Why is there a BC Tourism Funding Blind Spot? British Columbia is internationally celebrated for its tourism economy. From alpine resorts to coastal communities, tourism contributes billions of dollars annually to provincial GDP and supports thousands of jobs across urban and rural regions. However, beneath this success lies a structural funding imbalance that continues to disadvantage emerging and small communities that are trying to build a tourism economy from the ground up.
At the centre of this issue is how provincial tourism funding is designed, allocated, and restricted. The reality is that British Columbia's primary tourism funding mechanisms are not built for new or transitioning communities. They are built for destinations that are already successful.
The most significant and stable BC Tourism Grant Funding stream is the Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI), which distributes approximately $13 million annually. While the RMI is often cited as a cornerstone of BC's tourism support framework, it is only accessible to a limited group of pre-designated resort municipalities such as Whistler, Revelstoke, Golden, Fernie, and similar destinations.
The issue is not simply the size of the fund, but its structure.
To be eligible, a community must:
Crucially, new communities are no longer being accepted into the RMI program. This effectively closes the door on towns that are actively trying to diversify their economies through tourism but lack historical resort status or sufficient overnight visitation.
For many small towns, particularly those impacted by mill closures, resource downturns, or population decline, this creates an impossible paradox: funding is required to build tourism infrastructure and visitation, yet tourism visitation is required to access funding.
The MRDT model further reinforces this imbalance. Funding allocations within the RMI are largely tied to past hotel tax revenues and demonstrated tourism growth. Communities with strong accommodation sectors naturally collect more MRDT revenue, which in turn results in higher funding allocations.
This creates a self-reinforcing cycle:
Meanwhile, emerging communities receive no equivalent entry-level investment, regardless of potential, innovation, or long-term opportunity.
This is not a competitive playing field. It is a closed loop.
British Columbia's tourism strategy has, for decades, prioritized internationally recognized destinations that already deliver strong economic returns. Communities such as Whistler, Tofino, Banff-adjacent regions, and high-profile mountain towns were formalized into funding programs long ago, cementing their position within provincial tourism infrastructure.
This historical momentum has created an institutional bias. Funding programs are built around assumptions of scale, visitation volume, and global market readiness that simply do not align with the realities of small or emerging communities.
Rather than cultivating the next generation of tourism destinations, the system largely focuses on enhancing destinations that have already "made it."
While other funding streams exist at the provincial and federal levels—such as Destination Events funding, economic diversification grants, or regional growth initiatives—they often come with eligibility requirements that present additional barriers for small towns.
Common requirements include:
Many small communities simply do not have this capacity. Local governments may operate with minimal staff. Tourism may be managed by volunteers or part-time contractors. Strategic planning documents may not exist, not due to lack of vision, but due to lack of resources.
As a result, these communities are often eliminated from consideration before their applications are even reviewed on merit.
BC Tourism Grant Funding assessments frequently prioritize:
Established destinations naturally perform well against these metrics because they have years of data, proven visitation numbers, and existing infrastructure. Emerging communities, by definition, cannot compete on these criteria, even when their tourism potential is strong, innovative, and aligned with market trends such as nature-based tourism, Indigenous tourism, birding, agritourism, or slow travel.
The result is that potential is undervalued, while performance history is overvalued.
Across British Columbia, many rural and resource-dependent communities are actively trying to pivot toward tourism as a sustainable economic driver. This is not a theoretical exercise. It is an urgent response to economic transition.
However, without access to foundational tourism funding, these communities face significant challenges:
In effect, the current funding landscape accelerates success where tourism already thrives while leaving emerging communities to bootstrap their tourism economies with little or no external support?
At EH Canada Marketing Group (www.EHCMG.com), we advocate for a more balanced, forward-looking approach to tourism funding in British Columbia. One that recognizes that tomorrow's successful destinations will not emerge without deliberate early-stage investment today.
We believe meaningful change requires:
Tourism growth should not be restricted to communities that were fortunate enough to be designated decades ago. British Columbia's future tourism resilience depends on diversification, regional balance, and empowering small towns to participate meaningfully in the visitor economy.
BC has no shortage of places worth discovering. What it lacks is a funding system that helps emerging communities tell their stories, build experiences, and compete on a fair footing.
Addressing this blind spot is not about taking funding away from successful destinations. It is about expanding the system to ensure that opportunity is not limited by history, designation, or scale.
If British Columbia is serious about inclusive economic development, rural revitalization, and sustainable tourism growth, then the conversation around tourism funding must evolve.
Small towns are ready. The question is whether the system is.
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Comments 4
Great eye opening article! An issue that hopefully gets more attention. It certainly doesn't make much sense to curb their own growth in that way.
It sounds like BC has adopted a low-risk strategy towards tourism by supporting areas where they expect to get some money back. Do other provinces have a stronger model for supporting growth and development? Would it help if there was a stronger framework for encouraging private investment that could be used as leverage?
Insightful!
Sonya RichmondPrivate investment would make a difference, but the environment is a bit toxic and the risks are high. Powerful people can make or break projects, especially if they think it does not help their own agenda.