The PEI Tourism Advisory Council (TAC) is an industry advisory board to the Minister of Tourism.  TAC is made up of an integrated research-product development -marketing board of industry professionals and special ad-hoc task forces.  There are fourteen (14) industry stakeholders and five (5) ex-officio senior Provincial and Federal government members and staff involved in the work of the TAC.  It is Chaired by Kevin Murphy of Murphy Investments Ltd. 

The TAC was appointed in December of 2004 as the result of a collaborative effort of industry, provincial and federal government leaders meeting to discuss challenges within the tourism industry in PEI.  The concept of public and private sector working together is well established in other jurisdictions.  In many cases it has proved successful, with private sector partners playing an integral role in raising the profile of tourism as an economic generator and securing additional investment for tourism programming.

TAC works in partnership with Tourism PEI, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and the Tourism Industry Association of PEI (TIAPEI) to ensure all parties are working from the same focused agenda, with the ultimate goal of industry growth. While TAC and TIAPEI’s mandates are often confused by the public, each organization has a distinct role.

• TIAPEI is a membership-based organization; they represent the views of their membership and are the official lobby group for the tourism industry.  TIAPEI has a mandate to administer training and human resource related programs to the industry.  
• TAC’s role is simple - to advise the Minister of Tourism on marketing, product development and research initiatives, with the sole outcome of increasing tourism revenues for the Province.  

Both TAC and TIAPEI work very closely together to ensure all parties are aiming to achieve the end goal - tourism growth. 

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