NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, March 16, 2010
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TOTA CO-SPONSORS MAJOR CONFERENCE PROMOTING RURAL TOURISM

Hot on the heels of B.C. having held the world’s attention at last month’s Winter Olympics, the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) is now joining with other groups to help communities around the region capitalize on that spotlight by finding ways to develop their tourism opportunities.

TOTA is a major sponsor of the first-ever B.C. Conference on Rural Tourism, to be held April 6-8 at the Talking Rock Resort and Quaaout Lodge, located on Little Shuswap Lake between Kamloops and Salmon Arm. The gathering will bring together tourism operators, researchers, tourism officials and marketing professionals for in-depth sessions aimed at helping rural areas develop unique strategies to attract and host visitors.

The conference is being organized by the REDTREE Project – a research initiative based at Thompson Rivers University’s (TRU) School of Tourism which helps communities impacted by the mountain pine beetle diversify their economies through developing tourism. The conference will feature experts who will lead sessions on a variety of topics including cultural tourism, aboriginal tourism, agri-tourism, geo-caching, mountain-bike tourism, trails systems, social media marketing, and a range of case studies. Major Sessions on global trends and sustainable tourism will be presented by internationally renowned futurist and tourism authority Anna Pollock.

TOTA – the destination management organization for B.C.’s south central Interior – is partnering with five other groups to co-sponsor the Conference on Rural Tourism, as part of its ongoing effort to promote the development of the tourism industry throughout the Thompson Okanagan region.

“Tourism is a key economic engine in many of our cities, towns and rural areas – creating jobs and boosting local economies,” says TOTA Chief Executive Officer Glenn Mandziuk. “We are pleased to be partnering with educators and researchers from TRU as well as with Shuswap Tourism, the Aboriginal Tourism B.C., Western Diversification Canada, and the Tourism Research Innovation Project (TRIP), to sponsor this important conference.”

“The 2010 Conference on Rural Tourism will present some of the latest thinking on tourism development and management at the rural level. It will give local tourism planners critical insights into how to create compelling travel experiences for visitors, and how to do it in a sustainable way that preserves the environment. I urge all tourism-related businesses and organizations to consider attending this important industry meeting,” notes Mandziuk.

TOTA is pleased to be supporting this initiative led by an educational institution in the Thompson Okanagan region – and he notes that since TOTA is a conference sponsor, TRU has been able to offer the first 25 stakeholder business representatives who request assistance in registration at a significantly reduced cost. The deadline to submit applications for the registration support is March 22nd.

Conference information is available at http://redtree.tru.ca/Conferences.

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