A tourism product is what you buy, an experience is what you remember! The following links provide information, resources, and opportunities to guide tourism operators in the development of new or enhanced experiential products.
RTO 9 – Growing Experiential Tourism is a high priority for RTO 9. Not only does it add a new revenue stream for businesses, but it also enhances the slower seasons, creates a competitive advantage, opens the doors to new markets and repeat visitation, and encourages creative usage of existing infrastructure. Most importantly though, Experiential Tourism is attracting travellers who not only love learning new things but care about the destinations and the locals that live there. RTO 9 provides free coaching to help you bring your tourism experience to market.
Destination Canada – Utilizing the Explorer Quotient Toolkit, Destination Canada provides tourism businesses with valuable insights into why and how different people like to travel. Explorer Quotient goes beyond traditional market research of defining people. It looks deeper at individuals’ personal beliefs, social values, and views of the world to learn exactly why different types of travellers seek out entirely different travel experiences. Learn about Explorer Quotient and how to implement the program by developing a strategic plan with an Explorer Quotient authorized trainer.
Gros Morne Institute for Sustainable Tourism (GMIST) – GMIST offers training programs, video recordings and development support services to advance the quality and success of tourism operators and destinations.
With the goal of enhancing the quality and sustainability of tourism experiences, GMIST provides support and training in:
• Sustainable Tourism Practices
• Experiential Tourism
• Tourism Community Development
• Culinary Tourism
• Indigenous Tourism
Culinary Tourism – The Culinary Tourism Alliance helps to build destination’s taste of place by supporting agriculture, viticulture, and aquaculture industries across the culinary tourism value chain. CTA promotes authentic tastes of place by sharing stories with pride and honouring the cultures that create these experiences
Eastern Ontario Agri-Food Network (EOAN) – EOAN shares several routes each season for wanderers curious about where there food comes from putting forward people that work hard into making and offering amazing foods, as well as other activities to fill your day or weekend trips. They’ve done all the work for you! Simply download the trips directly to your phone (or print them) and buckle up. These trips are ideal for couples looking for a romantic weekend getaway, families hoping for a break in the routine as well as retired couples or groups of friends simply looking to create memories to last a lifetime and discover what Eastern Ontario has to offer!
Elevating Canadian Experiences – Winter/Shoulder & Culinary National Program – Explore content ranging from strategy development to practical tools and tips – all designed to help grow and adapt your tourism business as an operator and build tourism capacity in your region as a destination partner. Explore resources in developing and using guidelines, assessing your readiness, goal setting, strategy development and partnering for success. Explore growing agritourism, culinary tourism and multisensory experience development.
The Tourism Cafe – As one of Canada’s leading tourism training companies with a national reputation for experiential travel training that raises the bar on the visitor experience. The Tourism Café employs professional educators with an award-winning, finely-tuned instructional design process that is highly collaborative, inclusive and engaging.
Tourwriter – The future of tourism: travel trends for 2021 and beyond.
Case Studies and Idea Generators: Get your creative juices flowing with these unique success stories
Newfoundland and Labrador – St. John’s Haunted Hike and Lighthouse Picnics, Linkum Tours whale watching and Tour Labrador’s 1-3 night packages.
BC’s Cultural and Heritage Tourism Development – check out the Economuseum story. Economuseums are workshop environments in which goods are produced on a small scale, focusing on the preservation of traditional skills and craftsmanship. U’Mista Cultural Centre – Creating an Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Treasure. How the community of Wells was built into a Creative Arts Community destination.
How the Rise of Experiential Travel Benefits Tour Operators – Crowdriff, article by Julia Manoukian. Experiential travel was once a niche that only appealed to the most adventurous travelers unafraid to jump off the itinerary and truly eat, see, and experience a destination for all that it’s worth. But the digital age has helped bring this kind of travel into the mainstream. More travelers are interested in learning about what’s on the minds of locals or breaking bread with a host family than dining at a Michelin starred restaurant
