In celebration of International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2023, the Indigenous Tourism Collaborative of the Americas (ITCA) held the launch of their new Indigenous Tourism eLibrary on August 9.
The website offers hundreds of the useful resources such as guidelines, toolkits, good practices and case studies to help Indigenous communities and tourism leaders plan for, manage, promote and monitor sustainable and resilient Indigenous tourism. It’s the first repository of its kind focused on Indigenous tourism. The virtual launch offered a walk-through of e-Library resources and featured an expert panel moderated by Levi Rickert, editor of the Tribal Business Journal and Native News Online.
The eLibrary is the inaugural project of ITCA, a network of Indigenous tourism leaders, tourism industry leaders, government agencies, universities and nonprofits from throughout the Americas organized in 2021 to help Indigenous communities grow and develop tourism sustainably and share their rich cultures with the world.
The speaker panel moderated by Rickert included Susana Costa Resende, Technical Coordinator of Ethics, Culture and Social Responsibility at the UN World Tourism Organization and Ben Sherman, Chairman of the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance, Ricardo Campos Quezada, President of the Indigenous Tourism Network of Mexico, and Jamie Sweeting, President of Planeterra and Vice President for Social Enterprise & Responsible Travel at GAdventures.
The speakers presented valuable guiding Indigenous tourism publications that their organizations have researched, created and are now available in the eLibrary.
ITCA and its partners plan to expand the new website to include an Indigenous tourism marketplace and other tools in support of Indigenous tourism. The Collaborative’s priorities are building resiliency and capacity for tourism in Indigenous communities and gaining respect, representation and inclusion for Indigenous peoples in tourism policy, resource allocation and decision-making in the Americas.
ITCA is steered by a committee of leaders from the US Department of the Interior Office of Indian Economic Development, the Organization of American States and the George Washington University International Institute of Tourism Studies.
You can find the Collaborative’s website at https://indigenoustourismamericas.org and the eLibrary at https://elibrary.indigenoustourismamericas.org/
*************
