June 7 to June 13, 2010 is Tourism Week in Canada. The Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) indicates in their media information kit that Tourism is a $71.5 billion industry, making it bigger than the fishery, forestry and agriculture industries combined. In 2009 a total of 1.8 million people were employed in the tourism sector in Canada, which represents nearly 11% of all employment in the country.
The 2006 Census shows that in Parksville 25% of the labour force worked in sales and services (a tourism related field) and it is no secret that we are a vacation destination. So is tourism right for you? The Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council has a great website, Discover Tourism, that provides interactive quizzes and career profiles to further investigate various jobs in the industry. The website even has different sections relevant to youth, persons with disabilities, newcomers to Canada and mature workers. Go2 is a B.C. focused website with even more information on the tourism industry and it provides a job posting page. If you know you want to work in the tourism field in Oceanside, check out the business directory on the Oceanside Tourism Association website for a list by category of employers in the industry.
