Edge of the Wedge 25 – GMIST

http://tourismcafe.ca/tourismcafe26.mp3

Robyn Jeffery from Alma, NB – How do you bring an idea to a community and identify leaders to buy in?

Dianne Heisler from Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenberg Nova Scotia: How do you introduce experiential travel in a town with a traditional mindset?

Carmen MacArthur from Celtic Heart, Cape Breton Island: How do you price experiences? with help on the answer from Perry Gotell and Tranquility Cove Adventures.

Peggy MacAskill from Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts, Cape Breton: Who should actually be selling these packages? a cluster or individuals?

Recorded live at Edge of the Wedge in Rocky Harbour, NL on April 2, 2011.

http://tourismcafe.ca/tourismcafe25.mp3

Eva Gutsche from Ontario’s StemConsulting.com wonders, “Who’s responsibility is training of experience providers?  Where does the funding come from?”

Adam Doiron from Prince Edward Tours asks: How do you price experiences?  Are people really willing to pay?  George Campbell from AnneSociety.org on Prince Edward Island wants to know how you come up with a price for experiences?

Jennifer McKeane from the Nova Scotia asks, “What are the implications of developing experiences in terms of liability, insurance, permits?”

. . . and we wrap with a link to a popular viral Youtube video presented by our Northwest Territories guest – Samantha Stuart.

This past April I had an amazing experience in Ecuador. From the mountains to the Amazon Rainforest, we met indigenous people and enjoyed a simpler way of life. In the Amazon, the primary reason for the local indigenous people to entertain the idea of hosting tourists, is to build alliances with North Americans and Europeans in order to help protect the fragile Amazon ecosystem.

I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Daniel Kooperman about how the Kapawi Ecolodge got its start. Kapawi was recently awarded a distinctive honour of being one of the top 10 Ecolodge projects in the world by the United Nations.
As well, the Alliance with North Americans has helped this community of Achuar people gain political control over their homeland, making it easier to keep oil, forestry and farming exploitation from destroying their world.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Daniel, as the rain falls on our roof and we await the all clear so that our pilot can take us deep into the Achuar Amazon territory and Kapawi Ecolodge.

The team and audience discuss the challenges and opportunities of embracing experiential tourism at the community level.

Download Tourism Café from Edge 24 in Rocky Harbour

Questions and ideas discussed include:

Theresa Green, Exploits Heritage Council, NL – How do we prune the list of experience providers in our community?

Jeff Stanley, Municipality of Richmond County, NS - How does the customer filter through the experiences and rate the relevance and quality of the experience as it pertains to them?

Mary Louis Bernard, Micmaw Association for Cultural Studies, NS – What steps should I take to introduce my community to experiential tourism?

Kathy McKenzie, Development Agency, Cape Breton Island – How do we fill the catalyst gap in our community?  Identify the catalysts and support them in moving forward.  Mary Tulle,  Destination Cape Breton and Nona McDermott, Victoria County. Cape Breton Island have a few ideas on this one too!

Nancy, Celes and Todd respond to questions from a live audience at Edge of the Wedge 23 – GMIST.ca in Rocky Harbour, NL.

The best recorded live tourism café podcast yet!!!

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Paul Gallant from  Atlantic Canada Acadian Tourism Commission (CTACA) asks:

Comment on trends in regard to changing role of information centres and what is happening on the Internet vs. the old way with travel guides.  How is technology impacting marketing, promotion?  The importance of tracking, transformation of visitor centres, the role of the internet and handheld technology on sales.

Marie-France Ducet, General Manager, Le Pays de la Sagouine asks:

How can experience providers be ready for the world of tourism five years from now?  Todd, Celes and Nancy imagine the future of Experiential Travel for Heritage and Cultural attractions.  Unpackaging, the emergence of handheld technology, capturing stories in video, location-based interpretation on handhelds and more.

Cheyanne Gorman-Tolliver, Black Business Initiative, Halifax asks:

What are the first steps to take with helping an organization seeking to introduce experiential tourism for the first time?  Point out current online resources, encourage others to seek training, seek the support and mentorship of innovative tourism businesses.  Be patient, start with something small that resonates with your community.  Set realistic expectations.  Think from Me to We.

Johanna Egan, Atlantic Canada Tourism Agency (ACOA) asks:

How can support organizations be more proactive in facilitating the development of their clients?  Taking home inspiring ideas and information and transferring them to clients.  Giving information, ideas and training tools to those who support your clients.  Meeting the need for ongoing learning to future-proof industry by providing fresh, relevant, current, actionable information.  Reviewing the types of things that organizations fund and consider moving towards supporting non-infrastructure tourism, create clear indicators of success to gauge progress.

April 24, 2010: Todd, Celes and Nancy are taking questions from attendees at Edge of the Wedge experiential tourism training event in Rocky Harbour NL.

Listen in . . .

Topics of Discussion in this episode of the Tourism Café include:

Mark Tierney, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
How do we shift the focus of economic development from infrastructure to experiences?

Lynn Samms, Trails, Tails and Tunes Festival, Norris Point, NL
Lesley Gaudry, St Peirre-Joly, Manitoba, Rural Municipality of De Salaberry
Murielle Roach, Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage 
How do we ensure Experiential Tourism is viable for F.I.T (fully  independent traveler)?

Anne Bardou, St. John, New Brunswick, Parks Canada
How do we partner and develop experiences for markets we know little about?

Today’s live recording of the podcast features great questions from participants from across Atlantic Canada.

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Featured Questions:
Dan Earl from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia: Yarmouth Acadian Shores Tourism Group
“Where do we start when considering developing experiential tourism in a business or community?”

Shane Thomson, Riverview, New Brunswick
What are your thoughts on implementing experiential tourism. Does it grow the pot overall or create a competitive advantage?

Rachel Vidito, The Great George Hotel, Prince Edward Island
Where did GMIST and this unique facilitator partnership get started?

Maegan Power Nobel, UNESCO Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve
How do you engage folks who don’t want to be engaged in experiential tourism?

Listen to this great podcast for info and ideas with Celes Davar, Nancy Arsenault and Todd Lucier.

The Business Case for Sustainability – What’s in it for you?

I had the opportunity to meet Bob Willard, author of several books including most recently The Sustainability Champions Guidebook (How to Transform Your Company), The Next Sustainability Wave, and The Sustainability Advantage.

Bob’s presentation was straight-forward.  If you can get an opportunity to see his presentation, do so.  It is well worth it.  I went twice, to both of his presentations, because the information was so compactly presented.

I interviewed Bob today after the presentation, because I was inspired by his presentation, and interested in his perspectives about sustainability and tourism.  Grab a coffee, or a juice and put your feet up.  This guy has some really neat ideas.  Check out his website Sustainability Advantage. In particular, see the 90 second video introduction from Bob personally.  Well done!

Interview with Bob:

Download the interview

Bob has helped me to articulate  a framework that helps me to bridge my passion for tourism with the business case for sustainability.  I hope that this interview will help you to shift your business towards sustainability.  The planet needs you to do it.  Climate change needs us to act in more innovative ways.  And, wouldn’t it be great to be able to do it in ways that actually increase your profits.

Sharing

What are some suggestions that you have about improvements in your tourism business that have led you forward on the pathway to sustainability?   I would be really interested in hearing your suggestions or examples, so that we can help our entire tourism industry to begin taking the small steps toward sustainability.

Travel and tourism will be tremendously affected by the outcomes of the Copenhagen Climate negotiations, as well as by forthcoming cap and trade legislation that will be passed both in the US and subsequently in Canada.  Not IF, but WHEN.  I think that it behooves all of us to start building in a smart, small-steps approach to sustainability into our annual business plan for our tourism companies.  What do you think?

Edge of the Wedge Tourism Training in Newfoundland is a cutting edge experiential travel learning experience for the tourism industry.  This podcast marks the end of 5 full years of delivering this course.  Celes, Nancy and I toast the 500 operators who have participated in this training experience.

In this version of the podcast we get some great questions from participants and even engage an audience member in responding to one of them.

• What is your opinion of changing the name of a business when undergoing a major renovation and change in ownership: Christie Wheeler, (Hotel Stephenville, Stephenville, NL)
• How do you motivate your experiential tourism providers and story tellers if it is not economically feasible to provide the experiences you develop? Sandra McDonald (Cape Breton Island)
• How to go about rolling out experiences in a bilingual community? How to handle the marketing and delivery of experiences in bridging language differences in a francophone/bilingual community? (Merideth Casey, Bathurst NB)

Thanks to Paul McGraw, (Miramichi Kitchen Party, Mirimachi, NB) for sharing his story with bilingual tourism experiences in response to the francophone question.

Nancy, Celes and Todd respond to questions from attendees at Edge of the Wedge 19 in Gros Morne, NL.

Discussion focuses on:

• how to rethink the business model for an underused tourism facility,
• finding new partners in your community to help create and deliver new tourism experiences,
• the keys to integrating older workers into your tourism attraction, business or regional tourism centre.