In December, the TIAM Chair John Gunter, along with Board Members Pit Turenne and Shaun Jeffrey met with the Honourable Nellie Kennedy, Minister of Sport, Culture, Heritage and Tourism, for TIAM’s quarterly meeting. The discussion focused on reinforcing tourism as a strategic economic priority and TIAM’s three advocacy priorities:
- Value of Tourism – Positioning tourism as a core economic driver by establishing a long-term, commission-based funding agreement with Travel Manitoba, investing in updated ROI research, and renaming the department to lead with ‘tourism’.
- Provincial Tourism Strategy – Committing to an industry-led strategy that prioritizes destination development, product readiness, and alignment with Manitoba’s broader economic goals.
- Tourism Workforce Development – Addressing labour shortages by promoting tourism as a career of choice and coordinating investment in training, certification, and professional development.
TIAM also raised concerns about inconsistencies in tourism employment data, noting that current reporting may underrepresent the sector’s true job impact in Manitoba. The Deputy Minister, Jeff Hnatiuk, committed to reviewing this issue.
Additional discussions included transparency around the use of international hunting and fishing license fees and the importance of timely communication regarding funding for major events.
We look forward to ongoing discussions in these quarterly meetings, including further updates on the advancement of the major events attraction strategy in the new year.