My friend and experiential tourism operator Bill Kendrick and his wife Mary operate one of Canada’s newest entries into the experiential tourism business. Located in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Bill and Mary operate Briarcliffe Inn Bed and Breakfast. During the last couple of years, after taking some training at the Edge of The Wedge, Bill and Mary created a magical concept involving many PEI experience providers. Celes asked Bill if he could provide us with some perspectives about why they are now creating and selling experiences about PEI?
VISITOR PERSPECTIVES:
What most people remark on is how much they like the opportunity to actually “do” these activities rather than just watching someone else do it. Our clients revel in the hands-on aspect of our experiences. The best comment we got was from a family that took our “Digging for Dinner” experience where they go out clamdigging with our provider and then cook up the clams afterward. The mother emailed me to say her 11 year old daughter had declared that they had to come back to PEI next summer because it’s better than Disneyland! When an 11 year old gets the difference between authentic and fake, you know you’re doing something right.
SHIFTING FROM TOURS TO EXPERIENCES:
We banish the word “tour” from our vocabulary and that of our clients. Tours suggest passive participation….look and listen & involve scripted, memorized presentations. We don’t do tours. Our providers are people who do what they do as a profession or for recreation. Our oyster fishing experience provider is an oyster fisher….our lobster fishing experience provider is a lobster fisher…our chocolate making experience provider is a chocolate maker. Our clients want to spend time with someone authentic. Unlike tours, our experiences are never the same from one client to the next because each of our clients is different….each day out on the water is different….each day at the distillery making moonshine is different.
SHIFTING FROM TOURS TO EXPERIENCES:
The other important difference between an experience and a tour is that participants get to meet and make a connection with an Islander. We believe the way you get people to come back to is place is by getting them to make a connection with someone who lives here. That’s how they truly learn about a people and its culture.
WHAT MAKES THE EXPERIENCE PROVIDER COOL?
The key thing about our experience providers is that they are passionate, articulate and love sharing their lives with our clients. Ultimately, it is who are clients are spending time with that is more important than what they are actually doing. After taking our Tong & Shuck experience, clients tell us how amazing it was to eat an oyster seconds out of the water then they launch it to talking about how passionate our oyster fisher is about what he does….how funny he is…how knowledgeable he is. It’s the person they focus on. All our providers are also very knowledgeable about the Island and so not only share information about their own area of expertise but also tell people personal stories about the Island. They are great ambassadors for the place not just their professions.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT PEI FOOD THAT VISITORS WANT?
What our clients want is local, fresh food and they want to meet the people harvesting, growing or making it. What we do is add the extra element of being able to experience what it’s like to harvest, grow and make it with someone who actually does it for a living. And for local food producers like our oyster fishers who ship product around the world, it’s a great extension of their marketing. We’ve had clients go back to where they come from and go to their local seafood retailer and ask them to bring in oysters from our fishers. Now that’s making a connection!
Great perspectives. Thanks Bill!
