Kristy Sheppard, the Director of Tourism in Nunatsiavut, Edge of the Wedge graduate, and recent  MA in Tourism Management graduate from  Royal Roads University has been accepted to present her graduating paper at the International Polar Tourism Research Network conference on April 12, in Nain Nunatsiavut!  Congratulations Kristy!  We love hearing success stories like this at the Edge!  If you presentation is online, send a link and we will be happy to share it with the community!

Kudos and congratulations are extended to the Canadian Tourism Commission for securing first place, two years in a row in the Future Brand Index. “For the second year in a row, Canada has been named the No.1 most powerful country brand in the world by Future Brand a leading international brand and design consultancy.”  After years of investment in the new brand  Canada. Keep Exploring, the explorer quotient research that confirms the types of visitor experiences travellers are looking for, the new Experiences Toolkit to help align product development and the new Signature Experiences Collection – our national destination marketing organization is working for us.

Tourism is a $73.4B industry and through leveraging the investments in tourism development and marketing at all levels of government, our industry can continue to drive a strong return on investment for Canadian tax payers as well as provide the livelihood for 177,900 tourism businesses, their employees and communities.

A post on GoogleThink Insights is worth reflecting on relative to what they are seeing with Internet behaviours and travellers.

1. Dreaming: 50% of people go online when starting to think about a trip

Implication:  How well do you know your ideal guest?  Do you know which online distribution channels they use to find you?  Sources of info to validate your biz?  And if you do know, are you doing anything about it?

2. Planning: 85% of leisure travellers plan their trips online

Implication:  As Michael J Fox said in our 2010 Olympic campaigns — You Gotta Be There!

3. Booking: 53% plan to increase their comparison shopping with travel

Implication:  If you are differentiating on price, you will be lumped in the masses. If  you are differentiating on value this must be communicated online to prospective guests.

4. Experiencing (Love that one) – 50% use a mobile device of some sort when travelling

Implication: Do you have an App? Can your website be easily read/navigated on an iphone?  Are you accessible in this space so you can be found?

5. Sharing: 32% of business travellers post about their travels on line!  Imagine what the leisure travellers are doing?

Implication:  Are you listening and learning about what people are saying about you online?  If you still don’t have a trip advisor account, get one now!

Take a peak at the link above and then ask yourself – Am I well positioned to benefit from this information?  If yes, pat yourself on the back, grab a cup of coffee and smile. If not – get some action items into your workplan!

These are all experiential travel opportunities included in the recent Cutting Edge Experiential Travel training offered in Onanole Manitoba. Welcoming 31 folks from the tourism industry, community and economic development organization and destination marketers we embarked on a 3.5 day journey to explore the potential for experiential travel in rural Manitoba. This is a tourism development opportunity that has relevance to all areas of Canada – rural to urban, north, south, east and west. It aligns with how the Canadian Tourism Commission is positioning Canada and is part of Travel Manitoba’s strategic direction.  Our job as operators is to ensure the product is there!

Where do you begin – start looking for the hidden gems in our community!  We found a few diamonds … take a peak at our course video! Then think about the potential for your own community.

If you live in Manitoba and missed this training opportunity – you are in luck!  Travel Manitoba is offering a second session, this time in an urban setting in Winnipeg Jan 16 – 20th. Contact Edge of the Wedge GMIST graduate, and now Cutting Edge graduate Laurenda Madill with the Visitor Experiences Development team for more information.

Sixty seven new companies were added to the new CTC Signature Experiences Collection today, bringing the total to 115.

President and CEO Michelle McKenzie stated “The power of the program is that it will inspire Canadians to create, develop, and enhance tourism products to become truly experiential and competitive—connecting international travellers to Canada in unique ways. The criteria have been set so that we find new Signature Experience members that match what international customers want to buy now. We encourage tourism businesses across the country to take advantage of the many tools we offer to help them meet the program’s criteria.”

Our very own Todd Lucier’s Northern Edge Algonquin nature retreat was included!  Check out the list and consider carefully if this could be an opportunity for your business!

After a lengthy review of hundreds of applicants in multiple categories, TIAC posted the top 3 candidates and honourable mentions for the awards that will be presented 24 Nov at their annual summit.  In the Travel Experience Award category we have a little something from across the country.

• Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge (Atikaki Wilderness Provincial Park, MB)
• Angel Destinations (West Vancouver, BC)
• Village historique de Val-Jalbert (Chambord, QC)

Honourable Mention: Road-to-Sea Guides Tours (Moncton, NB)

Congratulations to all of you for your nomination!

Looking to differentiate on ‘place’ to build an experience, similar to Quebec City’s Ice Hotel, check out these reported on Gadling.com.

• The Sala Silvermine Sala, Sweden: 155 m underground in a mine!
• Safari Land Farm and Guest House Resort: Tamilnadu, India – perch in a treetop room, above 4000 feet high hills.
• La Balade des Gnomes, Heyd Nr Durbuy, Wallonia, Belgium – live like a gnome! It’s a fairy-tale and you’re in it!
• Palacio de Sal: Uyuni,Bolivia – a hotel made of salt, including a salt golf-course.
• Controversy Tram Inn: Hoogwoud, Netherlands – a themed railcar converted into a 5-room B&B

• Jules Undersea Lodge: Largo, Florida – dive 21 feet to sleep in an undersea lodge, and have meals delivered in waterproof suitcases!
• Propeller Island City Lodge: Berlin, Germany – upside rooms and flying beds, rooms that alter your sense of reality.

What could you be doing to differentiate on place?

What a great morning read with coffee!  As Celes and I are in the home stretch developing the new CUTTING EDGE EXPERIENTIAL TRAVEL Training program with Travel Manitoba and GMIST, Ernst Flach from the CTC forwarded an article by Australian Ben Groundwater who recently attended GoMedia.  Celes was one of the partners putting together the Manitoba experience for the travel writers and here’s what Ben had to say.

“There’s a new push in the country towards a different type of tourism, one that goes beyond the traditional method of travel, and one that Australian operators could learn plenty from.”

• It’s all about being hands on with your travel.
• It’s the difference between looking at pieces of art in a gallery and being given the chance to try your hand at it with local teachers.
• I met a member of the aboriginal Cree nation, but rather than watch some sort of performance, I sat in his teepee around a fire and had a chat
• I met a local musician, too, but instead of listening to her play a few songs, we sat down and tried to write one of our own
  
  

  And the phrase that really summed it up, and was bang on “Give them ‘experiences’ rather than sights. That’s going to attract the kind of people that might fly halfway around the world for, and then tell their friends about it as well. Make it less about the attractions and more about the people.”

And that folks is what this movement towards experiences is all about! Read the article, it really talks to the ‘SHIFT’ required in how we plan tourism.  And three cheers for the Internet so great articles can be shared quickly!

I just read a great article this morning titled: 6 Ways your Small Business Can Steal Customers from the Big Brands. If you have time, click on it and take a read. If not, here are the 6 ways:

• Focus on simplicity – make your website simple, find what a traveler wants quick, easy.
• Solve users core problems – present solutions!  SMEs are close to their customers, listen carefully this is a big advantage as you can ‘hear’ what they need and use this for product and market innovation
• Out maneouvre big brands. Small means nimble, move great ideas into markets and marketing campaigns quickly.
• Excel in customer service – need we say more!
• Be fearless – be bold and experiment with new technologies, new ideas that may be on the books of big business, but stalled in the board room.
• Become a brand yourself – so you are small – so what!  So are thousands of successful businesses. Use Social Media smartly, be consistent with your brand, deliver excellence and your customers will follow, new ones be cultivated!

And you’ve heard us say it before – use FACEBOOK.  A new study out today (short, 24 pages, and free) will help confirm why this is an imperative for all business, but especially small biz.  The Power of Like: How Brands Reach and Influence Fans through Social Media.