John Lubbock once wrote “Reading and writing, arithmetic and grammar do not constitute education, any more than a knife, fork and spoon constitute a dinner. “ Similarly tourism is not just a hotel + restaurant + attraction + transportation = vacation! It is so much more and as businesses in the industry, it is our responsibility to weave together great visitor experiences that engage the senses, bring unique elements of a community to life, and set the stage with places and people for excellent, memorable travel.
We need to move from a ‘packaging’ as the way we think about product development to ’storytelling’ . What is the story of our region, our community? What are travellers wanting to learn, discover and immerse themselves in while on vacation? Never before has it been more critical to ‘listen’ to our guests, then craft experiences for niche markets that provide the best invitation possible to visit Canada. Our job is now the art of weaving together expectations, activities, interactions and delivering on the customer promise at every moment contact – from the time someone thinks about travelling, till the time they are sharing stories back home with their friends.
Pine and Gilmore introduced the concept of the Experience Economy in 1999 and gave us both an economic model with financial rationale, along with four main types of experiences: Entertainment, education, escape, and esthics. At the Gros Morne Institute for Sustainable Tourism training operators to shift their thinking and adopt new ways of generating business for themselves, and their community has been occurring for five years now!
Linked by themes, aligned with visitor interests, new ways to invite and connect with travelers is happening in wonderful places such as “Experience PEI”, Gros Morne Adventures and a full suite of 110 new experiences in New Brunswick! Check it out and then ask yourself – what I can I do differently! How can experiences enrich my business, provide a better travel opportunity for my guests.
