Digital Tourism

Equity in Access

08/04/2025 / / 0 Comments

In my previous post I briefly touched on the difficulty many in smaller communities face in access to the digital world. In that I focused primarily on how many indigenous artists in small communities struggle to sell their work due to the financial barriers associated with creating and maintaining a website, as well as lack of access to reliable internet. However the wider topic of access equity is also worth highlighting here, and is actually quite intertwined with the topic of this blog as a whole.

When I made this blog, I used it as a space to relate the idiosyncrasies and struggles of the tourism industry to the wider topic of digital literacy. Having worked in tourism for many years and helped many less technologically literate people navigate the digital world that has taken over the tourism industry gave me a unique perspective on the topic that I wanted to share. However one aspect of this I have not been able to talk about as much as I would like is equity in access.

When we talk about the barriers people face that prevent them from travelling, often financial barriers are the topic of most focus. And there is a good reason for that. Above I have made dummy bookings (following the booking process right until I am given a final price) for two common travel options to the town I formerly worked in. For a one way ticket on the same day in July with zero amenities, an plane ticket from Vancouver would cost $232.16, while a ferry ticket from Port Hardy costs $194.25 (not including a vehicle). These prices are the bare minimum one could expect to pay for that time of year and don’t even include transportation to the departure location and have already exceeded what I personally have been able to put in savings in the last 6 months. Travel is expensive, and although it is historically cheaper than it has ever been, for many, many people this cost is simply not feasible.

However there is another side to the proverbial coin of equity in access. And highlighting that is part of why I made tourism the topic of this blog in the first place. As the digital world grows to encompass every aspect of the tourism industry, it has provided a new level of agency to travellers by putting the choices for their trip in their own hands rather. Historically this was often done by travel agents who largely had control over everything from destination, to flights, to excursions.

And famously this time also saw “package holidays” in which tour companies would per-arrange entire trips for a large group of people, and then travel agents would sell seats on these. As you can see in the selection of advertisements for these I have provided above, these did drive the cost of travel down, however this came at the cost of choice. This is the power of the technological takeover of the tourism sector. Putting choice back in the hands of consumers.

However this increase in access is a bit of a double edged sword. While these online resources allow a level of choice rarely seen before many people, especially those older folks who are used to the older system, or those who are lower income or in small communities who may not have access to technology these are massive barriers. And increasingly it has become rather difficult to find professional assistance in travel booking with the rise of self booking. While technology has improved access and created more choice in this process, it needs to be balanced with equivalent services

Creating equitable services in any business or industry is difficult. Accounting for an addressing the needs of the widest variety of clients is a challenge that has no easy solution. But in a world that increasingly sees the digital space as a way to create self service, there will always be a need for full service.

Works Cited:
Indigenous Needs and Digital Solutions: https://digitaltourism.opened.ca/2025/03/31/indigenous-needs-and-digital-solutions/
BC Ferries: https://www.bcferries.com/
Pacific Coastal Airlines: https://www.pacificcoastal.com/
Package Holidays: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-13811199/old-travel-brochures-1980-1990-coach-holiday-siesta.html

Indigenous Needs and Digital Solutions

31/03/2025 / / 0 Comments

The topic of this blog has focused primarily on my experience in the Tourism industry and how it relates to the digital world. While I have touched on it before this week’s topic bares repeating of the fact that this experience comes primarily from an Indigenous community. These communities, especially in BC have developed a reputation as destinations, whether for adventure tourism or for people exploring the cultural history of the province. This brings an increasing number of people from all parts of the world in contact with Indigenous cultures in BC.

This growing tourism industry in these small communities has further increased the needs of these communities to integrate in to the digital world as the needs of the tourism industry increasingly includes digital presence. From tour bookings of sacred sites, to the buying and selling of traditional art, the tourism industry has brought new income streams to these communities, and in many cases this income stream requires digital solutions to access

Landing Page for the Copper Sun Gallery in Bella Coola, BC

One of the businesses I worked closely with is the Copper Sun Gallery, a tour company and art gallery owned and operated by members of the Nuxalk Nation. Their services meet two key needs of their community in ensuring that they are able to compete in the digital world of the tourism industry.

Most directly they offer tours of sacred sites, and locations of cultural significance. These types of tours are growing increasingly popular with visitors from Canada and beyond, and being able to capitalize on this popularity while respecting the sites and providing the convenient and straightforward online booking experience visitors have come to expect generates significant income for the community. Moreover the gallery has partnered with a number of local accommodations to provide these services on behalf of them in order to expand their pool of potential bookings beyond even those that find their own website.

Additionally The Copper Sun Gallery provides a space for buying and selling of locally produced art. Artists are able to sell their works to the gallery for they gallery to then sell to tourists at an agreed upon markup. The buying and selling of art online is a fast growing industry, with many artists building and maintaining an online presence and websites for this purpose. However doing this can be rather expensive and in many cases requires consistent access to a high quality internet connection, both of which are unfortunately not always viable to many indigenous artists, especially in these small communities. Businesses like the Copper Sun Gallery meet this particular need by providing a locally hosted digital space for their works that are more able to reach visitors and admirers alike, without the high overhead that comes with a personal digital presence.

While this is an exploration of only one specific digital solution used by and for indigenous people, I believe a similar model has a great deal of value for bringing much needed income in to smaller indigenous communities.

Works Cited
Copper Sun Gallery: https://coppersungallery.ca/
Nuxalk Nation: https://nuxalknation.ca/

Ethical Mapping

22/03/2025 /

Maps are one of the most integral tools of the tourism industry. Be they digital or physical, big or small, printed or drawn, a visual reference is invaluable for directing and guiding people.

As part of my group’s efforts to bring the tools and techniques of the digital world to a physical medium, I have chosen to include maps on some mock up brochures in order to point prospective hypothetical visitors to the Vancouver area toward some of the landmarks I have chosen to highlight. While in person its simple enough to direct people to their mapping software of choice, most commonly Google or Apple Maps, in the format or a brochure the use of these maps is not as accessible due to concerns over copyright and whether or not a screenshot of a mapping software in print counts as reproduction.

To the more artistically inclined the solution may be to simply draw their own map for such a format, ensuring the rights to its usage by being the original creator themselves. But this will not always be a practical solution. However there exists a middle ground between original maps and existing digital maps.

Open Street Map’s Standard Layer showing the area around Waterfront Station in Vancouver, BC
Open Street Map’s Transport Layer showing the area around Waterfront Station in Vancouver, BC
Open Street Map’s Humanitarian Layer showing the area around Waterfront Station in Vancouver, BC

Open Street Map is an open source mapping software usable on both mobile and desktop. Not only is this software community curated and likely to reflect recent changes in the map than software from a big company, but it is also reproducible, allowing the use of their maps in published works. Not only this but each region brings with it a number of optional “layers” that add or omit information based on differing needs such as the “Humanitarian” Layer which highlights public bathrooms and places to eat, or the “Transport” Layer which shows transit routes and information.

This open access and usage model, as well as the ability to tailor the information on the screen makes Open Street Map the perfect software to find and create visual references for use in print and online

Works Cited:
Open Street Map: https://www.openstreetmap.org

Accessibility in Tourism

16/03/2025 /

Continuing my exploration of the digital world in the context of Tourism, I wanted to discuss the aspect of Accessibility in the tourism space. As I have previously highlighted, the tourism world increasingly expects prospective visitors to put in the proverbial legwork when making travel plans. Everything from research, to booking, to communication is left up to the customer rather than the historical norm of assistance services like travel agents. This then creates a distinct problem upon removing these middle men that were once so necessary.

In the past when travel agents and similar services were still the norm, companies that operated in the tourism space were generally working with trained professionals who could be expected to understand the processes and steps that go in to booking a trip. With this practice falling by the wayside however these companies have increasingly found themselves needing to develop websites and resources that can be used by those who may barely understand the concept of an email.

Landing Page for the BC Ferries website, featuring numerous navigational aids, and directing users toward booking a trip

There are some fairly simple strategies that can go in to developing a website that ensures ease of use for most users however. While writing on the topic of PDF and general document accessibility, Adobe makes a number of recommendations that are broadly applicable to the web space. This includes fairly straightforward things like choosing typefaces and font sizes which are easily readable. As well as navigational aids that make it easy for inexperienced users to find the pages they are looking for

The same landing page at a higher level of zoom, as might be used by an older customer. Notice how some navigational aids have been removed or rearranged in order to still provide a clear direction toward the most common destinations such as booking or schedules

However there are some less obvious points that should be considered as well. Adobe takes care to highlight the need for a clear reading order. While this may seem simple enough, ensuring proper spacing of graphical elements and text, as well as different sections of text can be difficult to account for, especially when considering that different users may have greater or lesser zoom, or may be browsing on a mobile device. This can be daunting, especially for the small often family owned businesses that form the backbone of the tourism industry in Canada. Fortunately there are services like WebAIM which offer training and advising in web design which can be helpful. However the necessity of these services in this field only highlights the shifting realities of the tourism world.

Works Cited:
WebAIM: https://webaim.org/
Adobe: https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2022/11/29/the-complete-checklist-to-pdf-accessibility

Boots on the Ground

16/03/2025 /

Building off of my last inquiry, I once again took the time to put myself out in the field in an effort to gather materials for my group’s project. In our continued efforts to grapple with the tumultuous world of usage rights, we opted to each explore some of our local public display artwork. This we felt also paired well with the tourism angle we have been exploring.

For this, I suggested we find works that fit within 3 categories, those being indigenous, traditional, and contemporary art on display in BC. As I had already catalogued some indigenous art, I instead turned my attention to the the latter two categories.

A map of public art installations in Vancouver, BC

Luckily with some google searching I was able to find an online map that catalogues public art installations around Vancouver. As I was going to be downtown shortly after this decision was made, I used this to identify two pieces I wanted to highlight.

Angel of Victory Statue located outside Waterfront Station. Vancouver BC

For my traditional work I wanted to highlight a statue that I felt was emblematic of the artistic movements of 19th and 20th century colonial America. For this I chose the Angel of Victory, one of four identical bronze casts by Coeur de Lion McCarthy located at former CPR stations across Canada in commemoration of the First World War. For the sake of our project I wanted to highlight works such as this as pieces of historical significance, such as those commemorating victims of war are some of the most popular for older visitors and families.

Douglas Coupland’s Digital Orca located just outside the Vancouver Convention Centre

On the other side of the coin, I wanted to highlight more contemporary works on display in Vancouver. For our purposes I wanted to highlight pieces that might not necessarily draw people to a location, but rather pieces that are emblematic of their city and which serve as something to find while exploring a new city. For this I chose Douglas Coupland’s Digital Orca sculpture which stands just outside the Vancouver Convention Centre. This imposing piece to me mates the natural beauty of British Columbia, with the modernity of the city of Vancouver, and serves as a perfect backdrop for photos, a meeting place with friends, or simply an interesting place to pass by.

Works Cited:
The Importance of Sources: https://digitaltourism.opened.ca/2025/03/05/the-importance-of-sources/
Vancouver Public Art Map: https://schoolofcities.github.io/vancouver-public-art/map
Digital Orca: https://covapp.vancouver.ca/PublicArtRegistry/ArtworkDetail.aspx?FromArtworkSearch=True&ArtworkId=521
Angel of Victory: https://heritagevancouver.org/top10-watch-list/2009/6-historic-monuments-angel-of-victory/

The Importance of Sources

05/03/2025 /

Continuing my theme of Tourism in the world of digital media and literacy, and in response to the week 8 topic of Curation, I wanted to talk about sources. Coming from a background that had me answering questions about the history and culture of my hometown, I have spent a lot of time trying to gather accurate and useful information for my purposes. And this has lead me to a couple of problems when dealing especially with indigenous history and culture.

To give some context, I am white. My parents are white, my grandparents are white, I am about as white as they come. As such, living in an indigenous community and working in a role in which I represent that community, I had to be exceptionally careful in how I presented and communicated about indigenous sites, history, and culture as ultimately I have no connection to these things. I will not pretend I was perfect in this position, however I always did my best to direct people to knowledgeable indigenous members of the community as these were simply better resources in certain issues than I am. However given that being able to direct visitors to more knowledgeable community members will not always be an option, we have to wonder what is the next best thing?

Nuxalk Mountain Goat Wool Robe, Cedar Bark Potlatch Hat, and Carved Speaker’s Staff features in the UBC Museum of Anthropology

In doing our project, my group has been aiming to feature whenever possible indigenous art. However one complication we ran in to early on in the process was attribution and usage rights. Given that the easiest art to legally use for project would be that in the public domain we would ideally be looking for some public domain indigenous art.

But that’s where the problem lies. According to the University of British Columbia “Effective December 30, 2022, the copyright for a work created in Canada will usually expire 70 years following the end of the calendar year in which the creator died.  However, for works where the last living author died on or before December 31, 1971, the previous copyright term (of 50 years after the end of the calendar year in which the author died) still applies.  Works that already entered the public domain prior to the enactment of the copyright term extension under the Copyright Act will remain in the public domain.” Furthermore, “If author(s) are unknown, then the work will enter the public domain: (a) 75 years after the end of the calendar year in which it was created; or (b) if the work was published prior to the end of such 75-year period, then the earlier of: (i) 75 years after the end of the calendar year in which it was first published, or (ii) 100 years after the end of the calendar year in which it was created.”

Unfortunately given these rules this means that in order for the art we feature to meet these criteria it must be to put it bluntly quite old. And unfortunately the reality of colonialism is that most of the art we have that is old enough to be in the public domain was stolen, coerced, or otherwise acquired illegitimately obtain from its rightful owners, in most cases without proper care to record the identities of who produced it.

Information Placard for the above 3 pieces

This presents difficulty not only in featuring and presenting these works ethically, but also in providing attribution of the pieces you present, especially once they lose the cultural context in which they were produced. Sometimes through familial connections we are able to regain some context, like in the Mountain Goat robe featured above which the UBC Museum of Anthropology has been able to trace to its original creator. However still others are simply attributed to “unknown weaver” or “unknown carver” as these connections and knowledge have been lost.

There is no simple answer to how to provide attribution and context in the world of indigenous art. However given that the unique art and cultures of British Columbia form such an integral part of our tourism industry, especially in small indigenous communities like my home town of Bella Coola, it is not one we can simply ignore. It is the responsibility of academics and educators alike to ensure that proper attribution and citation is given, and we must do our best with the resources we have.

Works Cited:
UBC Copyright: https://copyright.ubc.ca/public-domain/

Gathering Resources

27/02/2025 /

My learning process at this stage in the course has been focused on gathering resources. For our project my group is aiming to combine our backgrounds of Tourism, Arts, and Business to create digital advertisements for the art and architecture of British Columbia. However as a part of this, we wanted to be aware of the usage rights of the works we feature.

Landing Page for the Internet Archive’s Canadian Libraries page, which contains a repository of images, texts, and other resources from around Canada

In order to curate resources for our project that we can ensure we have the rights to, we have taken two approaches which I have been working on. The first is looking for works which are now in the public domain. My approach to this has been to explore the Internet Archive, which conveniently has a page dedicated to all forms of media from Canada. By using the search and filtering functions of this online resource, I have been working through works published prior to 1940 to create the highest chance of finding works which can fall under the public domain

Sisawk Sea Creature Mask produced by Nanutsaakas-Kyle Mack Tallio as featured at the UBC Museum of Anthropology
Information placard for the previously mentioned mask

The other method I have used to gather resources came about somewhat by accident. This past weekend I found myself making last minute plans to visit the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, as curator Jennifer Kramer was doing tour of the brand new Nuxalk Strong Exhibit featuring histories of, as well as historical and contemporary works by Nuxalk artists, the indigenous people who originally inhabited the area around Bella Coola, BC, my home town. During this tour I had the opportunity to speak with Jennifer directly and was able to secure permission to feature some of the pieces featured in the exhibit for our project, and this class. As getting explicit permission is always ideal when featuring or sharing art, this was always preferred for our project however finding works that people can visit, as and tracking down those who can give us permission to feature them was a daunting challenge that I personally did not see as likely. So having been able to secure permission has been extremely valuable to me.

Works Cited:
Nuxalk Strong Exhibit: https://moa.ubc.ca/exhibition/nuxalk-strong/|
Internet Archive: https://moa.ubc.ca/exhibition/nuxalk-strong/

Generative AI and its Impacts on Tourism

20/02/2025 /

Continuing my rather unorthodox theme to this blog, I wanted to discuss the impacts of Generative AI on the tourism industry. As previously mentioned the topic of tourism, especially in British Columbia is one I have a lot of experience and knowledge in, and as such I wanted to bring that background in to this course in as many ways as possible in order to create a more interesting blog. For this week’s topic there is one particular angle I would like to approach when discussing the problems that can arise when using AI. That being how the production of materials can be used to mislead or otherwise misrepresent a given location.

Before we begin, I would also like to address that while I will try to approach this topic as neutrally as possible, I have a rather strong pre-existing bias against generative AI for artistic and practical reasons that I will not get in to at this time, and may colour how I represent or discuss it despite my efforts. Additionally as a disclaimer, for the sake of example there will be one instance of an AI generated photo in this post. This image was acquired using a simple google search and was not generated for by me or for the purposes of this post.

Two photos found via a google image search for “Vancouver Skyline”. Can you spot which one was generated by AI?

When discussing generative AI, the topic of AI art and image generation tends to be at the forefront. And I wanted to highlight something that has become increasingly common as a result. AI generated images in google searches. While in general I would argue prior to this the average google image search was never the best representation of a given location if one was looking for a place to visit or researching that city they heard about on TV. However recent advancements in AI and the proliferation of online publishing of these images has seen a rapidly growing number of such images presenting especially idealized depictions of popular destinations.

Above I presented two images side by side of the Vancouver Skyline as presented by googling that exact phrase and asked readers to guess which was generated by AI. To anyone familiar enough with common quirks of AI images, or the skyline of Vancouver, British Columbia the correct answer may have been obvious. The second image which appeared in an ordinary google search was in fact generated and posted by user Iftikhar Alam on Vecteezy. Conversely the first image which appeared in the same google search is instead a real photo of Vancouver’s waterfront and skyline taken by user bluejayphoto on iStockPhoto. But to one unversed in techniques to spot AI generated images, and/or someone unfamiliar with the location (such as a potential visitor researching the city) it is extremely easy to be misled.

A screenshot of Stanley Park taken from OpenStreetMap. The above photo was likely taken somewhere along the edge of Coal Harbour at bottom right.

One such complication is the tendency for AI generated images to incorporate elements from multiple depictions of a location with little regard for the material reality. There are 3 key “landmarks” in the AI generated photo which commonly appear in photos of Vancouver but which cannot all appear in a single photo due to simple geography. These are the skyline of Downtown Vancouver itself, the sailboats moored off Stanley Park, and the North Shore Mountains. And you’ll notice in the real image, only the former two are visible. To put it simply, in order to get a photo with both the moored sailboats, and the Vancouver skyline in frame, a photographer must be facing at least partly south and thus having no way to get the mountains to the north in frame. And yet in the AI depiction, all three of these are clearly visible when this is simply an impossible perspective.

While ultimately the misplacement of landmarks in what is effectively a composite of thousands of existing photos of a location does not reflect poorly on a location, the potential to mislead prospective visitors is present. Not only that, but the prevalence of these images in simple searches that are likely to be seen by those looking up a location for the first time creates difficulty in creating accurate expectations for potential visitors. While to some it may be easy to spot these images at a glance, to those of us that work in the tourism industry, we cannot expect all our customers and clients to have the same skills and tools we have to spot these misleading or inaccurate depictions. The prevalence of AI generated material in search engine results creates an unnecessary burden on the user to discern fact from reality.

Works Cited:
iStock Vancouver Skyline at Sunset by bluejayphoto: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/vancouver-skyline-at-sunset-gm178388915-20368906
Vecteezy Vancouver Skyline AI by iftikharalam: https://www.vecteezy.com/photo/35758746-ai-generated-beautiful-cityscape-of-vancouver-at-sunset-british-columbia-canada-beautiful-view-of-downtown-vancouver-skyline-british-columbia-canada-ai-generated
OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org

Introducing Digital Literacy in the Context of the Tourism Industry

02/02/2025 /

To begin my blog I would like to first explore the specific relationship between digital literacy and the tourism industry. While I am a full time student I also have a background in the industry as the “Information Guy” at Bella Coola Valley Tourism. In this role I primarily served as the face of the tourism industry in the community of Bella Coola during the peak season directing visitors in person, over the phone, and by email to the services they were looking for. And of all the things I learned in my 5 seasons in this position, the most important is that it is difficult if not impossible to travel in the modern day without some level of digital literacy. This blog post as a part of a course on digital literacy will then explore some of the skills needed to navigate the digital landscape of the tourism industry

Categories of Digital Competence from the European Framework for Digital Competence

According to the European Framework for Digital Competence there are five broad categories of skills that one can have and engage with in a digital context. Of particular relevance to us here are the categories of Information and Data Literacy, as well as Communication and Collaboration.

Landing Page for BC Ferries which provides ferry transport on the Coast of British Columbia and is a popular choice for adventure tourism in the province

This first category deals in gathering and applying information housed in a digital space. This is the first and likely for many most daunting barrier to tourism in the modern day. With the decline of travel agencies and other organizations that do the proverbial heavy lifting for you, the expectation in the modern industry is that the individual will find the necessary information and book accordingly. This includes everything from searching to navigating potentially untrustworthy sources, to engaging with reviews, and even the booking process itself While great effort has gone in to making this process as straight forward as possible with flashy landing pages that direct users to booking and information from the moment they arrive at your website, this only goes so far when prospective visitors lack knowledge on the use of search engines or following ad links. Additionally when less experienced or confident users are able to find their way to these pages it is common for them to be intimidated by complex multi-step booking processes, with many drop down menus, checkboxes, and text fields overwhelming these users. By developing these skills so that users are more capable and confident in gathering information for themselves, as well as improving confidence in filling forms and following instructions, education in this specific field of digital literacy improves individuals abilities to explore and broaden their understanding of the world.

Moreover communication skills serve as an important backup in the event the above breaks down. Try as we might websites do not always work right and sometimes the human touch is needed to point you in the right direction. That’s where people like me came in. Many tour companies, accommodations, and communities have services in place to provide assistance when needed to those who may for any reason be struggling to navigate or use the digital tools so common in the industry today. However the quality of information and services these humans are able to provide relies heavily on the ability for those we serve to be able to communicate their needs. While this is not a skill exclusively applicable to the world of the internet, effective communication is a must when interacting with any other human being and fostering these skills early is exceptionally valuable to the one’s ability to navigate the digital world especially when customer service is involved.

Contact information listed on bellacoola.ca listing links to their social media, as well as main, phone, and email contacts for inquiries and information

Finally we must ask ourselves, if this is so important to the industry, how do we ensure that potential visitors have these skills. And the answer is quite simply education. While the difficulties I have highlighted are predominantly from older tourists who may be used to another era of globetrotting, we also cannot simply expect young people to have absorb these necessary skills. The BC Post Secondary Digital Literacy Framework lays out some guidelines and expectations for skills students should be versed in by certain points in their educational career. And these are not exceptionally advanced skills either. Skills like keyword searches which I highlighted the importance of earlier are recommended to be taught between Kindergarten and Grade 2, with supplementary skills in refining these searches from Grades 3 to 5. Moreover communication and online citizenship is recommended to be taught in various formes all the way from Kindergarten to Grade 12. These are skills that have been deemed valuable to our core education in the modern world. By fostering these skills educators are able to prepare students for a variety of situations from simple browsing to job applications, and yes even the fun filled and adventurous world of tourism

Works Cited

  • Bella Coola Valley Tourism: https://bellacoola.ca/
  • BC Ferries: https://www.bcferries.com/
  • European Framework for Digital Competence: https://unevoc.unesco.org/up/2023_05_16_DigComp.pdf
  • BC Digital Literacy Framework: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/teaching-tools/digital-literacy-framework.pdf

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