B.C.'s new travel app hopes to promote sustainable travel by providing tangible incentives for tourists to actively engage with the communities they visit.
Re:BC is an online travel resource for Revelstoke, Squamish and Parksville Qualicum Beach that provides visitors with community-driven opportunities to learn about destinations.
Project manager Holly Galloway said the app revolves around an idea called regenerative travel, but goes “beyond just sustainability”.
“Sustainability is about maintaining the status quo and making sure things don't get worse, whereas regenerative tourism is about actively trying to have a positive impact on communities through tourism,” Galloway said. said.
The app includes a destination information quiz, which essentially teaches visitors about the communities they visit, ensuring they are as informed as possible about their destination and ensuring their ecological footprint. It will be possible to limit.
“[The app is] Not only are we bringing tourists into the community, but we're having them actively engage with the community while they're there,” Galloway said.
“You can learn about the indigenous peoples, communities, languages and lands of the area, and then you can learn more about the culture of the area itself.”
You will also have the opportunity to support local businesses in each region with the app, including sustainable businesses in each region.
Narisa/Shutterstock
Part of the quiz involves learning about the challenges each community faces, and also allows visitors to mitigate their own contributions. Galloway said Squamish is one area in particular facing tourism challenges.
“Squamish faces the challenge of too many people sleeping in vans and out on the trails. [who are] We were not disposing of the waste properly,” she said.
“The vast majority of people who visit our communities don't want to have a negative impact on the places they're visiting. But inevitably, sometimes that happens simply through ignorance.”
The app is currently offering free wool socks from local Victorian business Ecologyst as a mini-reward for those who complete the destination quiz.
Galloway expanded incentives to include free hotel nights during the summer after seeing a positive impact in the Revelstoke initiative with people working on trail construction in exchange for a two-day hotel stay He said he was thinking of doing so.
“It seemed like a really positive thing for everyone involved, and we thought there was a way we could take that spirit and spread it further across the state,” she said. .
