Centennial College of Toronto officially launches the Cultural & Heritage Tourism Institute

It was with great anticipation that I attended the first ever symposium on Cultural & Heritage Tourism at Toronto's Centennial College yesterday as part of the official launch of the Culture & Heritage Institute at the School of Hospitality. I have been involved a little bit in this initiative as part of the Institute's advisory committee so it was a pleasure to be able to participate in one of the concurrent sessions (mine being "Exploring the Digital wave in Cultural & Heritage Tourism"). The symposium's organizers did a stellar job of putting together a wide range of experts in various areas related to culture and heritage tourism. The keynote speakers were also of very high calibre: Randy Williams, President of TIAC - AITC, Dr. Lidia Varbanova, Founder of the Center for Intercultural & Social Development (Montréal) and Manager, LabFor Culture.org), David Whitaker, President Tourism Toronto and Rita Davies, Executive Director of Culture, City of Toronto.

The one day symposium included workshop sessions on the following topics as they relate to Cultural and Heritage Tourism: Marketing/Interpreting Sites and Assets; Cultural Intelligence; Exploring the Digital Wave in CHT; Integrity, credibility and sustainability; Creative Cities - a strategic approach for communities; Culture & Youth: "Canadian Identity."

Dean Shyam Ranganathan's of the School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culture deserves much of the credit for being the driving force to create (I believe) the first institution soleley dedicated to this growing area of travel. His staff deserves kudos for their hard work putting together the symposium. The Cultural & Heritage Institute will offer a broad range of courses and programs of study will be offered, including: Career specialization in HTA Diploma for Cultural and Heritage Tourism Management; A joint university-college degree program in cultural heritage tourism studies; Courses and programs to be offered by distance education for inbound and outbound tourism operators; A certificate program in tour escorting and guiding A post-diploma in applied cultural heritage tourism management; General interest courses specific to cultural heritage resources management. At a time when we hear a lot about the need for qualified tourism professionals, it is a very positive development to know about this new educational and training institute. It deserves the support of all tourism industry players, not only in Ontario but also across the country.

I look forward to next year's symposium.

Jaime