Partners in indigenous tourism

The Lakota Youth Development camp on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation of South Dakota began dabbling in the tourism business in 2019 by offering on-site tepee stays. 

But in 2021, when the camp’s executive director, Marla Bull Bear, decided she wanted to develop a full cultural tourism offering, she didn’t quite know how to begin. 

“It was absolutely daunting,” Bull Bear said. “Everyone said, ‘What are we getting into? We can’t do this.’ But we did it anyway.”

Fortunately for Lakota Youth Development, in 2018 Travel South Dakota had partnered with the state’s nine federally recognized tribal nations as well as with the George Washington University International Institute for Tourism Studies to launch the South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance (SDNTA). 

Bull Bear made use of the alliance by enrolling in a training program offered by George Washington University. Later, representatives of the university traveled from Washington to the Rosebud Reservation, where they helped Bull Bear and her staff develop Lakota Youth Development’s tourism experience. 

Bull Bear also connected with The Travel Corporation (TTC), which is incorporating more Indigenous experiences into the itineraries of its group tour brands, including Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, Costsaver and Luxury Gold. TTC also provides grants for sustainable tourism through its TreadRight Foundation. 

Together, Lakota Youth Development and TTC crafted an experience that in 2022 became part of the Trafalgar brand’s nine-day National Parks and Native Trails of the Dakotas itinerary. 

“We are really looking into connecting with Indigenous communities wherever we go and amplifying their voices in order to support the development of tourism,” said Anina Grasso, TTC’s director of travel experiences development.

During their visit to Lakota Youth Development, Trafalgar clients experience a traditional meal developed by acclaimed Indigenous chef Kim Tilsen-Brave Heart and prepared with the assistance of Lakota Youth Development program participants. The visitors are also treated to a play performed by program participants and written with the help of the Lakota playwright Larissa FastHorse, whose work has appeared on Broadway. They also hear storytelling from a tribal elder. 

It’s a partnership that not only benefits Lakota Youth Development financially, but also provides invaluable experience for the program’s adolescent apprentices, said Bull Bear. 

Meanwhile, on the days when Trafalgar groups aren’t there, the camp now offers a robust slate of cultural and outdoor tourism options to individual visitors, including plant identification classes, canoeing and horseback riding. 

Building connections

The partnership between the Rosebud Sioux, Travel South Dakota and TTC is just one example of the growing number of connections that have developed over the past few years between Indigenous tourism concerns in the U.S. and Canada and the traditional travel trade.

For tour operators and travel advisors, the partnerships provide access to an expanded slate of suppliers, while fulfilling their increasing commitments to offering and promoting travel products that are sustainable and culturally enriching and providing widespread benefit to the destination community. 

They’re also a response by the travel trade to the growing societal recognition of, and interest in, Indigenous history and culture. 

For tribal tourism stakeholders, the partnerships bring increased support to a sector that through the years has reaped relatively little benefit from the hotel bed taxes that often fund destination marketing organizations (DMOs), said Sherry Rupert, CEO of the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association (Aianta) trade group. 

“I think it is a great opportunity for our tribes,” she said. “We’ve worked a long time to get to this point because there has been such an inequity for the Indigenous tourism industry overall.”

The partnerships also open the door to new connections for tribes, including with the international travel trade market. And they help tribal tourism operators, especially new ones, develop their product in a way that is both authentic and caters to the expectations of upmarket travelers. 

“We’re kind of the hidden gem of the U.S.,” Rupert said. “We are the first people of this nation. If people want to know the history, it’s so important to come to tribal communities.”

Several statewide DMOs in the Western U.S. appear to agree with that assessment.

Along with Travel South Dakota, DMOs in Montana, Nevada, Oregon and California have all made new commitments to Native tourism in the past few years, with assistance coming in the form of money, marketing support and program development. 

To the north, Destination Canada entered into a partnership with the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) in 2015, which this year included more than $3.2 million in direct and in-kind annual financial support.

Tamara Littlelight, ITAC’s director of marketing, said that one way in which the partnership has been especially beneficial is that Destination Canada created a dedicated space for Indigenous tourism operators on the floor of the annual Rendezvous Canada trade show, the DMO’s signature event, offering access to international travel buyers. 

This year, she said, 36 tribal tour operators had a booth at the event. 

Support from Destination Canada also helped the ITAC develop the Original Original Accreditation Program last year, which recognizes tribal tourism businesses that offer quality and authentic products and services. 

“A lot of times there is cultural appropriation. People don’t know what’s authentic,” Littlelight said. “With the Original Original brand campaign, we are building that awareness. We have a trademark logo that is the ultimate stamp of approval.”

Original Original has been a particular help to Signature Travel Network, which last year embarked on a new mission to highlight Indigenous-owned travel products, spearheaded by Chris Alestra, its vice president of destination and air partnerships. That mission started by engaging directly with the ITAC. 

Signature is now working with Tourism Australia, Tourism New Zealand and the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau to create similar partnerships in those destinations, Alestra said. 

Back in the Lower 48, Visit California launched a Visit Native California platform within its website last March using $1 million in grant funding. The landing page provides information on tourism opportunities offered by the 109 federally recognized tribes throughout the state, ensuring high visibility due to the extensive reach enjoyed by Visit California. 

As of late September, Visit Native California offered information about 600 Native American businesses, sites and events, and more are being added every week, Visit California CEO Caroline Beteta said. In addition, the site featured 41 articles about available experiences, such as the new cultural plaza and museum in Palm Springs that is run by the Agua Caliente band of the Cahuilla tribe; or the wine and specialty farm-grown foods on offer at the Seka Hills Olive Mill and Tasting Room, operated by the Yocha Dehe Wintun tribe in Yolo County, northwest of Sacramento. 

The tribal tourism platform has become one of the most frequented areas of the Visit California site, said Beteta. 

“1.4 million Californians are either 100% Native American or partially, and so this is something that is very much part of the culture but really not brought forward from a statewide perspective for tourism and visitation,” Beteta said. “This was the time. People are looking for those authentic experiences; and as original stewards of our land, they just have an incredible depth of storytelling.”

The idea of the Visit Native California landing page came from the Agua Caliente, whose robust slate of tourism offerings include three casinos, two golf courses, two spas and hiking trails. 

Kate Anderson, the band’s public relations director, said the Agua Caliente came to the realization that nearby tribes likely receive similar types of visitors, but there was no single portal of information on California Indigenous tourism for those visitors to turn to. 

The site also has an array of videos — narrated by tribe members themselves. 

“Not only will visitors have an opportunity to learn about the tribes, but they learn about tribes directly through the authentic tribal voice, which is probably the most important element of all,” Anderson said.

Creating the tourism product

While marketing is crucial for boosting Indigenous tourism, Aianta’s Rupert said that product development is an area of special need, especially for many smaller tribes.

TTC’s Grasso said that when she works with new operators, such as the Rosebud Sioux, she doesn’t determine which experiences to offer.

“The options of experiences are absolutely decided by the community,” she said. “It’s not ours to tell what and how much they should share.”

Rather, TTC works with tribes on managing matters of logistics, such as budgets, time constraints and ensuring adequate restroom access for a full busload of visitors. She also helps tribes understand TTC’s standards for meals and hotels. 

Another entity working with Indigenous communities on product development training is the International Inbound Travel Association (IITA), which began forging a relationship with Aianta in earnest this past February. 

IITA executive director Lisa Simon said that many of the organization’s domestic tour operator members have been looking to offer more Native American experiences for their inbound international tour operator partners, especially those from Europe. 

To date, the record year in terms of visitation to tribal lands in the U.S. by people from outside of North America was set in 2018 at 1.98 million, according to National Travel and Tourism Office data. 

Simon said she believes that mark will soon be eclipsed. 

In the months since last February, the IITA has expanded its Steps to Success training program for the travel trade to include a special course facilitating connections between U.S. tribal tourism operators and inbound tour operators.

Among other things, said Simon, the course emphasizes to Indigenous suppliers that they need to have net rates ready two years in advance in order work with the international travel trade. 

On the flip side, Aianta is educating IITA members on how to meet the needs of tribes. For example, said Simon, in some cases if there is a death within a tribe, everything shuts down. 

“So, if an operator has customers coming and there is a death, the visitor experience could change substantially,” she said. “That’s something everyone needs to understand that they may need to navigate around if it happens.”

Similarly, Signature is working to create training modules that help member agencies better understand Indigenous products. The module would include lessons about different tribal communities, sensitivity and ultimately placing Indigenous-owned products into itineraries. 

It usually takes about three years to bring such a project to fruition, Alestra said, but Signature is fast-tracking Indigenous tourism to make it a priority.

Alestra said that she hopes Signature will be the leader in elevating tribal tourism in the U.S. market as part of an overall ethos at the organization to leave destinations “better than we found them.”

“It’s helping to bring awareness and sensitivity to this whole community that deserves to be heard,” Alestra said. 

Jamie Biesiada and Johanna Jainchill contributed to this report.