Shawna Lang

Background

About Shawna Lang

Here's my story to date.I have been active in the tourism industry for over 20 years, in my home region, the Sea to Sky corridor in beautiful British Columbia. My professional journey really started with the wonderful Fairmont Hotels and Resorts group. That experience provided me with an ideal foundation for destination marketing at Tourism Whistler. There I was responsible for overseeing the teams responsible for generating international and third-party year-round business to Whistler. I had the pleasure of leading an amazing team of professionals on the travel trade team and travel media team, executing joint marketing campaigns, establishing short and long term strategies with partners from around the world, introducing Whistler to new markets (like China, Brazil and India), supporting media visits and generating stories, and overall departmental reporting and business planning. In 2019, I continued my educational journey by pursuing my Masters in Tourism Management at Royal Roads University, with a significant focus on resident/visitor sentiment related to tourism development. From there I took my experience and pursued an opportunity closer to home in Squamish, and joined the leadership team at the Sea to Sky Gondola, overseeing a great group of sales and guest services team members. The experience at the gondola was not long in length, but significant and like no other, as I dealt with a vandalism reopening, COVID closure and reopening, and another vandalism closure and reopening - processes, procedures and communication constantly changing. I was thrilled to then join the team at Destination Think working with an amazing team of professionals helping destinations all over the world. What a great experience being exposed to destinations all over the world. I felt lucky to learn, but to also contribute to their success by offering my expertise and experience. I then was very happy close to home, representing Squamish through directing Tourism Squamish's destination marketing and member engagement responsibilities, my time there was memorable and impactful. I have now shifted gears and find myself on the association-side of our industry, and honing in on my hotel roots and stakeholder engagement skills as the Director of Sales and Revenue Optimization for the BC Hotel Association. In addition to this role, I will be sharpening my industry experience and knowledge in the classroom as I proudly take on a teaching position in fall 2025 at my Alma Mater, BCIT.