A luxury yacht at anchor in a pristine wilderness area

Wilderness Tourism Association’s new Executive Director: Looking towards ‘a really bright future’

Janeen Sutherland has been the Wilderness Tourism Association’s (WTA) Executive Director for close to three months. 

The North Vancouver native has a background in tourism and sustainable community development. 

Janeen Sutherland, Executive Director of the Wilderness Tourism Association – submitted photo

She moved to France in the late 1990s working with a Toronto based touring company Butterfield and Robinson. Sutherland researched, put together and guided cycling trips all around the globe. 

Returning to North Vancouver, she promoted a collection of Western Canadian luxury wilderness resorts that market themselves as the Magnificent 7.

“I’ve had a long pathway to get to where I am now. I went back to school, and studied sustainable community development.  I’ve done lots of advocacy work, more so in the realm of  transportation planning: bike lanes, active transportation, and safe routes to school for kids,” said Sutherland.

“When I saw this listing, I thought, wow, that’s actually a perfect role for me because it combines my background in tourism with my experience in sustainable community development.”

She became the WTA’s Executive Director at the end of May and is about to embark upon a new strategic plan for them that will focus on areas of advocacy,  marketing support and really building community. 

Sutherland did not know how many tourism businesses there are in the Discovery Islands, but last year Breanne Quesnel (President of the WTA and co-owner of Quadra Island based Spirit of the West Adventures) said there are more than 60 whose combined revenues are between $40 and $50 million a year. They are on Quadra, Cortes and the Outer Discovery Islands, but are not all members of the WTA 

“We have about 55 members in our organization and most of them are actually coastal and Vancouver Island. We’re picking up more interior members and that’s actually one of the goals of our strategic plan. We’d love to have more partners up north and more partners in the interior…and also more Indigenous partners as well,” explained Sutherland.

“Our vision is to create a sustainable future for BC’s wilderness tourism industry.”

Holmaco Wildlife Tours is based in Campbell River and introduces visitors to the traditional Homalco territory. They learn about the Homalco people and the wildlife that shares their lands. – Photo courtesy WTA

How is that going?

“We’re obviously coming out of COVID and recovering from that. I would say most of our members are really quite thrilled with this summer and how bookings have been and how business has picked up.”

She added, “We really feel that tourism is the way of the future.”

Sutherland quoted some stats: 

  • “Tourism brings in $20.3 billion per year and 130,000 jobs. That is more GDP than any other industry in British Columbia.”
  • “There’s 149,900 tourism jobs and there are 1,291 BC fish factory jobs.” 
  • “There are 19,748 BC owned tourism businesses and only half of one BC based fish factory is owned by British Columbians.”

All the rest are foreign owned, and so why are we allowing them in our waters?” 

Sutherland said the two issues that kept her membership up at night are protecting wild salmon and new regulations for the forestry industry.

“Those are definitely two hot topics, At the WTA we recognize that both of those industries are very important employment for many folks, so it is a sensitive topic.”

“We are all about protecting the wild salmon and the Discovery Islands is  the most important migratory route  in the world for wild salmon. We know salmon are a keystone species. Without salmon, we won’t have forests. They are just such a key part of all ecosystems. We really feel strongly that things are moving right now, the announcement that was made by the honorable Joyce Murray in the Spring, are very positive steps in the right direction. We support responsible land-based aquaculture and we really hope that our government can make a shift in that direction.”

They would also like to see some of the forestry regulations changed, so that the industry did not have such a negative impact on tourism.

“Some of the wordings to some of the regulations really are not effective in protecting fragile ecosystems. Why do we need to log some of these pristine areas where some of our operators are going to pull up their kayaks? Why do they need to log that little patch right there by the water?” 

Sutherland said the WTA will continue to advocate for change.

“We’re really tuned into protecting these wild places and keeping them wild,” she explained.

Spirit of the West Adventures is based on Quadra Island and leads tours into the Broughton Archipelago, Johnstone Strait, and Great Bear Rainforest. They also come to Cortes Island several times a year, for expeditions into Desolation Sound – Photo courtesy WTA

 “We have a pretty bright future ahead of us. Canada now, in the international marketplace: I’d say we are the hottest wilderness destination out there. So I think we’ve got some really important work to do in the years to come.”

Top image credit: The Pacific Yellowfin is one of the Magnificent 7 and a member of the WTA. It takes people into to the untamed beauty of Desolation Sound and the Great Bear Rainforest. – Photo courtesy Pacific Yellowfin 

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