Issue link: http://read.canadatravelguides.ca/i/651528
TRAVEL GUIDE TO CANADA L ike ceremonial smoke wafting across sacred lands, Aboriginal tourism is quietly evolving throughout Canada's provinces and territories. With little fanfare, this market sector is becoming a powerful and compelling option for foreign travellers, as well as homegrown vacationers, seeking viable opportunities for their dollar. Tribal interests nationwide are establishing a rich menu of unique activities for even the most travelled clients. First Nations travel and tourism products and services offer lasting memories steeped in the dynamic cultures of Canada's most ancient people. Timing is paramount for meaningful success in the volatile tourism industry, and it appears Aboriginal tourism is blessed in this regard, heading for a record year of fortuitous happenings coast-to-coast-to- coast. Following the dramatic Parks Canada discovery in 2015 of the long-lost British Franklin ship, Erebus, in Canada's Arctic waters, interest in the North is ever more robust. The 2015 federal election in Canada also refl ects a newly charged national consciousness with the election of ten First Nations Members of Parliament, a fi rst in the history of the country. WEST The Crossing at Ghost River is an enchant- ed overnight Aboriginal adventure in the Alberta foothills between Calgary and Banff. Guides lead visitors on a journey spanning notions of time and culture, highlighted by traditional drumming and unique storytelling, walking through captivating landscapes to learn about the healing plants growing underfoot, and watching authentic Aboriginal cuisine being made. Choose to stay in their comfortable lodge for one or two nights, set on 155 picturesque acres, or book your corporate retreat and mix business with pleasure Rockies-style ( www.crossing experience.ca). Spirit Bear Lodge in British Columbia's tiny central coast community of Klemtu, is 150 nautical miles by fl oat plane from Vancouver Island's northern-most town of Port Hardy. Protected from the Pacifi c Ocean tumult by the largest intact coastal temperate rainforest on the planet, travellers make the effort to view one of our world's great natural mysteries—the Kermode or "spirit bear." A visit here also ABORIGINAL TOURISM LAUNCHES NEW EPOCH BY GREGORY B. GALLAGHER traDitionaL WenDat DanCer, QC • QUÉBeC CitY toUriSM/Jean-LoUiS rÉGiS ABORIGINAL TOURISM