter here.

To learn more about First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples across Canada, visit https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1621447127773/1621447157184

Truth and Reconciliation Day is also know as Orange Shirt Day. To learn more about Orange Shirt Day please visit Home - Victoria Orange Shirt Day.

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