Destination Canada receives award for business event sustainability
Destination Canada, the country’s national tourism organisation, received the 2023 IMEX-EIC Innovation Sustainability award at IMEX Frankfurt for its Canadian Business Event Sustainability Plan.
The plan, launched in 2022, is a first-of-its-kind national programme aimed at improving the economic, socio-cultural and environmental sustainability practices of business events hosted in Canada.
To date, 16 Canadian destinations are participating in the Global Destination Sustainability Index (GDS-Index) as part of the Canadian Business Events Sustainability Plan. These destinations are:
- Banff Lake Louise
- Calgary
- Charlottetown
- Edmonton
- Halifax
- Kelowna
- Montréal
- Niagara Falls
- Ottawa
- Québec City
- Saskatoon
- St. John's
- Toronto
- Vancouver
- Victoria
- Winnipeg
Once complete in the spring of 2024, the Canadian Business Events Sustainability Plan will provide turnkey economic, socio-cultural and environmental sustainability programmes to global clients to drive action, raise standards and propel the entire business events industry towards being more sustainable.
Chantal Sturk-Nadeau, executive director of business events for Destination Canada, said the award recognises the efforts of everyone involved in the plan.
“A year ago, almost to the day, Destination Canada launched its Canadian Business Event Sustainability Plan at IMEX Frankfurt 2022 under the leadership of Virginie De Visscher (senior director, business events, Destination Canada),” she said. “A true champion for sustainability and someone whose passion and dedication towards continuous learning goes well beyond the workplace, this award is a testament to Virginie’s approach. We look forward to ongoing collaboration with our industry as we continue to drive action and raise the standards for business event sustainability in Canada.”
>> businessevents.destinationcanada.com
>> Stand C300
