With the announcement earlier this month the provincial government is re-establishing an industry-led Crown corporation to oversee tourism in B.C., there is now a call out for those interested in being on its founding board of directors.

Destination BC was announced on Nov. 5 by Premier Christy Clark and Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training Pat Bell and is a major change in direction for tourism marketing of the province.

Officially incorporated, at the time Bell said the next step for Destination BC is to establish a board of directors with nine positions, although remuneration for the chair and board has not yet been established.

Of the nine positions, four may have current involvement, including investments, in the tourism and hospitality sectors. The remaining five positions, however, may not have current involvement or investments in those sectors, but may have had them in the past.

Bell is set to pick three potential board members per position and forward those choices to tourism stakeholders for review. The industry will then recommend to government which of the candidates they believe should serve and the government makes the final appointments.

Board members may serve a term of up to three years with a possible renewal of one additional term of three years. One of the first steps for the board will be to hire a new CEO for the provincial destination marketing organization.

Destination BC’s organizational structure was a recommendation of an industry task force. The new Crown corporation was welcomed by the industry as an independent body that will offer consistent and stable funding that is connected to performance measures.

Destination BC will officially take responsibility for operations on April 1, 2013 and for the first year will receive the full funding of $48.87 million. After that funding will be set based on a percentage of annual sales tax activity and be included in legislation government the corporation. By 2015, if the industry sees growth in visitation numbers, Destination BC’s funding will grow in relation to that.

Destination BC’s board will be required to establish a tourism marketing committee to advise it on priorities, performance indicators and a cost sharing formula to leverage the corporation’s investments.

The committee will include three members from each of the six regional marketing associations in the province, while performance expectation will be set out in formal contracts between the corporation and the regional organizations.

Interested applicants may submit an Expression of Interest in serving Destination BC as a director online by going to the Board Resourcing and Development Office website: www.gov.bc.ca/brdo and linking to the page on how to apply. Expressions of Interest should be submitted by (Friday) Nov. 23.