Help wanted to advise P.E.I. tourism minister

Tourism P.E.I. is looking to assemble a new board of directors with seven to nine experienced Island tourism operators to give advice on how to grow the industry.

The province's legislature approved changes to the Tourism Industry Act in the fall to allow for the creation of the new board.

"We'd like to have operators from across P.E.I. because we know those are the ones that are closest to our customer,"  said Chris Palmer, the province's tourism minister.

"They can provide us feedback and really let us know what they're hearing on the ground and what's going on with their businesses."

The former board was only two people and did not provide advice to the minister or department, Palmer said.  

'Best decisions possible'

The new board was a part of a recommendation that came from the five-year Vision 2021 tourism strategy commissioned by Tourism P.E.I. and launched in 2017.  

The department plans to have someone represent each of P.E.I.'s three counties to ensure the entire Island is represented.

"We'll look at what industries people are coming from because we'd want as diverse a group of people we can get on that board so that we can have lots of input from various components of the tourism sector so that we can make the best decisions possible," Palmer said.   

Members of the board will be compensated about $175 per meeting, during which members will discuss challenges facing the industry on P.E.I. and possible ways to address them.

The deadline for interested applicants is March 8 through the province's website, Engage P.E.I. Palmer said government hopes to fill the positions before the tourism season begins to pick up in the spring. He'd said like to board to meet as soon as possible after appointments are made. 

'Incredibly important'

The board will also further identify the demographics visitors to the Island to attract more tourism, he said.

"So we know what's working, what's not working — so we can make adjustments to that," Palmer said.  

"We know how incredibly important this industry is to P.E.I., we have 7,700 full-time equivalent people working in the industry …." Palmer said.  

The tourism industry on P.E.I. contributes more than $450 million to the provincial economy every year, he said.

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