A new five-year agreement between Travel Manitoba, Indigenous Tourism Manitoba and the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada aims to inject $127 million into the provincial sector.

The memorandum of understanding, signed Thursday at the third annual Indigenous Tourism Manitoba Conference (and second annual Grass Grows Rivers Flow Tourism Summit) at Elkhorn Resort on the edge of Riding Mountain National Park, is expected to help launch 40 new tourism businesses and create 714 jobs by 2030.

The initiative will also strengthen the existing Indigenous tourism sector — currently worth $91 million annually and employing more than 1,600 people — the fastest-growing segment of the province’s industry.

“This allows us to have operational funding,” said Holly Spence, CEO of Indigenous Tourism

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