The Wilderness Tourism Association of BC (WTABC) was born out of a need to have an organization that would be focused on land use issues faced by nature based tourism operators. It has its roots in a previous organization called the "Wilderness Tourism Council" a group that represented approximately 850 nature based businesses during the 1980's. The council eventually blossomed into the Council fo
r Tourism Associations (COTA) in 1993. In 1999, after a Tourism Land Use Symposium in Vancouver, industry stakeholders wanted to create an organization that would again give nature based tourism operators a stronger voice in dealing with issues specific to their sector of the tourism industry (specifically forestry and land tenure issues). Today, the WTABC works to improve communications between tourism operators, governments and other industry sectors with respect to wilderness conservation and access to wilderness tourism opportunities. On a day-to-day basis, the WTABC consults with a wide variety of government and non-government organizations, and other industry sectors to keep abreast of issues, policies, trends and research, and puts forward our concerns and recommendations. The organization has helped members across BC with individual and collective interests, needs and issues. In addition to the issues of land tenure and forestry, the WTABC also helps operators with land use conflicts, land and marine use planning, making park use accessible, taxation and preserving wildlife and habitats.
