The Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) has recognized Conservative Banff-Airdrie MP Blake Richards with the Tourism Champion Award as part of its Canadian Tourism Awards Gala on Dec. 2.
The award follows a series of achievements during Richards’s tenure as Chair of the Parliamentary Tourism Caucus, an all-party caucus assembled to support Canada’s tourism sector, an $84.3-billion industry that employs more than 600,000 Canadians in every region of the country.
“I credit our success as a tourism caucus to the solid partnerships established with industry to find solutions to shared challenges. As Tourism Critic, I look to these successes as a solid foundation for continued collaboration with operators, small business owners and other stakeholders across the industry,” said Richards.
Richards has served as Chair of the Parliamentary Tourism Caucus since 2011 delivering key initiatives such as Connecting America, providing $30 million over three years for a Destination Canada campaign to improve Canada’s global competiveness in attracting more U.S. travellers. Securing Canada Approved Destination Status for Chinese tourists, significantly increasing tourism from China and helping to support jobs and growth across the country, visa improvements and modernizations to expand Electronic Travel Authorization eligibility to low-risk travellers from priority markets and a $3-billion investment in Canada’s national parks are just a few of the caucus achievements.
The Canadian Tourism Awards are presented annually by TIAC to recognize success, leadership and innovation in Canada's tourism industry, and to reward those people, places, organizations and events that have gone above and beyond. The Canadian Tourism Awards have become the standard of excellence for businesses and organizations in the travel industry.
Richards currently serves as the Critic for Tourism and Democratic Institutions for the Official Opposition.
