Travel Alberta, the tourism marketing agency of the Government of Alberta, and its Board of Directors has appointed Bruce Okabe as chief executive officer.
Okabe comes to Travel Alberta from InterVISTAS, a leading Vancouver-based global transportation and tourism consulting firm where he was senior vice president of the business strategy group. He was Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts for the Province of British Columbia between 2006 and 2008. In that capacity, he sat on the Board of Directors of Tourism British Columbia and the Canadian Tourism Commission.
Prior to joining the B.C. government, Okabe was vice president of strategic solutions at TELUS, and held a variety of other executive level positions in areas of marketing, business, consumer, strategy, retail distribution, outbound call centres and web development. He is a graduate of the Ivey Business School's Executive Development Program and the British Columbia Institute of Technology's Marketing Management Program.
“Bruce brings to Travel Alberta an impressive track record of achievement at senior management levels in both the private and public sectors,” said Quincy Smith, chair of Travel Alberta. “We are very confident that Bruce’s corporate experience, together with his successful sales and marketing background and sound organizational and senior leadership skills, is uniquely suited to realize our vision of Travel Alberta as the pre-eminent tourism marketing agency in Canada.”
"Alberta is an outstanding Canadian tourism destination supported strongly by industry and the provincial government,” said Okabe. “Travel Alberta has earned a global reputation for marketing excellence and I am very excited about the opportunity to lead this organization to the next level.”