Tourism PEI brought together two different groups of 18 operators on January 26 and 27 just outside Charlottetown, to move further forward in building capacity within PEI to offer unique Once In A Lifetime experiences. Janet Wood, manager of product development for Tourism PEI, has been instrumental in enabling tourism industry operators in PEI (with assistance from TAIPEI) to have access to these workshops featuring experiential tourism workshop facilitator Celes Davar, from Earth Rhythms in Manitoba. Attracting operators from west, north, south and eastern PEI, a number of innovative and inspiring new experiences were developed.
The development, world-wide, of authentic experiences that feature real people in which the heart of the experience involves active participation, local cuisine, access to local experts, and the opportunity to take away something memorable is on the rise. With recent funding announced in the January Federal Budget increasing allocations to the CTC, PEI is well-positioned to take advantage of this slowly growing niche area of inbound tourism. Taking part in both workshops were Bill and Mary Kendrick, who have created Experience PEI, a remarkable partnership with many experience providers in PEI. They offer some innovative and imaginative PEI experiences found nowhere else in the world.
It would be great to see all of Canada’s provincial and regional tourism agencies investing into the development of experiential tourism, like PEI is doing. Experiential tourism and the offering of authentic, innovative one-of-a-kind tourism experiences is here to stay and will provide a much-needed array of new products that international and Canadian travellers are now seeking.
Have a peek at some of PEI’s new experiences in videos by Gabriel Duclos, and the people who are at the heart of these experiences – fresh, innovative, re-defining tourism as we know it. The CTC and its Canadian operators are helping to make sure that Canada’s Brand stays as top of mind for global travellers. And, closer to home, it would be great to see other new experiences that present “the Canadian experience”.
