Hospitality Network history

In 1923, these three rail companies were amalgamated into the Canadian National Railway (CNR), and together with the CPR, these trans-continentals dominated the Canadian travel landscape until other forms of transportation became more popular.

Our national airline, Air Canada, was formed in 1937 as Trans-Canada Air Lines.

By 1938, the organization changed its name to the British Columbia Government Travel Bureau (BCGTB) and was granted a budget increase to $105,000.

The December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii had negative repercussions for tourism on the Pacific Rim and was responsible for an era of decreased visitation to British Columbia, despite attempts by some to market the region as exciting.

In 1954, Vancouver hosted the British Empire Games, investing in the construction of Empire Stadium.

When it was fully completed in 1970, it was the longest national highway in the world, spanning one-fifth of the globe (MacEachern, 2012). It would take decades before a coast-to-coast highway was created, with the Trans-Canada Highway officially opening in Revelstoke in 1962.

In 1971, the Hotel Room Tax Act was introduced, allowing for a 5% tax to be collected on room nights with the funds collected to be put toward marketing and development.

In 1978, with declining interest in rail travel, the CPR and CNR were forced to combine their passenger services to form VIA Rail (Library and Archives Canada, n.d.).

The first interfaith hospitality network opened on October 27, 1986.

Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Cincinnati (IHNGC) began on October 26, 1991, with a Day Center, and eight congregations who opened up the doors of their churches and synagogues to homeless families.

The organization later changed its name nationally to Family Promise and was awarded one of 21 Points of Light by President and Barbara Bush in 1992.

Regionally, the organization came to Western New York when Reverend Daniel Weir, the then Director of the Erie County Commission on Homelessness, arranged for various clergy from Erie County to meet with the national Interfaith Hospitality Network in 1993.

Interested clergy and congregational members worked diligently throughout the next several years to create the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Buffalo (IHNGB). A Board of Trustees was formed and IHNGB was incorporated in December of 1994.

The Ford Dealers of WNY and Northern PA donated a 15-passenger “Ford Friendship” van to IHNGB, and in July of 1996 IHNGB accepted its first family.

Lubbock Interfaith Hospitality Network, a nonprofit, non-denominational, volunteer-based organization, opened its doors in the fall of 1998 to homeless families with children.

Family Promise Rochester, then Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Rochester, was first started in 1999 by a group of individuals and their congregations.

A numbered company, owned in part by Air Canada, purchased 82% of Canadian Airline’s shares, with the result of Air Canada becoming the country’s only national airline (Canadian Geographic, 2000).

Worldwide arrivals to Canada dropped 1% to 694 million in 2003, after three years of stagnant growth.

Some argue that as early as 1534 the explorers of the day, such as Jacques Cartier, were Canada’s first tourists (Dawson, 2004), but most agree the major developments in Canada’s tourism industry followed milestones in the transportation sector: by rail, by car, and eventually, in the skies.

Government of Canada. (2006). Building a national tourism strategy. [PDF] Retrieved from https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/034.nsf/vwapj/tourism_e.pdf/$FILE/tourism_e.pdf

LinkBC. (2008). Transforming communities through tourism: A handbook for community tourism champions. [PDF] Retrieved from http://linkbc.ca/siteFiles/85/files/TCTT.pdf

Five years later, the airport welcomed a record 16.4 million passengers (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009).

In the mountain community of Kimberley, for instance, the following improvements were implemented through a $3.1 million forgivable loan: a new road to the ski resort, a covered tennis court, a mountain lodge, an alpine slide, and nine more holes for the golf course (e-Know, 2011).

Destination BC is a Crown corporation founded in November 2012 by the Government of British Columbia.

Tourism Industry Association of Canada. (2014, October 14). Travel industry poised to boost Canadian exports: US market and border efficiencies central to growth potential.

After 2 years of community meetings, planning, obtaining host congregations, securing a van, trailer, day center and hiring a Director, Family Promise of Butler County was ready to serve its first families in September, 2016.

In 2018, after over 20 years of operating in Erie County, the Family Promise Board of Trustees engaged in a Program Review with Doctor Diane Bessel from the Daemen School of Social Work to test our rotational model against best practices of trauma-informed care.

© Family Promise 2020.