ITBC honours Peter Harrison for more than 20 years of service to Indigenous tourism in BC

Peter Harrison, Director of Industry Partnerships & Visitor Services at Destination BC (DBC), has announced his retirement. Always working behind the scenes with unconditional support, Peter helped to lay the foundation for Indigenous tourism in BC. 

Our long relationship with Peter spans more than 20 years of shared vision and belief in the potential of Indigenous tourism to drive Indigenous economies and revitalize Indigenous cultures. A quiet leader, Peter is humble and always credits his colleagues, but has facilitated every major project and partnership between DBC and ITBC. He has done it all with humour and compassion, balanced with a pragmatic approach and tremendous problem-solving ability. 

One of the first projects we connected on was the groundbreaking Aboriginal Tourism Blueprint Strategy, which we began implementing in 2007. In addition, Peter supported ITBC’s partnership with DBC during the 2010 Winter Olympics and leveraged the Olympics to bring Indigenous cultures to the world stage. 

Peter has been a champion of Indigenous tourism for decades–his strong vision always aligned with our own. He understood the needs of our organization and helped us to become global leaders. But, more importantly, Peter understood the needs of Indigenous Peoples in BC–his legacy will benefit generations. 

ITBC thanks Peter Harrison for his ongoing friendship, leadership, and support–he will always be a part of our family.