Course to train Aboriginal leaders in tourism

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The Native community said it needed a course to train management in order to develop the tourist industry in Native communities, and that is what Malaspina College is offering.

The Aboriginal Tourism Industry Development Program is intended to give Aboriginal leaders the skills to start and run tourist-based businesses.

The program is a nine-credit course that can be applied to a bachelors degree in tourism degree at the college. The program is offered through the Powell River campus.

The program consists of two eight-day modules that focus on the background and potential of Aboriginal tourism, developing a business plan, managing people and products, and marketing a tourism business.

It is a live-in program that will be located in the historic Lund Hotel and includes 16 nights accommodation and meals.

The Lund Hotel was chosen as the site because it is owned in partnership with the Sliammon First Nation and it will add a cultural component to the program, said Arlette Drader, campus principal and director of Aboriginal education at Malaspina College.

Katrin Harry is the person behind the formation of the course, and she is a tourism product development and marketing consultant.

Harry sees great potential in tourism for Aboriginal communities and determined that the community needed to build human resource capacity in order to develop this industry.

"It is geared towards people in leadership positions in the community. The program is set up to provide skills and expertise for people to make decisions on how to set up the tourism industry," said Harry.

"It is for educating the councillor with the economic development portfolio, for example, on how to put a tourism industry together in their traditional territory."

People other than council members can take the course, said Deb Bryant, administrative coordinator for the program at the college.

Bryant said the program is ideally suited to current tourist facility managers and those people planning a tourism venture who want to get involved on an industry-wide scale.

Aboriginal students make up about 10 per cent of the student population at Malaspina College, said Drader. Malaspina also offers a Native Student Centre with counsellors and student aid, and Elders are involved with course planning, she said.

"If you don't have any tourism ventures currently in operation, you want to look at the whole tourism infrastructure in your region, what product offerings are there, who is already travelling to your region, how you can finance it, how do you build human resource capacity. This is what the program is going to teach," said Harry.

Harry works with First Nations to build what she calls cultural tourism.

"Very often in First Nations, sharing the cultural information is what gives them the competitive advantage over mini-golf courses and that kind of thing," said Harry.

"It is often in the interest of the First Nation to provide cultural tourism rather than building a casino or doing something else like renting speed boats," she said.

"In this program people will learn how to evaluate what their community has to offer, what other product offerings are already there, and what their market niche is and what products they should develop."

Harry said what most First Nations lack is a tourism champion. They have a great opportunity, but they need one person who is going to drive the process and put it all together, she said.

"What we are trying to do with this program is educate the tourism champion in order to make it work.

"The potential for Aboriginal tourism is huge."

The Aboriginal Tourism program is offered in two parts from Oct. 15 to Oct. 23 and from Nov. 19 to Nov. 27.