Indigenous Perspectives
Indigenous tourism contributes more than $1 billion annually to Canada’s economy and supports thousands of jobs and businesses across First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities.
Indigenous tourism is deeply connected to land, culture, community wellbeing, and local economies. As climate-driven emergencies and disruptions increase across Canada, strengthening emergency preparedness and resilience within Indigenous tourism is increasingly important.
Indigenous-led emergency management approaches emphasize cultural safety, land-based knowledge, community leadership, and long-term resilience.
Through collaboration and engagement with Indigenous community and tourism business leaders, the Tourism Emergency Preparedness initiative brings together Indigenous-led research, emergency management resources, and sector insights to better understand current gaps, opportunities, and pathways for more culturally grounded and tourism-aware emergency preparedness systems.
Explore our searchable Resource Library to discover emergency preparedness, climate resilience, and disaster risk reduction resources relevant to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities; and Indigenous tourism across Canada and internationally.
Indigenous Engagement Insights Report – Consultation, Interviews and Case Studies
Lived experiences are vital to informing emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and resilience within Indigenous tourism contexts.
Our initiative's Indigenous Engagement Insights Report summarizes engagement with Indigenous tourism operators and community members to better understand how emergencies are experienced -- revealing that emergency management in Indigenous tourism is not only a technical or operational issue, but also a relational, cultural, land-based, and community wellbeing issue.
Learnings from the Indigenous Tourism Emergency Preparedness Discussion Forum
Discussion forum participants identified several opportunities to strengthen Indigenous-led emergency preparedness and resilience within the tourism sector.
Insight 1
Indigenous-led emergency management resources consistently emphasize cultural protocols, language, ceremony, and land-based knowledge. These approaches are not yet systematically integrated into tourism emergency planning.
Insight 2
Building stronger emergency preparedness systems for Indigenous tourism requires collaboration across governments, Indigenous organizations, tourism partners, and communities.
Insight 3
Though climate-related emergencies such as wildfires, floods, smoke, and extreme heat are creating repeated and prolonged disruptions for Indigenous tourism regions and businesses, existing emergency management frameworks do not consistently identify Indigenous tourism operators within preparedness, evacuation, recovery, or funding systems.
Insight 4
By centering Indigenous knowledge, leadership, and lived experience, the sector can strengthen resilience while supporting safer, more sustainable tourism futures.
Indigenous Emergency Management & Preparedness in Tourism: Resource Analysis
Detailed analysis of emergency management resources reveals that four interconnected themes shaping emergency preparedness and resilience within Indigenous tourism:
- Prolonged Impacts from Climate-Driven Disruptions
- Limited Indigenous Tourism-Specific Resources
- Cultural Safety and Indigenous Knowledge
- Jurisdictional Complexity
This research report identifies several opportunities to strengthen Indigenous-led emergency preparedness and resilience within the tourism sector.
Emergency Preparedness Funding & Supports
Access government programs, funding opportunities, and emergency management resources that can help support preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery activities within the tourism sector.
Learn MoreFunders & Partners
The Tourism Emergency Preparedness initiative is funded by the Government of Canada through Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). TIAC gratefully acknowledges the support, collaboration, and expertise of the many organizations, partners, and contributors helping to strengthen tourism emergency preparedness across Canada.
