Welcome to Partnering for Success, an Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar. The goal of the webinar is to arm you with the information and tactics needed to build successful partnerships in your destinations. This includes developing the ability to:

• differentiate between culinary tourism and other forms of tourism, while identifying examples of culinary experiences relevant to your region;
• describe the breadth and diversity of businesses involved in culinary tourism through deconstructing the culinary tourism value chain; and
• explain to tourism operators and stakeholders why culinary tourism is a vital component in servicing the needs of travellers.

This webinar also teaches you how to:

• explain why partnerships are particularly important to culinary tourism;
• expand upon the breadth of culinary tourism partners, providing examples of the diverse resources that partners may contribute;
• describe the elements that make up a strong culinary tourism partnership, with reference to specific examples; and
• recognize the challenges and opportunities associated with culinary tourism partnerships.

Welcome to Partnering for Success, an Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar.

Agenda

Before moving on in the module, please note the sidebar along your screen where downloadable worksheets, resources, and case studies will appear throughout the presentation.

At this time, it’s important to acknowledge the extraordinary value that Indigenous peoples across Canada bring to the tourism industry. The land and traditional territories of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit provide unique culinary offerings that enhance the experiences for visitors to destinations all over the country.

Through the combined efforts of several organizations, including the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada and Indigenous Culinary of Associated Nations, Indigenous culinary has grown into a popular driver for the development of tourism in Canada.

Elevating Canadian Experiences

The tourism sector is a key contributor to Canada’s economy, and there is opportunity to maximize its potential by showcasing our culinary excellence to tourists, both domestic and international, and expanding products and experiences into the shoulder and winter seasons.

Funded by the Government of Canada, the Elevating Canadian Experiences program offers tailored content to help destination marketing organizations and businesses develop strategies to boost culinary tourism as well as winter and shoulder season tourism across the country.

The ECE program is a team effort, in which deep research and shared knowledge are brought together to ensure tourism continues to thrive as an economic pillar in Canada.

Webinar Learning Outcomes

The goal of the webinar is to arm you with the information and tactics needed to build successful partnerships in your destinations. This includes developing the ability to:

• differentiate between culinary tourism and other forms of tourism, while identifying examples of culinary experiences relevant to your region;
• describe the breadth and diversity of businesses involved in culinary tourism through deconstructing the culinary tourism value chain; and
• explain to tourism operators and stakeholders why culinary tourism is a vital component in servicing the needs of travellers.

This webinar also teaches you how to:

• explain why partnerships are particularly important to culinary tourism;
• expand upon the breadth of culinary tourism partners, providing examples of the diverse resources that partners may contribute;
• describe the elements that make up a strong culinary tourism partnership, with reference to specific examples; and
• recognize the challenges and opportunities associated with culinary tourism partnerships.

Module One: An Introduction to Culinary Tourism

Before attempting to build tourism partnerships for your business or in your destination, it’s important to understand the gap between the food & drink and tourism industries. By doing so, you’re able to identify ways to bridge that gap, which opens the door to developing compelling culinary experiences that drive tourism in Canada.

Bridging the Gap Between Food & Drink and Tourism

Although many restaurants don’t consider themselves as tourism businesses, it’s critical that those serving food and drink are open and ready to meet the needs of visitors to your destinations. Similarly, not all tourism businesses harness the value that the local culinary community adds to a destination’s product and service offerings.

The result is tourism attractions, such as museums, often sell food that has nothing to do with the place in which they operate.

This situation is not unique to Canada; in fact, destinations all around the world are continuing to serve the food that they think visitors want. However, our research shows there is consumer demand for higher quality culinary experiences that reflect the destination they’re visiting.

So, what does it mean to bring these two industries together through culinary tourism development?

In short, it means offering more meaningful and multisensory experiences that reflect your destinations. It also means stimulating visitor demand and localizing the economic impact on your tourism operators, businesses, and attractions.

And considering the current realities facing the two industries, a shift towards a culinary tourism model will also help build both resiliency and sustainability into Canadian tourism – especially in the post-pandemic era.

Now that we’ve identified the gap between the tourism industries, let’s define exactly what culinary tourism is. It’s considered “any tourism experience where a person interacts with food and drink that reflects the history, heritage, and culture of a place.”

Food tourism, and gastronomy tourism are other labels for culinary tourism, with one term being used over another depending on the destination; for example, gastronomy tourism is more often used in Europe.

The important thing to remember is that culinary tourism is focused on the meaningful connection between food and place.

There are countless activities and experiences associated with culinary tourism. A few examples are:

• apple picking at a local farm or orchard;
• making maple taffy while on a winter hike; or
• having a local and seasonal goods picnic at a remote location or conservation area.

It’s important to understand the diverse experiences associated with culinary tourism, because it shows that not all tourism experiences stand alone from food and beverage. In fact, there is often overlap, which must be consider when trying to attract culinary tourists to your destinations.

Culinary Tourism Value Chain

Food & drink products and experiences are used by a variety of tourism businesses to capitalize on the growing popularity of culinary tourism. This led to the development of the culinary tourism value chain, which was designed to increase the competitive advantage of your destinations and their operators.

Given the limited capacity of a single service provider or attraction, businesses band together through collaboration in order to deliver combined value to consumers. This allows individual operators to remain focused on what they do best while benefiting from the increased efficiency and effectiveness of working as a collective.

Visitor experiences are also enriched with each layer of value they receive when exploring a destination. This presents the opportunity for your destinations’ culinary communities to form strategic partnerships with businesses and deliver multisensory experiences that exceed the expectations of visitors.

Any business that includes a taste of place or culinary experience as part of their offerings are featured in the value chain, such as:

• accommodations;
• attractions;
• beverage producers;
• cooking schools;
• farmers’ and public markets;
• festivals & events;
• growers, producers, and suppliers;
• foodservice operators;
• retailers; and
• tour operators.

Who are Culinary Tourists?

When talking about the culinary tourist, there is a common stereotype about what type of person that is. Many of us picture someone at a fancy restaurant, taking Instagram photos, and writing about culinary experiences on their food blog.

Although this person is very much a culinary tourist, they are only one part of much larger market segment. In fact, culinary tourists are a very diverse group who are motivated by experiential travel and want authentic connections with the destinations they visit.

In other words, culinary tourists are “visitors who plan their trips partially or totally in order to taste the cuisine of a place.” They are both consumers looking for exclusive meals at high-end restaurants as well as those craving street food from markets stalls, while some culinary tourists are agritourists looking to connect to where their food comes from.

Culinary experiences have become a popular motivator for travel, but they are also discovered in more spontaneous ways by consumers during their trips. So, it’s important to remember that almost everyone is considered a culinary tourist, whether they identify themselves as one or not.

In the end, everybody has to eat. If you think beyond the stereotypical foodie as a culinary tourist, there is tremendous potential to attract new travellers to your destinations.

The Future of Culinary Tourism

Prior to COVID-19, experiential travel was on the rise. And when the tourism industry finally rebounds from the pandemic, research suggests the trend will continue to rise in popularity.

We know there is pent-up demand for travel and consumers are seeking human connection more so than ever. Culinary tourism offers hands-on, multisensory experiences with local businesses and attractions and allows visitors to connect with your destinations in a more meaningful way.

Also, as we’ve seen in the past, and especially through the pandemic, consumers are increasingly more aware of their local food system. And travellers are no different, wanting to know where their food comes from when visiting a Canadian destination.

Culinary tourists are especially eager for hands-on experiences that allow them to interact with the people and stories of the places they visit. For them, it’s a way to get to know the destination better.

The pandemic has also shown that driving trips will be prioritized over flying, specifically with culinary tourism in mind. As such, there’s an opportunity to target Canadian travellers who wouldn’t normally travel within the country but are now looking at places closer to home.

This also indicates a shift to a more safety-conscious decision-making process about where, when, why, and how consumers travel for pleasure. Knowing this, businesses must develop communication strategies to educate travellers about how they are kept safe when visiting your destinations.

Aside from that, outdoor activities and attractions with fewer crowds are bound to be favoured in a post-COVID environment. It’s important to keep this factor in mind when developing culinary tourism experiences in your region.

Module Two: Understanding Partnerships

Definition

So, what is a partnership? Let’s explore the definition to help us understand partnerships in the context of culinary tourism in Canada. This includes the different types of partnerships and the benefits of collaboration within the industry.

The key of a partnership is for all parties to benefit from joining forces to share resources, both financial and not, along with helping each other achieve mutual objectives. Doing so opens previously inaccessible markets, presents the opportunity to create new products or services, and helps you achieve higher levels of efficiency or economies of scale in your destinations.

Types of Partnerships

What types of partnerships exist?

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, there are seven types of partnerships to consider in the development of culinary tourism. It is important to note that sponsorships, grants, acquisitions, one-off contributions, or mergers are not partnerships. The reason for this is that the basis of a partnership is all parties share both the risk and reward of the venture.

The first type of partnership is based on the pooling of resources to gain a benefit you couldn’t afford on your own, such as the ability to develop new products, services, and experiences.

This is called a consortium partnership.

The second type of partnership is based on bringing different skills or resources together to pursue an opportunity, or a joint venture partnership. These initiatives usually have their own corporate entity.

The third type of partnership is typically a longer-term agreement created to achieve common objectives This is known as a strategic alliance partnership. It is a strategic because the objectives of the partnership are essential to your overall business or market development strategy.

The fourth type of partnership is an agreement to market your partner’s products or services through joint promotion, also known as a co-operative marketing partnership.

This is done to maximize the distribution networks of various partners to reach a larger market for your products and services.

The fifth type of partnership is made when your partner’s business is in a different industry but has complementary skills that, if linked, add value to the visitor experience. This partnership is known as a value-chain relationship, which is tightly connected with several overlapping activities happening in different areas of your business.

The sixth type of partnership is one where multiple businesses form an alliance to collaborate and develop initiatives to meet common objectives. This is also known as an organization network partnership.

The final partnership type is based on the need to contract non-core business services to third party providers. This is known as an outsourcing partnership.

To learn more about each type of partnership, please refer back to the partnership resources document in your sidebar.

Benefits of Partnerships

So what are the benefits of being in a partnership?

The first benefit is pooling resources together with your partner to amplify your efforts towards achieving your objectives and/or reducing the cost to do so.

You can also fill the gaps in your business by forming a partnership with a business that offers a product, service, or experience to consumers matching your target market. Your partner’s offerings are those you aren’t able to provide as a result of a lack of capacity, resources, or time.

Another benefit of partnerships is the ability leveraging the expertise of your partner and learn from their knowledge and skills to improve your own talents and performance.

Creating partnerships can add credibility to your business. If those you partner with have a well-established reputation and positive brand image, your business is elevated by association.

Partnerships offer you the ability to create collaborative marketing campaigns, which allows you to reach more consumers and increase the awareness of your business or brand.

Partnerships also provide the opportunity to promote and facilitate creativity and innovation in your business. By collaborating with a business offering something yours doesn’t, new products and unique experiences are easier to identify and develop, adding a stronger value proposition to your current offerings.

And finally, partnerships allow you to localize economic impact. By partnering with other local businesses in your community, you’re supporting the local economy and making sure more culinary tourism dollars remain within destinations.

In addition to the financial benefits, partnering with other local businesses supports community pride and pride of place. This resonates with visitors looking for a unique culinary tourism experience.

Module Three: Co-Creating Value

Eight Forms of Capital

There are likely many ways you and your business can co-create value through multiple partnerships. However, before forming any partnerships, it’s important to identify the forms of capital you’re missing and understand the different types of capital you and your potential partners each bring to the table.

In 2009, eight forms of capital were developed to better understand and identify the multiple flows of resources in the world. This framework provides a clear picture of the global web of interactions and transactions.

This economic model also recognizes there are other forms of capital besides money, and that the growth of financial capital comes at the expense of other forms of capital – for example, the loss of natural resources for economic gain.

Ethan Roland and Gregory Landua, authors of Regenerative Enterprise: Optimizing the Multi-Capital Abundance, developed the 8 forms of capital. They are as follows:

• social capital;
• material capital;
• financial capital;
• living capital;
• intellectual capital;
• experiential capital; and
• spiritual and cultural capital.

These eight forms of capital can be exchanged through intercapital flows and intracaptil flows. An example of intercapital is the exchange of spiritual capital for material capital, while an instance of intracapital is trading spiritual capital from one partner for the spiritual capital of another.

As we discuss each of the eight forms of capital, consider the types you and your business offer and what forms potential partners might provide.

Social capital can be understood as influence, connections, or relationships. Consider an entrepreneur looking to enter the restaurant business without any leads or connections. By seeking out a business or individual who is well connected to the community and has key contacts in the industry, creating a partnership offers the entrepreneur social capital.

Material capital can be understood all non-living, physical objects such as raw materials, products, structures, and technology. An example of a partnership providing material capital is a business participating in a culinary festival. Rather than renting or buying the required tents and tables, they partner with another business who manufacturers these types of materials.

This provides the partner with increased awareness of their products, while allowing the restaurant to lower the cost of participating in the festival.

Financial capital is, of course, money or currency that facilitates the exchange of goods and services. This also includes virtual currency such as BitCoin.

A common example is the owner of a small restaurant who wants to renovate their kitchen and upgrade their appliances. Due to financial constraints, they seek out partnerships with those willing to invest in the restaurant or provide a business loan to the owner.

Living capital can be understood as soil, water, animals, plants, human health, or the health of other organisms. It is all living things of which humans are part of in our ecosystem.

An example is a restaurant looking to offer a culinary experience in a natural outdoor space. By partnering with an organization or individual who is focused on conservation and provides this type of environment, the restaurant gains access to living capital.

Intellectual capital is defined as ideas, concepts, or knowledge gained from education or professional training. “Intellectual property” is held primarily in the human mind and is highly valued in our society.

An example is a restaurant owner who is new to developing outdoor culinary experiences. By partnering with a thought-leader or professional in the industry, they’re able to access the necessary learnings and intellectual knowledge to help create the experience.

Experiential capital embodies personal experience that supports an action.

Consider the restaurant owner creating an outdoor culinary experience. As it’s a new endeavour, they are unfamiliar with the proper techniques for preparing and serving food in an outdoor environment. In this instance, rather than searching for intellectual capital, the owner creates a partnership with a chef specializing in gourmet campfire cooking.

Spiritual capital is understood as faith, karma, presence, or prayer. It is defined by an entity’s internal connection and awareness of a greater whole, which is often intertwined with the cultural of a destination.

Partnerships around spiritual capital include Halal or Kosher foods. Again, the restaurant owner delivering an outdoor culinary experience wants to ensure the meat served was hunted, fished, or harvested using appropriate protocols that respect the life of the animal. Partnering with a local butcher or conservationist is way of gaining spiritual capital and making sure the ingredients are sourced ethically.

The last type of capital is cultural capital, which is defined as stories, myths, songs, or art. These are shared internal and external experiences of a group of people and are the product of inter-capital exchanges in a community, village, city, region, or nation.

Think of the an outdoor culinary experience that’s complemented by local artwork that reflects the community and the food being served. Or the meal is enjoyed while cultural figures share the stories behind each dish and how the food relates to the region, while also telling local myths surrounding the outdoor area.

Partnering with businesses, organizations, or individuals – such as artists or historians – is a way of achieving cultural capital.

Module Four: Creating Strong Partnerships

Core Elements

Next, let’s uncover the core elements that make up a strong culinary tourism partnership.

The first element of creating strong partnerships is having clear goals and objectives. This include identifying the roles and responsibilities for each partner as well as the activities each partner is responsible for.

It’s important to note, the responsibilities and activities may change throughout the partnership as a result of market changes. As such, it’s recommended to clearly define the roles of each partner through a written contract, memorandum of understanding, or friendship accord.

The second element is having open and frequent communication between your partners. It’s important to create an ongoing dialogue by asking for input and insight on decisions concerning the partnership. By having open communications, innovative ideas as well as concerns can be shared and discussed in a constructive manner.

Don’t forget to consider the timing and efficiency of communications, as well as the amount of information a partner can absorb at one time. A example is when communicating with a partner whose first language is not the same as yours; interactions can be misinterpreted or misunderstood, while overloading an individual with too much information often results in confusion or missed opportunities.

The third element to creating a strong partnership is building capacity through continuous learning. Extended partnerships help you identify strengths and weaknesses of all those involved, which presents the opportunity to bridge gaps in knowledge and leverage the expertise of each partner.

Additionally, as the partnership evolves and external factors change, new gaps in learning begin to form. To create long-term sustainability of the partnership, it’s essential to address these gaps as they appear. An example of this is the fast-paced changes in new technology and digital tools. Business who don’t adapt to or learn about these technological advancements are at risk of losing their footing in the marketplace.

The fourth element is establishing indicators and measurements as a basis for evaluating the effectiveness of the partnership. This allows you to objectively determine whether there’s a positive return on your investment, both financial and non-financial.

It’s worth noting that these indicators and measurements can be quantitative or qualitative, and they must reflect the goals and objectives of the partnership.

Another benefit of having indicators and measurements is they provide potential investors with credible data regarding the performance of your business and your partnerships.

The fifth element of a strong partnership is having adequate resourcing. Make sure the required human and financial resources are available to achieve the goals and objectives of the partnership.

In many cases, partners are interested and willing to make the partnership thrive; however, the day-to-day work of their respective businesses make it difficult to fulfill responsibilities of the partnership or build capacity. As such, it’s important to allocate the proper resources – such as time or financial capital – to the partnership to overcome those challenges.

The sixth and final element to creating a strong partnership is planning and management. The culinary tourism industry is subject to many external and unpredictable factors – such as as global pandemic – so it’s important to plan for possible changes and identify potential risks.

The old adage of being proactive versus reactive applies when it comes to developing strategic partnerships. As such, it’s vital that each partner is open and honest about what capabilities they have and the associated risks that can occur on a continuous basis.

By assessing the risks and opportunities regularly, your partnerships become more resilient to external factors that can cause unexpected changes in the industry.

Module Five: Partnership Challenges as Opportunities

Five Common Challenges

There are several common challenges faced by when forming partnerships in tourism, but these obstacles can become opportunities.

The first big challenge faced in a partnership is building trust between you and your partner. The best way to overcome this obstacle is to have open and honest communication with each other about the ideas, challenges and opportunities as the arise.

The second common challenge is being able to rely on your partners to uphold their responsibilities of the partnership. To address this challenge, it’s important to be realistic about the expectations each partner has of the other.

This means identifying the resources and time available to each partner and setting realistic goals based on those parameters. Remember, being a reliable partner also builds your credibility and generates trust.

The third challenge is being flexible within your partnership. It’s important to remain adaptable in your partnership as this allows you to address unexpected changes in the industry that impact your business and the goals and objectives of the partnership.

To head-off this challenge, it’s recommended you deal with it proactively at the beginning of a partnership. If you agree ahead of time to meet regularly with your partners, this offers the opportunity to review and adjust actions when necessary.

The fourth challenge is stimulating innovation and creativity. This is key to growing your business and fostering the partnership, so it’s important your partners are open to taking some risks and trying new and innovative tools or approaches.

For example, consider introducing new partners to the partnership, adding new products or services to you offering, or looking for new markets to enter. When you identify gaps in your partnership, there is an opportunity to develop creative and innovative solutions, but all parties involved must be willing to take calculated risks to reap the potential benefits.

The final challenge faced when forming partnerships is having open communication. Building trust, reliability, flexibility, and stimulating innovation and creativity requires excellent communication between all those involved.

As mentioned previously, open and honest communication is key to any partnership, and a lack of communication is detrimental to your success.

Module Six: Conclusion

In this final module, reflect on everything you’ve learned and think about how you can apply this knowledge to your personal context. Record your thinking in the worksheet now available for download in the sidebar.

Ask yourself:

• What partnerships do I currently have?
• Are there things I can discuss with my partner to improve the partnership?
• Are there new partnership opportunities I should consider perusing?
• And is there capital I can offer in a partnership I hadn’t considered beforehand?

Five Calls to Action

To close, here are five tangible calls to action to consider when forming a partnership.

The first is to identify your current forms of capital and what you can bring to the table in a partnership.

The second call to action is to identify your current partnerships and evaluate their effectiveness. Be sure to take an unbiased look at what’s working well and what can be improved upon, and then discuss your observations with your partner to determine how to strengthen the partnership.

Next, evaluate your partnerships and locate the gaps and challenges in your current offerings and services. Make sure you note any areas that can be improved upon to increase the likelihood of success of your business or organization.

Once you’ve identified the challenges facing your current offerings and services, the next step is to pinpoint the opportunities that address these gaps. In many cases a gap or challenge becomes an opportunity. Don’t be afraid to explore it and think outside the box.

And finally, the last call to action is identifying potential local businesses or organizations to partner with.

By forming partnerships with your neighbours in the community, you not only support your local economy by keeping capital in the area, but you also add value to your offerings and services by expressing pride of place.

Thank You

Thank you for your participation. Be sure to check out other culinary tourism webinars offered in the Elevating Canadian Experiences content hub.

For more information, or if you have any questions, please visit culinarytourismalliance.com.

Welcome to Enhancing Winter & Shoulder Season Tourism in Canada — an Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar. This presentation teaches you about winter and shoulder season tourism in Canada, while also highlighting the opportunities and strategies to consider for your own business or region. The webinar identifies the common challenges faced by destinations and operators and provides actionable advice on how to overcome them.

Welcome to Enhancing Winter & Shoulder Season Tourism in Canada — an Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar.

Agenda

The following presentation teaches you about winter and shoulder season tourism in Canada, while also highlighting the opportunities and strategies to consider for your own business or region. The webinar identifies the common challenges faced by destinations and operators and provides actionable advice on how to overcome them.

Each module is time stamped, with chapter selections available at the beginning of every section so you can explore the presentation however you see fit.

Throughout the webinar, worksheets and resources will appear along the sidebar. We encourage you to populate these worksheets as you go, whether digitally in a PDF reader or by downloading and printing. By the end of the webinar, these worksheets will become a working plan for the development of winter and shoulder season tourism in your destination.

Click on the worksheet that is currently available for your first set of discovery questions.

Module One: Introduction to Elevating Canadian Experiences

Goals

The Elevating Canadian Experiences program connects tourism providers to shared knowledge, with the goal of developing opportunities – including products, services and packages – that enhance winter and shoulder season tourism in Canada. It ECE program is also designed to motivate travellers to visit more rural and remote destinations.

The program supports tourism businesses, Destination Marketing Organizations, and various tourism stakeholders by identifying new opportunities that appeal to various market interests in the off season.

Before moving on, let’s define Canada’s tourism seasons. Our peak season is the summer – June, July, and August – with 85% of visitors travelling to Ontario, British Columbia, or Quebec, while 75% of those consumers visit Toronto, Vancouver, and Montréal respectively.

The winter season in Canada extends from November to February, with our shoulder seasons considered to be the spring – March, April, and May – and the Fall – September and October.

With that in mind, it’s important to note only 1% of visitor activities in the Canada are winter-based. Which presents a significant opportunity to enhance our off-season tourism.

Six-Step Approach

The program kicked off with extensive research to help us understand Canada’s current landscape and supply and demand factors around winter and shoulder season tourism. We surveyed tourists across the nation, as well in the United States and the United Kingdom, to identify visitor expectations related to off-season travel.

The supporting workshop materials for the ECE program, as well as the framework for the national toolkit, is the result of that research.

Armed with this information, a series of 48 workshops in 24 destinations across Canada engaged participants in a discussion around the challenges and opportunities of developing winter and shoulder season tourism in the country.

Following these workshops, the feedback and observations helped produce the standard national toolkit, which offers destinations across Canada ideas and support to enhance their off-season tourism.

Finally, a standard set of pilot strategies developed for Destination Marketing Organizations were executed in four select destinations: Yarmouth and Acadian Shore, NS, Charlevoix, QC, Windsor/Essex, ON, and Sunshine Coast, BC.

A link to the national toolkit is now available in your sidebar and is accessible through the Elevating Canadian Experiences content hub at any time.

Tourism During a Crisis

The Elevating Canadian Experiences program was launched prior to the global pandemic in 2020. Despite the disruption COVID-19 caused in the tourism industry, the Tourism Industry Association of Canada or TIAC, chose to go ahead with the program as the need to enhance winter and shoulder season tourism became more important than ever.

The impact COVID-19 had in 2020, and continues to have in 2021, has forced operators and destinations into developing innovative ideas and long-term solutions.

This includes forming partnerships with key operators, creating flexible offerings and bundling products and services to develop compelling packages for travellers. For example, Prince Edward Island’s Food Island Program leveraged an existing successful program for visitors to promote on island culinary experiences to locals, supporting many businesses and business owners in the process.

Module Two: Seasonality in Tourism

Before moving on in the presentation, please note there is a second worksheet now available in the sidebar. As you work through module two, you’re encouraged to fill out the discovery questions inside.

Specific challenges faced by tourism operators and destinations are dependent on location, products and services available, as well as unique experiences offered. However, there are three areas of impact for everyone to consider when planning to mitigate global challenges with seasonality:

1. the financial impact of seasonality;
2. the operational impact of seasonality; and
3. the impact on visitors and communities.

Addressing these challenges not only benefits your destination and operators, but it also stimulates financial support from stakeholders and investors.

An example of a financial challenge with seasonality in tourism is an idle product, with a strong offering during the summer that also has opportunity in the winter or shoulder seasons, but is sitting unused.

Given upkeep and maintenance is still required during the off-season, if a product or service isn’t being utilized outside of the summer months, the total return on investment is diminished. So, it’s important to ask yourself:

• What are the different ways I can expand peak tourism season?
• And how do I increase the usability of my products and services to maximize their return?

Global Challenges

From an operational perspective, limited access to resources and facilities, combined with a reduced labour force, is one of the main challenges with seasonality in tourism.

Typically, high labour attraction during the peak season is contrasted by unemployment in the winter and shoulder seasons, while the under utilization of resources and facilities restricts the expansion of products and services.

Meaning, if your popular attractions are closed, parks and trails aren’t maintained or your operators scale back their offerings, it becomes difficult to support the development of tourism into the off-season.

The travellers’ perception of your destination during the winter and shoulder seasons is also a common challenge. It’s important to consider:

• Is your destination thought to be enjoyable to visit during the off-season?
• What products and services are missing compared to the peak season?
• Are the main attractions open or accessible?
• And what assumptions do travellers have about your destination during the winter and shoulder seasons?

An extension of the operational challenges with seasonality is the fatigue and depletion of resources that follows the peak tourism season.

Operators and their staff are exhausted after a busy summer, which leads to a decrease in social carrying capacity – that’s to say, fewer assets are available to support tourism during the winter and shoulder seasons.

Overcrowding in communities, especially in urban areas, is also a factor to consider. Crowds and congestion at restaurants, museums, hiking trails, and boat lines can lower the quality of experiences and damage brand perceptions. Concern about environmental impact is an additional challenge of seasonality in tourism.

Causes of Seasonality

There are several reasons for seasonality in tourism, with most causes falling into one of four categories:

• the weather;
• calendar effects and timing decisions;
• interest by stakeholders; and
• awareness of destination, brand and availability of experiences.

The weather causes seasonality in tourism in a few different ways. The winter season, for example, can be less conducive to travelling in terms of safety and accessibility, while poor weather reduces the quality of experiences available to visitors in the shoulder seasons.

To that point, research shows that some international consumers have the perception that off-season weather puts a halt to travel altogether. Of course, despite the perceived limitations about travelling during the winter and shoulder seasons, for some destinations and operators, the weather actually enhances the visitor experience.

This presents an opportunity to educate consumers about the advantages of winter and shoulder season travel, while also calling attention to the products, services and experiences that extended beyond the peak season.

Calendar effects and timing decisions also determine seasonality in tourism. Consider the school year, for instance, from September to mid-June parents no longer have as much free time to travel. And by then, most consumers are back to their regular work schedules, having used all their vacation time during the peak season.

However, it is important to consider the disruption COVID-19 had in 2020. More people are working from home than ever before and students are beginning to shift to remote learning. This indicates that reliable access to technology will be a critical consideration for travellers when choosing a place visit.

So, the question becomes: how do you position your region as a destination that allows consumers to work, learn and travel at the same time?

Seasonality in tourism can also be caused when stakeholders, business owners and destinations lack the interest to develop tourism in the winter and shoulder seasons.

This can occur following a busy or unusually demanding peak season; where an exhausted labour force and depleted resources become the main challenges for destinations and operators. In some cases, there is a long-held belief that demand is limited beyond the high season so staying open is not justified. Or, tourism businesses are a second source of income for operators so they choose to close after the high season for lifestyle reasons.

Use research to your advantage if you’re looking to expand. Take the time to understand the existing and potential demand for winter and shoulder season tourism and use that to determine how and where your destination or business can fulfill a need.

The fourth cause of seasonality in tourism is the awareness of your destination as it relates to traveller perception and the availability of experiences, brands, products and services.

Once again, it’s important to consider:

• Are consumers aware of the experiences you have to offer during the winter and shoulder seasons?
• Do travellers assume your popular attractions and facilities are closed during the off-season?
• And what do visitors believe is lacking when compared to the summer season?

Four Factors Impacting your Business

There are factors that make the decision to travel in the winter and shoulder season tourism a particularly complicated one for consumers.

This includes the insecurity of decision making. When travellers don’t know what to expect from a destination during the winter and shoulder seasons, uncertainty and the inability to make a decision are the result.

Due to this insecurity, the McDonald’s effect takes place where consumers fall back on what they know best and what they’re most comfortable with. In terms of tourism, this means sticking to their usual behaviour of travelling during the peak season, rather than trying something new and potentially being disappointed with the experience.

Bragging rights play a role as well, in that consumers will visit certain destinations simply due to their popularity. This can overshadow the operators and experiences from lesser-known destinations; even though they deliver similar offerings, travellers may not be aware of what’s available, or they perceive the opposite to be true given the uncertainty surrounding tourism in off-season.

Finally, FOMO, or the fear of missing out. When considering off-season travel, consumers often worry that some products and experiences are unique to the summer months. As such, FOMO drives travellers to focus on the peak season when choosing a destination, and not the winter and shoulder seasons.

Module Three: Canada’s Challenges with Seasonality

Canada’s Challenges

To understand the ins and outs of seasonality and how Canadians travel both provincially and nationally, research was gathered from public opinion surveys conducted by TIAC in March and April of 2020. The data from these surveys is now available for download in your sidebar.

There are two things to keep in mind: the research took place as COVID-19 was emerging as a serious threat to consumers and the wellbeing of tourism. Secondly, despite the risks and limitations in place during the pandemic, there is still pent up demand for travel in Canada and around the world.

Related to that, is the fact that consumer behaviour has dramatically changed. The buyer’s journey has changed – the way consumers purchase products is changing, the way they search for products is changing and how they interact in the social and digital space is changing.

Our research also uncovered several other factors impacting seasonality in tourism:

• Accommodation in major cities hits its peak in June, July and August.
• Only 1% of Canada’s tourism-based products, services and experiences are winter-based.
• Geographic and seasonal overcrowding can have a negative impact on the experiences of visitors to Canada.
• The majority of tourism in Canada is concentrated in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec.
• And Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are the most visited cities in Canada.

Canada’s Bell Curve

Canada’s seasonality in tourism follows a typical bell curve, which is true for many of the country’s destinations and operators. As shown, the monthly average of travellers to Canada gently rises and falls in the winter and shoulder seasons, while the number of arrivals peak in the summer months.

The reasons for this were discussed in the previous module, but there is also a perception that tourism in Canada begins the Victoria Day long weekend and ends on Labour Day, or Thanksgiving depending on the weather in the fall.

This perception is held by travellers, but it is also a belief ingrained into many of our destinations and operators. Which means, aside from the environmental factors affecting seasonality in tourism, there are also operational barriers within the industry itself.

So, the goal of the Elevating Canadian Experiences program is to disrupt this bell curve and fundamentally change the way we approach winter and shoulder season tourism. This starts by altering our perceptions within the industry and developing strategic offerings that stimulate off-season travel.

Shoulder Season Factors

A 50-question survey was sent to Canadian, British, and U.S. consumers asking them to define when they considered the winter and shoulder seasons were in Canada. The results showed the shoulder season to be March, April and May, so late winter and into the spring; as well as September and October in the fall.

The survey also tells us why travellers are motivated to visit Canada, with their main reasons being that popular destinations are less crowded and there’s potential for lower-priced offerings. The survey also indicated that the profile of off-season travellers was similar to those who visit during the summer months.

Opposite of the motivating factors are the perceived barriers consumers have related to off-season travel in Canada. This includes the potential for inclimate weather and the belief that many of our products, services, attractions and operators are closed during the shoulder season.

Another barrier our research shows is that parents are less likely to travel while their children are in school, which is typically from the beginning of September until the middle of June. That said, outside of the pandemic, there’s typically an influx in tourism during the winter and shoulder seasons due to extended holidays such as March Break or Christmas.

And the most common activities for those visiting Canada are sightseeing at popular attractions; unique culinary experiences such wine and craft brewery tours; and more importantly given the pandemic and social distancing measures, access to national parks and conservation areas, including the opportunity to encounter wildlife.

The main takeaway is consumers want a full itinerary-like experience that combines everything they want to see, taste and do.

A Peak Season Destination

Canadian, American and British consumers were surveyed on where they would like to travel to for their next primary vacation. They were also asked about when they would prefer to visit a number of different destinations. This included Canada, the U.S., Spain, Mexico and France, and whether consumers wanted to visit during the peak season, shoulder season and low season.

The results clearly show Canada as being a high season destination, with nearly half of those surveyed wanting to visit during the summer months. To a lesser extent, the shoulder season is seen as a possible alternative, but the winter season is viewed as the least desirable.

Two other key insights can also be taken from this data:

1. there is an opportunity to extend the shoulder season offerings into the winter months; and
2. the development of winter tourism requires more awareness of products, services and attractions that support low season travel.

Module Four: Winter and Shoulder Season Tourism

Why Choose Canada?

Canadians, Americans and Britons were also asked about their reasons for travelling to or within Canada during the shoulder season. Participants were given several options to choose from, including having unique experiences not available during the peak season or discount prices at popular attractions, and a consistent response across all three markets was the shoulder season being less busy with fewer crowds.

The results also showed that Canadians are motivated by cheaper accommodations, while less expensive flights was the top driver for British consumers. These factors were popular among Americans as well; however, U.S. travellers expressed a wider range of reasons to visit.

Finally, an interesting highlight is 16% of Americans consider Canada’s destinations as being more welcoming during the shoulder season, while only 5% of Canadians and 7% of Britons saw this as being a benefit.

For an in-depth look at the survey results, check out the resources featured in your sidebar.

Canada’s Barriers

According to Canadian, American and British consumers, there are three main barriers to shoulder season travel in Canada. The top two responses were poor weather and popular attractions being closed, while the distant third was the inability to travel due to work and school commitments.

Weather patterns are beyond our control, but the belief that many businesses and parks close after Labour Day or Thanksgiving is a perception we can change. The reality, of course, is that some attractions do close during the months following the high season. This is why it’s important to develop a business case that presents operators and destinations with ways to increase revenue and offset the cost of idle products in order to enhance off-season tourism.

Popular Canadian Destinations

Next, we surveyed Canadian consumers asking where they would most likely visit during the winter and shoulder seasons. This included tier one destinations – such as Banff, Victoria, Toronto and Halifax – as well as several less popular locations, or tier two destinations, that aligned with our research parameters.

The results showed that marquee destinations with the highest brand awareness in the peak season are also those most likely to be visited during the winter or shoulder season.

The research also indicated that despite lacking brand awareness, many of the lesser-known destinations were seen as an attractive alternative. This includes cities like Charlottetown in P.E.I., Cape Breton in Nova Scotia and St. John in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Popular Canadian Activities

When asked what activities interested Canadian, American, and British travellers the most during the winter and shoulder season, sightseeing or touring was the most popular response. This includes itinerary-based activities, with consumers visiting different landmarks and attractions throughout the duration of their trip. A good example would be a motorcycle and bus tour.

Sampling local cuisine was another popular choice, especially among Canadians and Americans. There are such amazing culinary experiences across the country, and the research shows it as being a common driver for tourism in the winter and shoulder seasons.

This is also true for those operating outside of the food and beverage industry, as it highlights the opportunity to package your products and services with local restaurants, breweries and wineries to develop compelling itineraries for consumers.

Visiting National and Provincial Parks as well as popular conservation areas were common activities chosen by American and British consumers. Canada is home to a variety of breathtaking outdoor spaces that entice international travellers to visit during the off-season.

As an extension to that, viewing wildlife and having unique interactions with nature is particularly popular among Britons during the shoulder season. As such, developing wilderness tours and other outdoor-based activities should be considered to expand tourism into the winter and shoulder seasons.

Reflection Questions

Before moving on to the next module, please take a minute to reflect on the following questions as they relate to your destination. Consider the different opportunities, challenges, and consumer groups and how they can be leveraged to enhance your winter and shoulder season tourism.

Module Five: Strategic Planning

Seasonality Questions

This section covers the opportunities around development and enhancement of winter and shoulder season tourism, including a few ideas you can bring to stakeholders in your destinations.

The first step is to ask yourself seven key strategic questions:

1. What is the goal of the destination?
2. What are causes of seasonality related to the destination?
3. Is there stakeholder interest to enhance off-season tourism in the destination?
4. Are conditions ripe for tourism re-development or enhancement in the destination?
5. Is there consumer demand for new offers the destination can develop?
6. Will development of winter and shoulder season tourism impact the already established tourism environment?
7. What are the long-term challenges for sustaining winter and shoulder season tourism in the destination?

Please note, a third worksheet is now available along the sidebar allowing you to complete these questions with detailed answers.

Determining the goal of your destination is one of the most important questions to answer. This could be educating residents about the value of increasing tourism in their city during the off-season; dispersing tourism into more rural locations and limiting overcrowded marquee destinations; or developing new offers to enhance the visitor experience during the winter and shoulder seasons.

It’s also important to consider whether or not you can establish your region as a year-round destination. And if you aren’t able to, the goal might be to find ways to add weeks or months to the peak season instead.

The causes of seasonality were previously discussed in the presentation, but not every destination is the same across Canada.

Each region features its own unique causes for seasonality in tourism, and identifying the specific challenges in your destination helps guide you toward solutions that address those issues.

Similar to community buy-in for the development of winter and shoulder season tourism, it’s important to determine if there is broad agreement across all stakeholders and businesses.

Ask yourself, is there a consensus among tourism organizers and operators, accommodation partners, as well as tour guides and other service providers to pursue the development of off-season tourism?

If there is a misalignment across tourism stakeholders, it becomes difficult to sustain off-season tourism in the long-term. This also presents challenges to developing packaged services or itinerary-based offerings that entice consumers to visit your destination during the winter or shoulder seasons.

If a broad agreement doesn’t exist, the goal becomes finding solutions that positively impact each key stakeholder.

Another important question to consider is whether or not the conditions are ripe for the redevelopment or expansion of tourism in your area. Depending on your objectives and the needs of your destination, additional resources might be required to support the development of winter and shoulder season tourism.

This includes infrastructure and labour needs, financial support and stakeholder interest, or creating new and compelling offerings.

In relation to favourable market conditions, it’s important to define the specific needs consumers have and how your destination can fulfill them. And if their current needs are already being met, it then becomes a question of how to stimulate demand with newly developed offers.

One way is to look at similar markets with comparable offerings as your destination and identifying the key drivers for off-season travel to those regions. If their tourism operators are delivering an experience you’re not, replicating that service in your destination is one way to create new offers and stimulate demand.

However, once you’ve determined the ways to enhance your destination, it’s crucial that you take an honest assessment of whether or not you can realistically execute on those new experiences given the resources you available.

Developing winter and shoulder season tourism can impact your market in a variety of different ways. Some of which require careful consideration to prevent unfavourable results. This includes environmental issues, the impact on the communities within your destinations and potential financial constraints.

It’s also important to assess how increasing off-season tourism will impact your peak season products, services and experiences and whether your summer offerings will have to change in any way if so.

Finally, what are the potential long-term challenges to sustaining winter and shoulder season tourism in your destination?

These could be staffing or transportation related challenges, unique economic circumstances and unexpected changes in the marketplace, or destination economic and political circumstances that could include regulations or policies that impede the development of winter and shoulder tourism activities.

Six Ideas to Boost Seasonal Tourism

The following six ideas are examples of how to can boost seasonal tourism. By no means is this a complete list with a one-size-fits-all solution for every destination; these ideas are meant to inspire your thinking around winter and shoulder season development as it relates to your specific region.

The first idea is to extend your peak season. And given we know Canadian consumers are motivated by less expensive attractions and accommodations during the off-season, one way to expand the high season is to reduce prices in the months before and after the summer.

Another method is to shift popular summer attractions and events into the shoulder season or create new ones; beginning festivals earlier in May or even April, for instance, or prolonging them until later in October. With unpredictable weather in the early spring and into the fall, it’s also important to consider events such as arts and cultural festivals that can be hosted indoors.

To maximize this approach, use those attractions and events as anchors and build a complete experience for consumers. This includes developing packaged products with local businesses, restaurants and accommodation providers, or creating itineraries that feature the best of what your destination has to offer.

The third idea is to revamp your destination by changing the image, facilities and markets to attract new audiences.

Often, the marketing materials used to promote winter and shoulder season tourism feature bright, sunny skies and picturesque landscapes. But the reality is the off-season is typically muddy and overcast or cold and slushy. Rather than painting a false picture of your destination, it’s important to align your image with the realities of the off-season.

An excellent example of this is Tofino in British Columbia. The region is famous for its unruly winter storms; instead of competing with the weather, tourism operators have embraced Mother Nature and encourage travellers to visit the city to witness the storms firsthand. Local accommodations partners, restaurants and service providers banded together to create unique ‘winter storm watching’ packages, and seasonal tourism in the region has benefited as a result.

Along the same lines as revamping your destination is rebranding it as unique or prestigious to appeal to travellers who want to experience something new and different. Try to create a sense of urgency around your winter and shoulder season offerings, and use FOMO to your advantage by positioning your region’s attractions as being exclusive or rare.

A good example is viewing icebergs along the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, with the best time being the spring and into the early summer. Given this experience is only available during the shoulder season, it can be leveraged by tourism operators and marketed as a unique or prestigious offer.

Another idea to boost seasonal tourism is to develop a second peak season, especially if your destination has shown success with extending the main season into the fall or spring months. By packaging off-season experiences together – including accommodations, festivals, limited-time sights like fall colours and seasonal cuisine – you can start to build a strong shoulder season.

If your destination can’t support a second peak season in the fall or spring, are there ways to develop the robust winter season to compliment the summer months or vice-versa?

Finally, can you add non-conventional attractions that tourists rarely see or experience in other destinations across Canada?

Matching Consumer Needs

There are specific drivers to the development of winter and shoulder season tourism, and a sound strategy matches consumer needs to the destination’s products and services. There are five main factors to consider:

1. Pricing & Packaging
2. Diversifying Destination & Product
3. Market Diversification
4. Destination Facilitation
5. Structural and Environmental

The first driver is pricing and packaging, with strategies such as discounted or packaged pricing during the off-season and creating itineraries around special occasions. The second strategy is to diversify your destination’s products and attractions to offer consumers multiple experiences during their visit. This also includes developing niche products, events and packages to round out your offerings.

In relation to market diversification, there is opportunity to enhance winter and shoulder season tourism by attracting new markets to your destination based on geographics or the specialized interests of different consumer segments.

Destination facilitation refers to the marketing campaigns you have in place to promote your destination during the off-season. Remember, aligning the realities of the winter and shoulder season with your positioning and offerings is vital in developing an authentic experience for travellers.

Lastly, structural and environmental enhancements are another driver of seasonal tourism. This includes building or upgrading conference centres and outdoor recreational venues or improving winter road maintenance and other public services to facilitate visitation.

Module Six: Case Studies and Key Takeaways

Case Studies: Lapland, Finland

To provide you with best practices, we identified two international destinations that have successfully enhanced their off-season tourism. During the research, one commonality among these destinations was the complete buy-in from local government and stakeholders, tourism operators and the residents of the communities. This speaks to the importance of taking an industry-wide approach to successfully develop winter and shoulder season experiences.

The first destination highlighted is Lapland, Finland. If you ask the average Canadian where Santa lives, the typical response is Canada’s North Pole – Canada Post has even created a mailing address for the location. However, most international consumers will tell you that Santa lives in northern Finland in Lapland.

Traditionally, Lapland was known as a summer destination for Finnish travellers seeking amazing outdoor experiences. But the region was abundant with assets and ripe for expansion into the winter and shoulder season, so tourism operators developed a long-term strategy to create a second peak season.

For a number of years, the local government, Indigenous groups, airlines, accommodations, tour operators and attractions worked together to promote Lapland as being the home of Santa Claus.

Unique winter experiences were created around the theme and packaged together as Itineraries to allow consumers to plan their trips more efficiently. Among others, this included activities such as visiting Santa’s Village, dog sledding through a winter wonderland, amazing cross-country skiing, apres ski events and the opportunity to see the beautiful Northern Lights.

Aside from the awesome experiences, one of the key elements to Lapland’s success was its partnership with Finnair. Given its geographical location, the airline considers itself the faster route from Europe to Asia, and since Finnair also pairs up with Japan Airlines, Lapland was able to attract the attention of Japanese tourists.

Once the Asian market was established, Russia, Germany and the U.K. quickly followed suit, which effectively created a strong second peak season in Lapland.

Case Studies: Iceland

Canadian travellers have often viewed Iceland is a popular destination given there are several direct flights available at very reasonable rates. Not only that, but due to the cheaper prices, Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, is great way to enter Europe from Canada.

As such, Iceland’s summer season became so popular in Reykjavik that was overcrowded to the point of capacity. Accommodations were completely booked, vehicle rentals were sold out, restaurants were full and businesses were inundated with consumers. Without the ability to accept additional travellers to Reykjavik during the peak season, Iceland needed to disperse tourists into other areas of the country and grow out their winter and shoulder season to flatten that bell curve.

While this is an ongoing strategy, tourism operators in Iceland have taken a similar approach to Finnish Lapland and collaborated with accommodation providers, airline services and attractions to help level out inbound arrivals to the country’s destinations. Once again, it was an industry-wide approach to diversify Iceland’s tourism into the off-season, while compelling offerings and packages were developed to entice consumers to visit areas outside of Reykjavik.

Key Takeaways: Challenges

As previously discussed, based on our research and the feedback from past workshop participants, we’ve identified the most common challenges or causes for seasonality in tourism. This includes factors such as:

• Unpredictable or poor weather during the winter and shoulder season
• Availability of staff and labour for attractions and businesses
• Limited resources to new products and experiences
• Authentic marketing messages and brand awareness
• Accessibility, transportation and infrastructure
• Developing partnerships, networks and collaborative strategies

Another key challenge that was identified was the need for entrepreneurial support. In order to develop new products and experiences, it’s important to create an environment that meets the needs of entrepreneurs and fosters the growth of new business opportunities.

Key Takeaways: Opportunities & Actions

Based on our research, and along with the feedback from the ECE workshops, five main categories of opportunities and actions were identified to develop Canada’s winter and shoulder season tourism.

The first opportunity is to clearly define your strategy. First, start by outlining the goals and priorities of your destination, and then highlight its unique advantages, and establish collaborative partnerships to help you achieve those objectives. It’s also important to understand the visitation trends in your area in order to find ways to link traveller needs to your marketing messages and offerings.

Product and experience development speaks to the opportunity that comes from creating new attractions and services for your destination. This involves assessing your current offerings in the winter and shoulder season and matching them to different consumer groups – both domestically and internationally. Finally, identify the interests of these travellers and develop new products accordingly, while creating packaged itineraries to enhance the visitor experience.

The third opportunity, and arguably one of the most important, is customer service. Evaluate the service standards of your destination and ensure the quality of your offerings meet the expectations of consumers. Beyond that, it’s also important to develop a customer service strategy that allows tourism operators and businesses to proactivity address potential barriers and concerns.

There are many opportunities available and actions to take to market your destination as a winter and shoulder season hotspot. They include:

• offering seasonal pricing;
• developing seasonal content;
• creating authentic and compelling messaging; and
• tailoring the image of your destination or brand to reflect true off-season experiences.

Once your winter and shoulder season marketing plan is in place, it’s important to unify your communications strategy across all interested stakeholders, businesses and tourism operators. Doing so prevents a disconnect between what consumers expect from your destination and what they actually experience.

The final opportunity revolves around the leadership destinations, attractions and tourism operators have to develop their seasonal tourism. This means having a clear vision and action plan in place, while collaborating and sharing resources with a network of partners to create and promote new offerings. It’s also critical to provide relevant operator training and to support the evolving needs of the small-to-medium businesses and entrepreneurs in your area.

Thank You

That concludes the Elevating Canadian Experiences winter and shoulder season webinar.

For an in-depth look at how to enhance seasonal tourism in Canada, don’t forget to download the National Toolkit, the survey resources and the case study examples. And before you sign off, be sure to save your worksheets and refer back to them when building out your strategy.

Thank you for your participation.

Welcome to Multisensory Experience Development, an Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar. The goal of the webinar is to arm you with the information and tactics needed to grow agritourism within your destinations. This includes developing the ability to:

• differentiate between culinary tourism and other forms of tourism, while identifying examples of culinary experiences relevant to your region;
• describe the breadth and diversity of businesses involved in culinary tourism through deconstructing the culinary tourism value chain; and
• explain to tourism operators and stakeholders why culinary tourism is a vital component in servicing the needs of travellers.

The webinar also teaches you how to:

• expand the connection between experiential tourism and culinary tourism;
• distinguish between tourism experiences and tourism products and explain how the former supports the latter;
• recognize opportunities to develop new culinary tourism experiences – or enhance existing experiences – through food & drink;
• identify changes and improvements needed to meet multisensory experience standards; and how to
• leverage a multisensory experience development plan.

Welcome to Multisensory Experience Development, an Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar.

Agenda

Before moving on in the webinar, please note the sidebar along your screen where downloadable worksheets, resources, and case studies will appear throughout the presentation.

At this time, it’s important to acknowledge the extraordinary value that Indigenous peoples across Canada bring to the tourism industry. The land and traditional territories of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit provide unique culinary offerings that enhance the experiences for visitors to destinations all over the country.

Through the combined efforts of several organizations, including the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada and Indigenous Culinary of Associated Nations, Indigenous culinary has grown into a popular driver for the development of agritourism in Canada.

Elevating Canadian Experiences

The tourism sector is a key contributor to Canada’s economy, and there is opportunity to maximize its potential by showcasing our culinary excellence to tourists, both domestic and international, and expanding products and experiences into the shoulder and winter seasons.

Funded by the Government of Canada, the Elevating Canadian Experiences program offers tailored content to help destination marketing organizations and businesses develop strategies to boost culinary tourism as well as winter and shoulder season tourism across the country.

The ECE program is a team effort, in which deep research and shared knowledge are brought together to ensure tourism continues to thrive as an economic pillar in Canada.

Webinar Learning Outcomes

The goal of the webinar is to arm you with the information and tactics needed to grow agritourism within your destinations. This includes developing the ability to:

• differentiate between culinary tourism and other forms of tourism, while identifying examples of culinary experiences relevant to your region;
• describe the breadth and diversity of businesses involved in culinary tourism through deconstructing the culinary tourism value chain; and
• explain to tourism operators and stakeholders why culinary tourism is a vital component in servicing the needs of travellers.

The webinar also teaches you how to:

• expand the connection between experiential tourism and culinary tourism;
• distinguish between tourism experiences and tourism products and explain how the former supports the latter;
• recognize opportunities to develop new culinary tourism experiences – or enhance existing experiences – through food & drink;
• identify changes and improvements needed to meet multisensory experience standards; and how to
• leverage a multisensory experience development plan.

Module One: An Introduction to Culinary Tourism

Before attempting to grow agritourism in your destination, it’s important to understand the gap between the food & drink and tourism industries. By doing so, you’re able to identify ways to bridge that gap, which opens the door to developing compelling culinary experiences that drive tourism in Canada.

Bridging the Gap Between Food & Drink and Tourism

Although many restaurants don’t consider themselves as tourism businesses, it’s critical that those serving food and drink are open and ready to meet the needs of visitors to your destinations. Similarly, not all tourism businesses harness the value that the local culinary community adds to a destination’s product and service offerings.

The result is tourism attractions, such as museums, often sell food that has nothing to do with the place in which they operate.

This situation is not unique to Canada; in fact, destinations all around the world are continuing to serve the food that they think visitors want. However, our research shows there is consumer demand for higher quality culinary experiences that reflect the destination they’re visiting.

So, what does it mean to bring these two industries together through culinary tourism development?

In short, it means offering more meaningful and multisensory experiences that reflect your destinations. It also means stimulating visitor demand and localizing the economic impact on your tourism operators, businesses, and attractions.

And considering the current realities facing the two industries, a shift towards a culinary tourism model will also help build both resiliency and sustainability into Canadian tourism – especially in the post-pandemic era.

Now that we’ve identified the gap between the tourism industries, let’s define exactly what culinary tourism is. It’s considered “any tourism experience where a person interacts with food and drink that reflects the history, heritage, and culture of a place.”

Food tourism, and gastronomy tourism are other labels for culinary tourism, with one term being used over another depending on the destination; for example, gastronomy tourism is more often used in Europe.

The important thing to remember is that culinary tourism is focused on the meaningful connection between food and place.

There are countless activities and experiences associated with culinary tourism. A few examples are:

• apple picking at a local farm or orchard;
• making maple taffy while on a winter hike; or
• having a local and seasonal goods picnic at a remote location or conservation area.

It’s important to understand the diverse experiences associated with culinary tourism, because it shows that not all tourism experiences stand alone from food and beverage. In fact, there is often overlap, which must be consider when trying to attract culinary tourists to your destinations.

To explain, think about how rural tourism is enhanced when you combine it with a culinary-related experience, such as touring a wine region in an RV – with a designated driver, of course.

Or consider how outdoor adventures are complemented by culinary tourism, like a guided fishing trip ending with a shore lunch prepared by a local chef using seasonal ingredients from the region’s food producers.

Culinary Tourism Value Chain

Food & drink products and experiences are used by a variety of tourism businesses to capitalize on the growing popularity of culinary tourism. This led to the development of the culinary tourism value chain, which was designed to increase the competitive advantage of your destinations and their operators.

Given the limited capacity of a single service provider or attraction, businesses band together through collaboration in order to deliver combined value to consumers. This allows individual operators to remain focused on what they do best while benefiting from the increased efficiency and effectiveness of working as a collective.

Visitor experiences are also enriched with each layer of value they receive when exploring a destination. This presents the opportunity for your destinations’ culinary communities to form strategic partnerships with businesses and deliver multisensory experiences that exceed the expectations of visitors.

Any business that includes a taste of place or culinary experience as part of their offerings are featured in the value chain, such as:

• accommodations;
• attractions;
• beverage producers;
• cooking schools;
• farmers’ and public markets;
• festivals & events;
• growers, producers, and suppliers;
• foodservice operators;
• retailers; and
• tour operators.

Who are Culinary Tourists?

When talking about the culinary tourist, there is a common stereotype about what type of person that is. Many of us picture someone at a fancy restaurant, taking Instagram photos, and writing about culinary experiences on their food blog.

Although this person is very much a culinary tourist, they are only one part of much larger market segment. In fact, culinary tourists are a very diverse group who are motivated by experiential travel and want authentic connections with the destinations they visit.

In other words, culinary tourists are “visitors who plan their trips partially or totally in order to taste the cuisine of a place.” They are both consumers looking for exclusive meals at high-end restaurants as well as those craving street food from markets stalls, while some culinary tourists are agritourists looking to connect to where their food comes from.

Culinary experiences have become a popular motivator for travel, but they are also discovered in more spontaneous ways by consumers during their trips. So, it’s important to remember that almost everyone is considered a culinary tourist, whether they identify themselves as one or not.

In the end, everybody has to eat. If you think beyond the stereotypical foodie as a culinary tourist, there is tremendous potential to attract new travellers to your destinations.

The Future of Culinary Tourism

Prior to COVID-19, experiential travel was on the rise. And when the tourism industry finally rebounds from the pandemic, research suggests the trend will continue to rise in popularity.

We know there is pent-up demand for travel and consumers are seeking human connection more so than ever. Culinary tourism offers hands-on, multisensory experiences with local businesses and attractions and allows visitors to connect with your destinations in a more meaningful way.

Also, as we’ve seen in the past, and especially through the pandemic, consumers are increasingly more aware of their local food system. And travellers are no different, wanting to know where their food comes from when visiting a Canadian destination.

Culinary tourists are especially eager for hands-on experiences that allow them to interact with the people and stories of the places they visit. For them, it’s a way to get to know the destination better.

The pandemic has also shown that driving trips will be prioritized over flying, specifically with culinary tourism in mind. As such, there’s an opportunity to target Canadian travellers who wouldn’t normally travel within the country but are now looking at places closer to home.

This also indicates a shift to a more safety-conscious decision-making process about where, when, why, and how consumers travel for pleasure. Knowing this, businesses must develop communication strategies to educate travellers about how they are kept safe when visiting your destinations.

Aside from that, outdoor activities and attractions with fewer crowds are bound to be favoured in a post-COVID environment. It’s important to keep this factor in mind when developing culinary tourism experiences in your region.

Module Two: What are Multisensory Experiences?

Before learning about how to develop multisensory experiences, first let’s expand upon what tourism experiences are. This includes defining:

• tourism products;
• tourism experiences;
• and the nine different components that make up multisensory experiences.

Tourism Product

First, what is a tourism product as it relates to multisensory experiences?

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, a tourism product is a combination of tangible and intangible elements contributing to a destination’s marketing mix. Food and drink or structures and facilities are examples of tangible features; while intangible components are considered elements like cultural practices, natural and human-made resources, and activities of specific interest to consumers.

Tourism products are an emotional driver for potential travellers as they add value to the overall visitor experience, especially when packaged together with additional offerings. That in mind, packaged products are often promoted by Destination Marketing Organizations, with local businesses and attractions benefiting from the shared marketing efforts.

A great example of a tourism product that combines intangible and tangible elements with cultural practices and outdoor experiences is The Edible Country offered by Visit Sweden.

The product boasts 100 million acres of fine do-it-yourself dining with a total of 23 tables across different parts of the country. Each table is bookable through an online platform and the menus vary depending on the types of foods available, landscape, cultural ties, and the people visitors interact with.

What’s important to take away from this example is the added value of the packaged products and experiences. Consumers are given the opportunity to explore nature, learn about the history and landscape of the region, and connect with the people who make up the personality of the community; all while enjoying a unique and memorable culinary experience.

Tourism Experience

In relation to this webinar, a tourism experience is defined as an activity offered to visitors by a business or tourism operator within a destination. These activities provide entertainment and the opportunity to learn, while the place or platform a tourist visits contributes to the overall experience as well.

Tourism experiences are often developed and operated by the local businesses in a region, with many banding together strategically to deliver more compelling offerings. As such, it’s common for multiple tourism experiences to make up a single tourism product, which in turn, helps define the destination and what it has to offer potential visitors.

If we refer back to The Edible Country example, the individual tables, foraging expeditions, and cooking sessions are the tourism experiences that make up the product.

It’s also important to note, tourism experiences have a price, they are sold through various distribution channels, and most have a life-cycle; experiences affected by seasonality, for instance.

To further explain tourism experience, consider a sugar shack tour with tastings accompanied by other local goods such as cheese, craft beer, and wine.

Sucrerie de la Montagne offers such an experience, giving guests the opportunity to learn about the traditions of maple syrup making, while getting the chance to taste the sugary treat along with other products that highlight Québec’s culinary traditions. This experience is labelled as one of Canada’s Signature Experiences, and is only available from February to April.

When it comes to developing multisensory experiences, a broad approach must be taken in terms of design, marketing, and event planning. These experiences involve engaging and stimulating the 5 senses to build a fuller awareness of the surroundings and create a more memorable experience of a product, an event, or the environment.

In the context of tourism, this means integrating sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste into the experiences that make your region special.

The default for most destinations are culinary tourism offerings, as they are incredibly well positioned to deliver multisensory experiences – the simple act of eating involves smell, sight, touch, and of course, taste. However, there’s also opportunity to integrate senses into experiences not typically thought of as being multisensory.

To explain, let’s look at one model of how this is done in museum interpretation and tourism.

Components of Multisensory Experience

In regards to transformational learning and museum interpretation, the head, heart, and hands model is utilized when planning and offering transformative experiences, such as learning.

However, when discussing this in the context of site interpretation, it is even more important to understand the role of “head, heart, hands, stomach” for planning and delivering multisensory experiences.

In this museum interpretation model, the head signifies providing stimulation for the mind.

Next, the model indicates the need to provide opportunity for critical reflection and connecting with emotions, which is represented by the heart.

Next is providing consumers with the opportunity to actively engage or participate in an experience. This is represented by the hands.

In the context of a visitor experience, it is also important to provide satisfaction to needs such as hunger, and so the stomach is added to this model.

Multisensory experiences are more than just getting guests to think by sending them a clever text or email; they’re more than just offering a taste with free samples, or giving visitors the option to try something with their hands.

What makes an experience multisensory is including several different elements that are related to the head, heart, hands, and stomach. Each sense informs the other leading to a more rounded visitors experience.

Consider this example:

If Jorge and Susan visit a cheese shop that only allows customers to look at the different cheeses through a glass display case, the opportunity for a true multisensory experience is lost. However, if they’re given the chance to interact with the food in a way that stimulates or directly demonstrates the cheese making process, the layered experience offers more value and is more memorable.

In the latter scenario, not only do Jorge and Susan see, touch, and taste the ingredients, but they also hear and learn about the process from a guide or instructor. Again, by layering the senses, consumers are provided with a unique tourism experience.

Module Three: Best Practices

Case Study: The Art of Whiskey Making, Ballindalloch Distillery

New, let’s take a look at a case study that highlights a few best practices to developing multisensory experiences. Ballindahlloch Distillery in Speyside, Scotland, is a small family owned distillery specializing in the art of whisky making – they offer a number of experiences, from in-house and virtual whisky tastings to private events and tours, that include multisensory elements.

”The Art of Whisky Making” at Ballindalloch Distillery is a full-day experience where visitors are given the opportunity to learn about the process of making whiskey. The distillery is built in an old farmstead connected to the Ballindalloch castle estate, which dates back to the 1500s. This provides guests with the chance to explore part of the region’s history along with the hands-on experience of distilling whisky.

The distillery is owned by a fairly young family, calling themselves “unconventional whisky experts” who prefer to use a manual process of production. Through multisensory experiences, the family is able to draw their connection to craftsmanship, heritage, and location to communicate a stand-out product.

The Art of Whisky Making experience begins at 8am and ends at 4pm, and throughout the visit, guests have the opportunity to work with Ballindalloch distillers Colin, Ian, and Davey. The experience teaches everything from milling to warehousing, while also offering visitors a culturally inspired lunch. The cost to participate is 175 pounds, or approximately $300 Canadian.

An immersive, multisensory experience gets people talking, and Ballindalloch is just one of several learn-from-the-maker offerings from a distillery. For those operating within the market of beverage making and consumption, this is a good example of best practices to consider when developing your own multisensory offerings.

To learn more about Ballindalloch Distillery, explore their website through the external link now available in the sidebar.

Seizing the Opportunity

We’ll now highlight two tourism activities which could be expanded upon to deliver a fuller multisensory experience. After each example, you will be prompted to identify ways to make the offers more multisensory; remember, opportunity exists when one or more of the senses are missing. Record your ideas in the worksheet now available for download in the sidebar.

The first scenario is a typical visit to a local history museum. Guests are welcomed at the front desk, provided with a map, and invited to watch the screening of a short film about the history of the area. Before the movie starts, the room is silent and the lights are on. Once the movie beings, the lights dim and audience members are encouraged to sit back and relax in the fold out chairs provided.

During the rest of the tour, visitors view displays with written descriptions sharing the relevant information. Some displays also incorporate tactile elements, giving guests the chance to touch and feel what tools and materials used by previous generations felt like.

At the end of the visit, guests exit through a gift shop where they are able to purchase souvenirs as well as some local honey and jams.

Take some time to reflect on how this experience could be enhanced.

In this particular example:

• Is there an opportunity to incorporate the sense of sound?
• Can the experience be enhanced with the sense of taste?
• Where in the tour do you think it’s appropriate to add these senses?

In scenario two, let’s consider how an afternoon hiking and kayaking excursion can be made multisensory.

Guests enter the shop surrounded by blackberry bushes along the banks of the river. They are greeted with smiles, one member of the group is asked to go over some paperwork, while the others wait next to her and look around the store. Afterwards, the group is shown where their equipment is and introduced to the guide who is waiting for the whole group.

While the guests wait 10 minutes for the rest of the group to arrive, the guide chats about who he is and how long he has been paddling for. Once the whole group is together, the guide explains the safety measures and techniques of how use the equipment, including the way to properly hold a paddle and fit a PFD.

Guests are then provided with a pack filled with granola bars, water, and an apple to be enjoyed at the rest stop before the short hike. After watching the instructions, putting on their gear and receiving their snack packs, the group heads off toward the water.

Again, reflect on how this experience could be enhanced.

In this example:

• Is there an opportunity to incorporate the sense of touch?
• Can the experience be enhanced with the sense of taste?
• Where in the tour do you think it’s appropriate to add these senses?

Case Study: Genesee Valley Country Village and Museum

It’s important to remember that multisensory experiences bridge the gap between consumers and the destination and its culture and history. Before moving onto the next module, please watch the 4-minute video linked now in your sidebar.

The video explains how these gaps are bridged through multisensory participation at the Genesee Valley Country Village and Museum in New York State. Pay particular attention to the role of food in the interpretation of the site and visitor experience.

Module Four: Multisensory Experience Standards

Core Standards

When developing a multisensory experience, it’s vital to include the four points seen here. Ask yourself, does the experience:

• Incorporate activities, products, and stories that are unique to the destination and environment?
• Highlight the unique aspects of the business and connect to its goals and purpose?
• Surprise visitors by exceeding their expectations?
• Create a multisensory awareness of the product and destination?

As discussed, an elevated experience stimulates multiple senses and features unique activities visitors can only get in your destination. These types of experiences provide value at a higher spend and inspire travellers to do more, see more, taste more, and visit more.

Again, by engaging the senses of consumers, you bring more awareness to how they interact with the uniqueness of your destination, whether it’s by touch, sound, smell, taste, or a combination of these elements.

Setting Goals for Your Experience

To help guide yourself to developing multisensory experiences, think about the following:

• What is it that makes your business stand out to travellers?
• What are the unique aspects that you offer?
• What can someone get at your business that they can’t get elsewhere?
• Is it a specific product or superb customer service?

After clearly defining what makes your business and offer unique, it’s time to decide how you’re going to meet visitor needs and grow your business?

Is there a way your business can engage the senses to fulfill traveller needs?

A great way to uncover the answers to these questions is to consult with DMO’s targeting similar markets as your business. Their insight offers you a window into what tourists are looking for when it comes to destinations similar to the one you operate in.

Armed with this information, you’re able to strategically develop multisensory experiences.

Finally, what can be leveraged to create a well-rounded multisensory experience of the environment, history, people, and unique aspects of your tourism experience?

Based on visitor needs and the offer you create to meet those needs, what are the elements or touch-points that will engage the five senses across all aspects of your experience?

This includes the moment a potential guest learns about your experience, when they leave your experience, and hopefully, when they remember it upon their return home.

‘Secret Sauce’ Attributes

Up next we’re going to answer the aforementioned questions more directly and discuss bringing together the secret sauce elements of multisensory experiences. This includes the enablers for successful development, such as:

• collaborations;
• hands-on experiences;
• learning components;
• personal connection; and
• tastes.

As covered earlier in the presentation, we know that multisensory means multiple senses, but there are other important elements that come into play as well.

Partnerships and collaborations are key elements in creating unique experiences with multiple sense or assets of your destination, while also connecting visitors to a wider range of things to do when exploring the town, region, or province.

Beyond that, think about the collection of attributes shown here as the secret sauce to unforgettable multisensory experiences. Are they:

• Immersive?
• Active?
• Meaningful?
• And engaging?

Now, let’s break these elements down one-by-one by exploring a few examples.

An immersive experience brings a visitor directly into a process or cultural practice – physically, mentally, and sometimes even emotionally. An example of this type of experience is shadowing a producer, chef, or business owner to learn about what they do and how they do it.

Codsounds in Newfoundland specializes in foraging tours and food experiences. Their Wild Game Cookery, Fur and Feathers, is an outdoor workshop. Participants are immersed in field dressing, cleaning (skinning & plucking), de-boning and, of course, cooking wild game.

In this instance, not only do guests leave with a memorable experience in a unique setting, but they also leave with the new skills and knowledge they gained along the way.

Active components are extremely important to creating multisensory experiences. Consider the active component as hands-on activities where visitors directly observe and participate in the experience. Culinary tourism is almost always active and experiential, because when visitors taste a beverage or eat a food product they are participating in an activity.

An example would be a kitchen party dinner at the Acadian Peninsula with lobster, music, and stories shared by locals and business owners alike.

When we think back to a meaningful experience, we connect to the emotions and memories gained by participating in something special. Maybe it’s the intimacy of the setting, the rich stories shared, or the people, places and process of the experience.

An example of a meaningful experience is an intimate tea ceremony while travelling abroad to Kyoto, Japan. The Kimono tea ceremony gives visitors the opportunity to learn about the culture and history of the ritual while directly participating in its traditional elements such as wearing a kimono.

Essentially, an engaging experience captures attention, retains it, and creates memories through enjoyable and valuable content and/or activities.

These types of experiences encourage participants to engage mentally, physically, and emotionally with a tourism opportunity. An example is learning about a particular group’s history and then reflecting on your own experience and previous knowledge of that group.

Consider the Han Wi Moon Dinner at Wanuskewin Heritage Park in Saskatoon. Guests are given the opportunity to:

• walk the historic site;
• learn about its cultural significance and Indigenous history;
• enjoy a dinner made from foraged and locally produced foods; and
• listen to stories told by a Star Storyteller under the prairie sunset.

Module Five: Activating a Multisensory Experience

7 Steps

When activating multisensory experiences, follow these 7 steps:

1. inventory and assess existing tourism experiences;
2. identify opportunities for new experience or ways to enhance existing ones;
3. develop a concept;
4. conduct market research;
5. design and develop the new experience;
6. test the new or enhanced experience; and
7. market the experiences.

It’s important to note, these steps do not need to happen in a strict chronological order; you can explore multiple points at the same time.

Next, we’ll explore each of these steps along with a few related key questions.

Step number one is inventorying and assessing your existing tourism experiences. During this phase, ask yourself:

• What is your offer or service?
• Who are your visitor and what audiences are you trying to attract?
• What are businesses around you or in similar destinations offering?

When assessing your existing tourism experiences, consider the personality of your business and how each of your offerings stimulate the senses. Remember, each experience must be immersive, meaningful, active, and engaging.

Step two involves identifying opportunities to develop a new experience or enhance an existing one. The important questions to explore include:

• Are your existing experiences multisensory?
• Can you enhance them with sensorial components?
• What new experience can you create?
• And can you partner with neighbouring businesses or experience providers?

The third step is to design an idea or develop a concept by answering the following questions:

• What is your idea?
• Is it developing a new experience or enhancing an existing one?
• What resources are available in your area both regionally and provincially?
• Who are the potential partners, including sourcing, delivery, marketing, and promotional?

Knowing and understanding the market and competition is the important fourth step. This is a more intensive step, but thorough market research not only helps you better understand your target markets, it also identifies and highlights the uniqueness of your experience in relation to the other offerings available.

This includes learning more about similar experiences, your competitors, and best practices in destinations similar to yours. Market research also involves learning more about your current customers as well as other relevant consumer segments.

Questions to consider are:

• Who are your core consumers?
• What are the needs of these travellers?
• How does your idea respond to those needs?
• And how is your experience different to others in your area or similar destinations?

When conducting market research, explore at least three similar experiences from destinations within Canada or around the world.

• What can you learn from these experiences and destinations?
• How much are competitors charging for their experiences?
• How much will delivering your new experiences cost you?
• What price is justifiable in your marketplace?
• What are the sustainability costs and mitigations from the experience?

Most provincial destination marketing organizations have a resource like Tourism Saskatchewan’s Market Segment profiles or Destination Canada’s Explorer Quotient profiles. That said, we encourage you to connect with your provincial marketing organization to find out how they segment their markets.

To learn about Tourism Saskatchewan’s Market Segments and Destination Canada’s Explorer profiles, please see external links now available in the sidebar.

After researching the market, visitor needs, opportunities and resources, the next step is to design and develop the experience. This includes a range of activities such as business modeling, pricing structure, schedule, logistics, training, and so on.

During the process, it’s also important to identify interesting stories to tell and opportunities to collaborate with or celebrate neighbouring businesses. Some questions to guide the process include:

• What are the main activities of the experience?
• What are the specific sensorial components? This includes taste, sight, smell, touch, and hearing; as well as the head, hand, heart, and stomach.
• What are the storytelling moments in the experience? This could be your personal story, a story about your business, or a story about the region you operate in.
• When can you highlight other businesses in the region?
• Based on the market research and your operational costs, how much can you charge for the experience?
• What resources or capacities do you need? For example, personal equipment or financial support.

It’s important to note, marketing is a key element to all these questions and should be factored into your answers.

Once you’ve planned the flow of the experience, prepared the personnel, and assembled the required resources, it’s time to begin testing. This process involves giving friends and family the opportunity to try the experience and piloting it with visitors who are aware the experience is in its infancy and being tested.

What’s most important during this step is collecting the feedback and identifying areas to be improved. To do so, consider the following questions:

• How does the experience work upon delivery?
• What is working well?
• Are the sensorial or wow moments what you expected?
• What needs to change?
• Where is visitor engagement low and where can it be increased?

Marketing your experience involves identifying the channels where potential visitors are looking for information and being present in those spaces. It also includes creating and updating content, having staff who champion your business, and turning your visitors into ambassadors of your brand through unique, memorable experiences.

Aligning with collective marketing platforms in your area, such as DMOs and PMOs, is also key to tap into the overall image of your destination, while exposing your experience to consumers at the national and international levels.

A few questions to guide your thinking include:

• Where do your target markets seek information?
• Are your website and social platforms updated with information about your new experience?
• If applicable, is it easy to book the experience online?
• What can promotional partners share?
• Are there any collective marketing programs for your destination?

For more on this, please refer to the Attracting Culinary Tourists webinar following this presentation. A link to the webinar is now available in your sidebar.

Thank You

Thank you for your participation. Be sure to check out other culinary tourism webinars offered in the Elevating Canadian Experiences content hub.

For more information, or if you have any questions, please visit culinarytourismalliance.com.

Welcome to Growing Agritourism, an Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar. The goal of the webinar is to arm you with the information and tactics needed to grow agritourism within your destinations. This includes developing the ability to:

• differentiate between culinary tourism and other forms of tourism, while identifying examples of culinary experiences relevant to your region;
• describe the breadth and diversity of businesses involved in culinary tourism through deconstructing the culinary tourism value chain; and
• explain to tourism operators and stakeholders why culinary tourism is a vital component in servicing the needs of travellers.

The webinar will also teach you how to:

• connect agritourism to culinary tourism, explaining why the former concept has not been universally defined;
• characterize the agritourist and generalize the types of activities associated with agritourism;
• defend the use of agritourism as an economic diversification strategy for rural agricultural communities; and
• understand the challenges and opportunities relating to the development of agritourism experiences.

Welcome to Growing Agritourism, an Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar.

Agenda

Before moving on in the module, please note the sidebar along your screen where links to external references and other resources will appear throughout the presentation.

At this time, it’s important to acknowledge the extraordinary value that Indigenous peoples across Canada bring to the tourism industry. The land and traditional territories of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit provide unique culinary offerings that enhance the experiences for visitors to destinations all over the country.

Through the combined efforts of several organizations, including the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada, Indigenous Culinary of Associated Nations, and Indigenous Tourism Ontario, Indigenous culinary has grown into a popular driver for the development of agritourism in Canada.

Elevating Canadian Experiences

The tourism sector is a key contributor to Canada’s economy, and there is opportunity to maximize its potential by showcasing our culinary excellence to tourists, both domestic and international, and expanding products and experiences into the shoulder and winter seasons.

Funded by the Government of Canada, the Elevating Canadian Experiences program offers tailored content to help destination marketing organizations and businesses develop strategies to boost culinary tourism as well as winter and shoulder season tourism across the country.

The ECE program is a team effort, in which deep research and shared knowledge are brought together to ensure tourism continues to thrive as an economic pillar in Canada.

Webinar Learning Outcomes

The goal of the webinar is to arm you with the information and tactics needed to grow agritourism within your destinations. This includes developing the ability to:

• differentiate between culinary tourism and other forms of tourism, while identifying examples of culinary experiences relevant to your region;
• describe the breadth and diversity of businesses involved in culinary tourism through deconstructing the culinary tourism value chain; and
• explain to tourism operators and stakeholders why culinary tourism is a vital component in servicing the needs of travellers.

The webinar will also teach you how to:

• connect agritourism to culinary tourism, explaining why the former concept has not been universally defined;
• characterize the agritourist and generalize the types of activities associated with agritourism;
• defend the use of agritourism as an economic diversification strategy for rural agricultural communities; and
• understand the challenges and opportunities relating to the development of agritourism experiences.

Module One: An Introduction to Culinary Tourism

Intro to Culinary Tourism

Before attempting to grow agritourism in your destination, it’s important to understand the gap between the food & drink and tourism industries. By doing so, you’re able to identify ways to bridge that gap, which opens the door to developing compelling culinary experiences that drive tourism in Canada.

Bridging the Gap Between Food & Drink and Tourism

Although many restaurants don’t consider themselves as tourism businesses, it’s critical that those serving food and drink are open and ready to meet the needs of visitors to your destinations. Similarly, not all tourism businesses harness the value that the local culinary community adds to a destination’s product and service offerings.

The result is tourism attractions, such as museums, often sell food that has nothing to do with the place in which they operate.

This situation is not unique to Canada; in fact, destinations all around the world are continuing to serve the food that they think visitors want. However, our research shows there is consumer demand for higher quality culinary experiences that reflect the destination they’re visiting.

So, what does it mean to bring these two industries together through culinary tourism development?

In short, it means offering more meaningful and multisensory experiences that reflect your destinations. It also means stimulating visitor demand and localizing the economic impact on your tourism operators, businesses, and attractions.

And considering the current realities facing the two industries, a shift towards a culinary tourism model will also help build both resiliency and sustainability into Canadian tourism – especially in the post-pandemic era.

Now that we’ve identified the gap between the tourism industries, let’s define exactly what culinary tourism is. It’s considered “any tourism experience where a person interacts with food and drink that reflects the history, heritage, and culture of a place.”

Food tourism, and gastronomy tourism are other labels for culinary tourism, with one term being used over another depending on the destination; for example, gastronomy tourism is more often used in Europe.

The important thing to remember is that culinary tourism is focused on the meaningful connection between food and place.

There are countless activities and experiences associated with culinary tourism. A few examples are:

• apple picking at a local farm or orchard;
• making maple taffy while on a winter hike; or
• having a local and seasonal goods picnic at a remote location or conservation area.

It’s important to understand the diverse experiences associated with culinary tourism, because it shows that not all tourism experiences stand alone from food and beverage. In fact, there is often overlap, which must be consider when trying to attract culinary tourists to your destinations.

To explain, think about how rural tourism is enhanced when you combine it with a culinary-related experience, such as touring a wine region in an RV – with a designated driver, of course.

Or consider how outdoor adventures are complemented by culinary tourism, like a guided fishing trip ending with a shore lunch prepared by a local chef using seasonal ingredients from the region’s food producers.

Culinary Tourism Value Chain

Food & drink products and experiences are used by a variety of tourism businesses to capitalize on the growing popularity of culinary tourism. This led to the development of the culinary tourism value chain, which was designed to increase the competitive advantage of your destinations and their operators.

Given the limited capacity of a single service provider or attraction, businesses band together through collaboration in order to deliver combined value to consumers. This allows individual operators to remain focused on what they do best while benefiting from the increased efficiency and effectiveness of working as a collective.

Visitor experiences are also enriched with each layer of value they receive when exploring a destination. This presents the opportunity for your destinations’ culinary communities to form strategic partnerships with businesses and deliver multisensory experiences that exceed the expectations of visitors.

Any business that includes a taste of place or culinary experience as part of their offerings are featured in the value chain, such as:

• accommodations;
• attractions;
• beverage producers;
• cooking schools;
• farmers’ and public markets;
• festivals & events;
• growers, producers, and suppliers;
• foodservice operators;
• retailers; and
• tour operators.

Who are Culinary Tourists?

When talking about the culinary tourist, there is a common stereotype about what type of person that is. Many of us picture someone at a fancy restaurant, taking Instagram photos, and writing about culinary experiences on their food blog.

Although this person is very much a culinary tourist, they are only one part of much larger market segment. In fact, culinary tourists are a very diverse group who are motivated by experiential travel and want authentic connections with the destinations they visit.

In other words, culinary tourists are “visitors who plan their trips partially or totally in order to taste the cuisine of a place.” They are both consumers looking for exclusive meals at high-end restaurants as well as those craving street food from markets stalls, while some culinary tourists are agritourists looking to connect to where their food comes from.

Culinary experiences have become a popular motivator for travel, but they are also discovered in more spontaneous ways by consumers during their trips. So, it’s important to remember that almost everyone is considered a culinary tourist, whether they identify themselves as one or not.

In the end, everybody has to eat. If you think beyond the stereotypical foodie as a culinary tourist, there is tremendous potential to attract new travellers to your destinations.

The Future of Culinary Tourism

Prior to COVID-19, experiential travel was on the rise. And when the tourism industry finally rebounds from the pandemic, research suggests the trend will continue to rise in popularity.

We know there is pent-up demand for travel and consumers are seeking human connection more so than ever. Culinary tourism offers hands-on, multisensory experiences with local businesses and attractions and allows visitors to connect with your destinations in a more meaningful way.

Also, as we’ve seen in the past, and especially through the pandemic, consumers are increasingly more aware of their local food system. And travellers are no different, wanting to know where their food comes from when visiting a Canadian destination.

Culinary tourists are especially eager for hands-on experiences that allow them to interact with the people and stories of the places they visit. For them, it’s a way to get to know the destination better.

The pandemic has also shown that driving trips will be prioritized over flying, specifically with culinary tourism in mind. As such, there’s an opportunity to target Canadian travellers who wouldn’t normally travel within the country but are now looking at places closer to home.

This also indicates a shift to a more safety-conscious decision-making process about where, when, why, and how consumers travel for pleasure. Knowing this, businesses must develop communication strategies to educate travellers about how they are kept safe when visiting your destinations.

Aside from that, outdoor activities and attractions with fewer crowds are bound to be favoured in a post-COVID environment. It’s important to keep this factor in mind when developing culinary tourism experiences in your region.

Module Two: Agritourism is Culinary Tourism

The Benefits of Agritourism

Overall, agritourism is steadily growing within the world of culinary tourism, which creates an opportunity for agricultural, or production-based businesses, to participate in the industry.

Another benefit is agritourism broadens the set of stakeholders your destinations can work with to create meaningful experiences for visitors. And as a tool for rural economic development, agritourism also helps stimulate diversified use of land, assisting rural communities with:

• combatting depopulation while preserving cultural heritage;
• transitioning away from commodity production and/or diversifying production; and
• promoting local innovation, regeneration, and resilience.

Diversified revenue streams for production-based businesses also increases employment, provides public access to and awareness of food producers, and creates demand for locally grown, raised, and harvested products.

Agritourism creates opportunities for one-on-one contact between locals, visitors, and producers, allowing the latter to tell their own stories while selling directly to consumers. Direct contact between farmers and visitors not only empowers growers to tell their own stories, but it also helps showcase local agricultural products to visitors that may seek these out once they return home.

Therefore, by providing opportunities for consumers to interact directly with your destinations’ food producers, agritourism provides the immersive experience today’s travellers seek. Farmers are the original place makers, and tourism experiences that focus on agriculture or agri-tourism experiences, are the most raw expressions of culture and place.

Agritourism vs. Culinary Tourism

While agritourism and culinary tourism are similar, it’s important to understand the difference between the two.

A culinary tourism product is made up of a collection of taste experiences that can be combined for enjoyment by locals and visitors alike. On the other hand, agritourism experiences and products don’t always incorporate the taste element.

This said, many visitor experiences, from shopping at a farmers’ market to participating in a farm tour, can easily be described as a culinary tourism OR agritourism experience because they include aspects of both.

The most important thing to remember is successful culinary and agritourism strategies build upon the unique ways in which businesses and communities express their foodways. Meaning the stories they tell about the history, heritage, and cultures behind the food of a destination.

Specifically for rural communities, developing culinary and agritourism together is a great way to maximize the economic impact of their diverse capital and tourism assets.

Due to the region-specific nature of activities, landscapes, and agricultural production, agritourism looks different around the world. However, the purpose remains the same regardless of the context, in that agritourism experiences are meant to bridge the gap between the tourism and production sectors.

As previously mentioned, agritourism presents an opportunity for the economic diversification of farms, but it cannot exist without a connection—whether direct or indirect—to production. If this connection doesn’t exist your destinations, developing that relationship must become a priority.

Furthermore, given the inconsistent definition of agritourism, it’s important to clearly identify those experiences for your tourism operators, stakeholders, and visitors alike.

1st World Congress on Agritourism

In 2018, the 1st World Congress on Agritourism came together in Bolzano, Italy, where researchers and operators shared what agritourism looked like across the world and discussed whether there is a universal definition.

The multi-day discussion showed that agritourism can be characterized by an authentic farm holiday experience. Here, authentic means the experience takes place on-farm and is a sustainable and complementary activity engaged in by families predominantly working in agriculture. The congress also found that agritourism can be:

• beneficial for family farms in rural and suburban areas;
• create numerous benefits for sustainable local development; and
• an effective instrument to strengthen the viability of rural areas.

In this instance, there is a strong focus on the farm, whether a working or non-working farm. However, because agritourism is highly dependent on context, there are many other types of agritourism that take place off the farm.

Agritourism in Peterborough & the Kawarthas

Local and regional context is an important consideration when defining agritourism and establishing authenticity. In other words, the concept of agritourism needs to be based on the agricultural and tourism assets of your destinations.

Taking a more landscape-based approach to developing agritourism highlights regional cultures and assets that may not be part of on-farm agricultural production, such as Indigenous land management, food production, and harvesting.

A good example comes from Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development & Tourism. In 2018, the region, which is just located between Toronto and Ottawa, along with their tourism partners, began exploring agritourism as a growth opportunity for the destination.

For Peterborough & the Kawarthas, agritourism includes “diverse experiences that connect locals and visitors alike to where their food comes from, whether directly through an activity that happens at the place of production, or indirectly by engaging with the people behind the scenes.”

As mentioned, agritourism combines several elements and experiences to provide travellers with an authentic connection to your destinations’ growers and producers. The infographic shown here was created as a visual representation to assist both tourism operators and the destination with agritourism development in Peterborough & the Kawarthas.

This shows the relationship between the different factors as they relate to agritourism, including:

• Environment, including animals, crops, and vegetation
• Places, including farmers’ markets, parks, and experiential farms
• Experiences, including U-picks, photography, and webinars
• Economy, including animal production, food manufacturing, and accommodation
• People, including farmers and their families, restaurateurs, cooks, and seasonal staff

Module Three: Elements & Activities of Agritourism

If you can, please take 15 minutes to watch the three videos linked now in the sidebar. These videos are excellent examples of destinations leveraging agritourism and developing unique experiences and connections to local producers and farmers. While watching, pay attention to the main messages, elements of focus, and activities.

Here are the important takeaways for each:

• Video One: In “Cheesemaking in Gruyères with Gerard” the main highlight is the personality behind the farm and cheesemaking process, with Gerard’s voice being key to the value of the experience and the product.
• Video Two: In this bridal tasting video, making a connection between the event, food, and setting is really important for South Pond Farms. As we hear engaged couples explain, the rural context and scenic farm setting make this venue appealing to them, while the use of locally grown foods and well-crafted dishes makes the appeal even stronger.
• Video Three: Participating in an agritourism experience often means learning about an agricultural process. In this Colombian coffee plantation video, part of the experience offered is a behind-the-scenes look at the process, including when to pick the beans to how they are harvested and prepared. This learning experience for visitors is valuable, and it also offers the opportunity for them to connect with all those involved in the operation.

People, Places & Processes

Although there are different understandings of the term agritourism, great agritourism experiences bring together Peoples, Places, and Processes to showcase the histories, cultures, and knowledge behind the food we eat.

The 3-Ps not only relate a visitor’s experience back to a product or moment, but by including people, place, and process elements into your offerings, you provide a better understanding of the histories, cultures, and knowledge within your destination. And this makes for a much higher quality tourism experience.

As learned, agritourism is highly dependent on regional context because there is no worldwide consensus around the term. As such, the approach to developing agritourism experiences will differ from destination to destination.

The most important thing to remember is to be authentic; focus on what makes your business unique and how it connects travellers to the region in which you operate in.

To develop effective agritourism activities, it’s important to be genuine and to feature the people, places, and process that make your experiences unique. But what makes a great agritourism activity?

• special photo-moments;
• interesting stories about the region, its makers, and milestone events;
• connecting with nature;
• opportunities to learn or meet growers and producers; and
• unique mementos and keepsakes.

To help explain, we’re going to cover a few examples of successful agritourism activities and highlight the range and diversity of what these experiences can look like. Be sure to make note of:

• the region and context;
• the setting; meaning, agritourism can take place on a farm, having the visitor participate in and learn about a specific process, but it also includes non-working farm environments, such as an agricultural museum or a farmers’ market; and
• the role and connection between visitors and the people of agritourism: the farmers, growers, and producers.

Examples of Agritourism Activities

The first example is providing travellers with the opportunity to participate in a food production demonstration.

Gunn’s Hill Artisanal Cheese in Oxford County, Ontario is leveraging this approach by hosting cheese making webinars. Visitor get the opportunity to “walk in the shoes of a local cheese maker,” while learning about the process and connecting with the passionate people behind the scenes.

Another example of immersive agritourism is digging for clams in Belliveau Cove, Nova Scotia. Here, visitors are given an opportunity to learn a unique skill, with the experience being further enhanced by a clam tasting afterwards.

As you see, this activity not only highlights a quintessential place in the destination – in this case, the beach – but it also speaks to the heritage and traditions of the region.

Victoria, B.C.’s Glenrosa Restaurant offers visitors a unique farm-to-table dining experience at their on-farm restaurant. While this example doesn’t focus as strongly on the learning of processes, it helps travellers build an understanding of where food comes from and how it is produced.

The experience is more focussed on the product, but place, people and process elements are elaborated on through on-site storytelling such as seasonal menus, the farm’s history, and the role it plays within the destination.

Another on-farm experience is going berry picking. In Les Jardin du Centre Charlevoix, Québec, raspberry picking at a u-pick farm is very popular among urban residents, giving them a reason to get out of the city and visit a rural destination as a day trip.

In relation to travellers, this encourages visitors of an urban destination to explore the smaller communities nearby and interact directly with local growers and the food they produce. Furthermore, activities such as berry or apple picking, can also be extended off-site with transformation webinars; for example, cooking classes on how to make jams or preserves.

An example of an agritourism experience at a non-working farm is visiting an agricultural attraction such as a museum or heritage site. The Melfort & District Museum in Melfort, Saskatchewan is a good example of this type of activity.

The museum offers the opportunity for visitors to observe and learn about agricultural processes from the past, while shedding the light on the heritage and traditions of the region. The experience also connects travellers to the people, past and present, who helped shape the landscape of the community.

The last example of an agritourism activity is foraging for food in Turner Valley, Alberta. Full Circle Tours offers an Edible Plant Walk where participants are educated about the different types of plants you can eat in the wilderness during a hike through the forest. In this instance, connecting the outdoors and nature to agritourism offers travellers a unique experience with the opportunity to learn valuable skills.

Foraging tours can help visitors see the world around them in a new way. And similar to the berry-picking example, these experiences can also be extended off-site with virtual classes and webinars. This type of agritourism also highlights the connection between land and food in an authentic way, while shining the light on the local businesses and community members involved in cultivating that relationship.

Common Agritourism Practices

As you saw, all of the examples offered visitors the opportunity to engage in various types of agritourism activities that involved learning, tasting, interacting, making, and observing. And all of the experiences were developed based on the landscape, history, and culture of each destination.

With that said, the agritourism experiences you develop in your region will depend on who’s behind them, where they take place, and what can be shared.

For example, a destination with a rich heritage and practice of fishing may not have the landscape or businesses to develop u-pick experiences. However, there is potential for local museums, on-boat experiences, and culinary traditions that showcase the unique peoples, places, and processes within a Canadian fishing community.

Module Four: The Agritourist

Who are Agritourists?

One of the objectives of this webinar is to help you better understand the market for agritourism and the types of consumers mostly likely to be interested in the related experiences and activities. Doing so highlights the viability of agritourism as an economic development opportunity and income diversifier for your destinations.

Let’s start by defining an agritourist.

Generally, agritourists are domestic travellers from urban areas close to an agritourism destination. They seek out experiential, life-enriching vacations that involve culture, nature, the outdoors, and learning.

These consumers are also aligned with the current shift toward environmentally-conscious and ‘authentic’ tourism experiences, and they have the growing desire to head outdoors and experience more leisure activities in the country.

In respect to the COVID-19 pandemic and limitations to national and international travel, urban residents are now looking to explore the rural areas around them. This indicates the potential for developing staycation packages and experiences closer to home in less crowded, open air spaces.

More specifically, agritourists are environmentally conscious consumers in their early 40’s with small families. Their income is typically around the national average, and they are predominantly domestic travellers who travel independently instead of as part of a group

Generally speaking, they are interested in learning about where their food comes from through contact with farmers, producers, harvesters, and growers. This includes participating in farm activities, visiting attractions primarily focused on the outdoors, or dining with direct connections to the landscape and cultural practices of a destination.

Where do Agritourists Come From?

Since agritourists are mostly urban residents who live close to rural destinations with agricultural assets, we can look to regional tourists and domestic travellers as the main consumer segments. And unlike foreign visitors, Canadians spent more of their domestic travel budget on food and drink services instead of accommodations.

Furthermore, despite businesses and destinations still working to manage and recover from the impacts of COVID-19, National Tourism Indicators have shown the domestic market in Canada as a strong contributor to the tourism economy.

Based on research from Destination Canada, Domestic Tourism Demand accounted for $64 billion in Canada’s tourism sector in 2019. That’s over half of the $82.2 billion that is produced through tourism activities in Canada overall, which highlights the opportunity for development of agritourism experiences across the country.

What are Agritourists Looking For?

The agritourist is often searching for an authentic experience and the opportunity to engage with tradition and rural hospitality. They are curious, wanting to explore more of what their region has to offer, while seeking life-enriching vacations that involve culture, nature, the outdoors, and learning.

The agritourist values experiential attraction, such as an on-farm dining activity, and they are family-focused, trying to deepen their connection with family and close friends through shared experiences with food and the environment.

Module Five: Agritourism Development

Case Study: South Tyrol, Italy

Now that you have some context on the agritourist and the types of activities they are looking for, let’s turn our attention to a case study that highlights the symbiotic relationship between successful agritourism operators and destination marketing organizations.

The following example is meant to help you identify the main challenges and opportunities of developing agritourism as a means of economic diversification.

South Tyrol is a region in Northern Italy that shares a border with Austria and is known for its “agriturismo” accommodations, rich agricultural heritage, and dramatic landscape within the Dolomite mountain range.

In this instance, accommodation is an essential part of agritourism, which in the regional context is perceived as a limitation to the types of activities considered to be agritourism experiences.

However, the Red Rooster program, a certification that was established in 1997 and governs the criteria, pricing, and membership of agritourism providers in the region, has assisted the South Tyrol with embracing its own definition of agritourism to the benefit of operators and visitors alike.

Since accommodation is an essential part of agritourism in South Tyrol, the types of activities that are considered agritourism are set by and monitored through the Red Rooster Program.

As mentioned, the program governs quality, pricing, and membership of agritourism providers in the region, while its website, Red Rooster.it, lists all their qualifying members to provide agritourists with a one-stop shop when planning a holiday in South Tyrol.

To become a designated Red Rooster Farm, over 30% of raw ingredients used in the the traditional dishes offered to visitors must come from the farm itself. And while other ingredients may be purchased, they should come from the surrounding area.

That said, in 2020, only 41 farms in the whole area fulfilled the criteria to become Red Rooster Farms. However, there are also farms with holiday homes, new farms without classification, holiday flats, and farms with handcrafts that are listed on the site as agritourism providers.

Aside from locally sourced ingredients, the farm holiday criteria set by the Red Rooster program measures the quality and authenticity of an accommodation farm based on:

• hospitality;
• farm-fresh produce;
• a taste of life on a real working farm; and
• a genuine back-to-nature experience.

The goal of the Red Rooster program is to “put people in touch with the rural world of South Tyrol,” meaning connecting agritourists to agritourism experiences in the region. This is shown by not only defining agritourism for the destination’s businesses and operators, but also by acting as a travellers’ resource for consumers interested in visiting.

As seen here, the website allows users to search for experiences related to farm holidays, kid-friendly activities, as well as provides the functionality to search for and book accommodation.

The website also includes an interactive map where visitors can explore options from holiday farms, to worthwhile hiking destinations, and winter activities. This really ties the whole region together, while making it easy for travellers to plan their vacation and develop their own agritourism itineraries.

Click on the link in the sidebar to explore the Red Rooster website on your own.

The Red Rooster program represents a very organized way of setting standards for and controlling the development of agritourism. It helps to maintain quality experiences while providing a direct channel for visitors to book their holidays and plan their activities – all under a clear and comprehensive brand that showcases the diversity of the region.

It also involves a large number tourism operators, businesses, and stakeholders across the region, who benefit from cooperating in a shared understanding of agritourism. That said, in this case, one challenge is coordinating the partnerships across the number of participants involved, from the individual farms to municipal governments, tourism operators, and policy makers.

Of course, the greatest benefit in doing so is creating a strong brand and image for the destination, which is accompanying by a unified voice that reaches farther than its surrounding area.

Needs for Development

What you see here is the visual map of the needs for agritourism development designed from the ”Growing an Agritourism Business and Destination” research done in the State of Colorado.

These three elements – Community, Demand for Agritourism, and Agricultural Context – are connected and exist within a regional context and are influenced by:

• natural amenities such as provincial parks and wildlife;
• scenic surrounding including picturesque drives and outdoor experiences;
• proximity of rural destinations to urban areas;
• number of potential agritourists in relation to the population of surrounding area;
• income of surrounding populations; and
• number of competing agritourism destinations.

Challenges Facing Agritourism

Many of the positive characteristics that differentiate rural areas and communities from their urban counterparts – like their large open spaces, easy access to nature, small settlements, low population density, and agricultural land – are also the cause of the challenges they face.

This includes:

• population decline;
• small labour force; and
• an aging demographic.

As highlighted in the South Tyrol case study, building agritourism requires the participation, coordination, and engagement of a number of stakeholders across the destination. This includes the agricultural and tourism industries, food and drink providers, as well as government.

Before you attempt to grow agritourism in your region, there are a number of challenges to address in order to unify the various parties involved. Let’s take a look at what those challenges are.

The first challenge is ensuring agritourism is defined clearly for all stakeholders in your destinations. With so many factors involved at various levels, it’s crucial to build a collaborative network of partners around a shared understanding of what agritourism specific to the region they operate in.

As shown in the previous examples, this can be led by operators and businesses, as was the case with the u-pick farms in Charlevoix, or by economic and tourism development organizations like Peterborough and the Kawarthas.

The next challenge is building the necessary knowledge and understanding about rules, policies, and regulations. This includes:

• navigating health and safety liabilities around having visitors on working farms;
• the disruption of regular farming activities to accommodate travellers;
• the impact of increased traffic on neighbours and the environment;
• increased costs in production, packaging, as well as business taxes; and
• the need for more resources to develop, enhance, and market new products for tourists.

Transportation challenges around food tourism development are also common in rural and remote regions. Without a reliable public transit system, the types of consumers able to enjoy such destinations are limited to independent, mobile travellers with access to a personal vehicle.

However, this presents an opportunity for destinations to respond with unique transportation solutions that add value to the tourism experience, while also making the destination more accessible. Horses and bicycles are two examples of how some rural communities are combating limited transit.

The third challenge is ensuring the quality and authenticity of agritourism experiences across your destinations.

When consensus and capacity are built at the regional level, parameters of quality and authentic must be considered. This is particularly important when thinking about a whole destination or brand image where different businesses and operators collaborate to market the area with a consistent voice.

The risks associated with pursuing new business ventures through agritourism is another common challenge to destinations. Agritourism is a serious, time-intensive business decision that isn’t always the solution for tourism and agriculture businesses in rural areas.

Agritourism may require significant skills development for some farmers, such as customer service and hospitality or online marketing and ecommerce. And not all businesses have the time, capacity, and resources to invest in the necessary learning that facilitates agritourism.

The fifth challenge to developing agritourism is presenting a genuine image of farm life while managing and meeting traveller expectations. Unfortunately, a lot of potential agritourists haven’t had many impactful experiences with agricultural places and processes, so it’s important to set realistic expectations for consumers ahead of time.

As important, although agritourism has the potential to elevate understanding of agriculture and promote learning on the visitors’ side, don’t forget they are still vacationing and looking to relax and enjoy their experiences. While they are interested in connecting to rural landscapes and ways of life, most visitors aren’t too keen to get really down-and-dirty with agricultural tasks.

Opportunities in Agritourism

Of course, wherever there are challenges there are also opportunities.

When done well, agritourism development and consensus building can bring different agritourism providers under a common platform—such as a regional website or promotional scheme. Doing ensures an authentic, quality visitor experience that meets legal and safety standards as well as delivering a broader narrative and image for the region.

Particularly relevant for small-scale agriculture, one of the opportunities of developing agritourism is it generates additional on-farm income and thus contributes to farm resilience.

As mentioned before, on-farm diversification doesn’t happen overnight. In the early stages, this might mean just offering on-site sales; however, with time, new agritourism ventures in the shape of experiences or collaborative products become more viable.

Another benefit to developing agritourism is it promotes the understanding of agricultural practices and supports education about the environment and local food systems. Through the promotion of learning and understanding of food production, the people, places and processes involved, agritourism increases knowledge about the agriculture of a region.

Agritourism is also seen as an instrument to stimulate environmental education and a way to experience the relationship between human and nature.

Developing agritourism also presents an opportunity to protect and promote heritage and cultural traditions across Canada. Reusing or repurposing an underutilized agricultural structure becomes a real opportunity to revitalize a business or destination at large.

Saskatchewan is an example of a destination seizing this type of opportunity: some of the unused grain silos in the region have been converted into cabins, which breathed new life into the area and brought in additional income for local businesses.

Enhancing intercultural interactions and bridging rural-urban divides is another opportunity of developing agritourism in Canada.

Agritourism is a sustainable way to diversify travellers to larger urban destinations into the smaller communities nearby. And as consensus and capacity are built, the identification of local assets, traditions and regional attractions can have a positive impact on community pride.

As such, when done in an inclusive way, agritourism presents a holistic image of a destination’s unique histories, places, people, and processes. Additionally, when developed with the needs of agritourists in mind, agritourism has the potential to attract new consumers to an area.

Finally, Agritourism supports the continuity of local businesses and helps secure family ownership for generations to come.

Agritourism brings innovation to agricultural businesses and tourism operators, which contributes to the resilience of a destination and its stakeholders. Consider younger generations interested in technology and social media, and how their skills and knowledge can be leveraged to enhance customer service and visitor experiences. This might include developing creative content online telling the unique stories of a region, or capturing compelling imagery to support the development of a new website.

Additional opportunities to agritourism development include:

• shifting a portion of farm revenue to tourism and reducing dependence on volatile agricultural markets;
• repurposing underutilized farm resources such as lower grade land or older buildings;
• creating direct contact between farmers and tourists to allow farmers to tell their own stories; and
• encouraging consumers to seek out domestic agricultural products upon their return from an agritourism experience.

As previously mentioned, it takes a unified front from all the relevant stakeholders to successfully build agritourism in your destinations.

A region with tourism operators, businesses, and government working together creates an atmosphere ripe for innovation and growth. While a collaborative network of partners allows individual components, such as policies & regulations and sales & marketing messages, to be clearly defined across the destination.

In the end, building agritourism means building relationships between:

• farmers;
• tour operators;
• economic development officers;
• policy maker
• guides; and
• food councils.

Since we know working together is a key piece of successful agritourism development, creating a strong relationship between agritourism operators and destination marketing organizations is incredibly valuable.

Doing so helps stakeholders not only pinpoint the opportunities and challenges facing the development of agritourism in their destinations, but it also highlights other important considerations, such as:

• land use and planning policies;
• seasonal constraints;
• availability of products;
• mobility in and around the destination;
• critical mass of businesses or market saturation; and
• the need for additional tourism offers.

Module Six: Conclusion

The Future of Agritourism

The future of agritourism is bright in Canada, showing opportunity for rural destinations and tourism operators to connect visitors with unique agricultural experiences and the peoples, places, and processes behind the scenes.

That said, inclusive decision making is the key to developing agritourism successfully, and creating sustainable growth must involve cooperation and bottom-up initiatives between all levels of governance: local, regional, provincial, and federal.

It’s also important to note, those considering agritourism ventures require entrepreneurial skills and should approach the assessment and development as a business venture; all while being conscious of the differences between running a farming business and running a tourism business.

Due to the value agritourists place on experience and authenticity, ensuring quality of service and products throughout your particular region is key to successful agritourism development.

In terms of a national framework, ‘Canada’s Tourism Vision’ was published in 2017, with action item 15, Growing Culinary Tourism, corresponding with the potential for joining the growth of food tourism to the growth of agritourism. And in order to connecting quality of experiences to the growth of agritourism and culinary tourism, the federal government has announced the development of a national culinary tourism strategy.

Conclusion: Webinar Learning Outcomes

And that concludes the Growing Agritourism webinar. You should now be able to confidently:

• differentiate between culinary tourism and other forms of tourism, while identifying examples of culinary experiences relevant to your region;
• describe the breadth and diversity of businesses involved in culinary tourism through deconstructing the culinary tourism value chain; and
• explain to tourism operators and stakeholders why culinary tourism is a vital component in servicing the needs of travellers.

You should also be able to:

• connect agritourism to culinary tourism, explaining why the former concept has not been universally defined;
• characterize the agritourist and generalize the types of activities associated with agritourism;
• defend the use of agritourism as an economic diversification strategy for rural agricultural communities; and
• understand the challenges and opportunities relating to the development of agritourism experiences.

Thank you for your participation. Be sure to check out other culinary tourism webinars offered in the Elevating Canadian Experiences content hub.

For more information, or if you have any questions, please visit culinarytourismalliance.com.

Welcome to Exceeding Expectations, an Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar. The goal of the webinar is to arm you with the information and tactics needed to exceed visitor expectations of your culinary tourism offerings. This includes developing the ability to:

• differentiate between culinary tourism and other forms of tourism, while identifying examples of culinary experiences relevant to your region;
• describe the breadth and diversity of businesses involved in culinary tourism through deconstructing the culinary tourism value chain; and
• explain to tourism operators and stakeholders why culinary tourism is a vital component in servicing the needs of travellers.

You’ll also be able to:

• apply your understanding of visitor expectations and relevant tourism trends to deliver value through food & drink;
• recognize that celebrating place through local cultures and cuisines improves the visitor experience;
• localize your culinary tourism experience by drawing on successful examples from around the world; and
• use culinary tourism storytelling to deliver intangible value to visitors.

Welcome to Exceeding Expectations, an Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar.

Agenda

Before moving on in the module, please note the sidebar along your screen where worksheets and resources will appear throughout the presentation.

At this time, it’s important to acknowledge the extraordinary value that Indigenous peoples across Canada bring to the tourism industry. The land and traditional territories of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit provide unique culinary offerings that enhance the experiences for visitors to destinations all over the country.

Through the combined efforts of several organizations, including the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada and Indigenous Culinary of Associated Nations, Indigenous culinary has grown into a popular driver for the development of tourism in Canada.

Elevating Canadian Experiences

The tourism sector is a key contributor to Canada’s economy, and there is opportunity to maximize its potential by showcasing our culinary excellence to tourists, both domestic and international, and expanding products and experiences into the shoulder and winter seasons.

Funded by the Government of Canada, the Elevating Canadian Experiences program offers tailored content to help destination marketing organizations and businesses develop strategies to boost culinary tourism as well as winter and shoulder season tourism across the country.

The ECE program is a team effort, in which deep research and shared knowledge are brought together to ensure tourism continues to thrive as an economic pillar in Canada.

Webinar Learning Outcomes

The goal of the webinar is to arm you with the information and tactics needed to exceed visitor expectations of your culinary tourism offerings. This includes developing the ability to:

• differentiate between culinary tourism and other forms of tourism, while identifying examples of culinary experiences relevant to your region;
• describe the breadth and diversity of businesses involved in culinary tourism through deconstructing the culinary tourism value chain; and
• explain to tourism operators and stakeholders why culinary tourism is a vital component in servicing the needs of travellers.

You’ll also be able to:

• apply your understanding of visitor expectations and relevant tourism trends to deliver value through food & drink;
• recognize that celebrating place through local cultures and cuisines improves the visitor experience;
• localize your culinary tourism experience by drawing on successful examples from around the world; and
• use culinary tourism storytelling to deliver intangible value to visitors.

Module One: An Introduction to Culinary Tourism

Before you can exceed visitor expectations for your business or in your destination, it’s important to understand the gap between the food & drink and tourism industries. By doing so, you’re able to identify ways to bridge that gap, which opens the door to developing compelling culinary experiences that drive tourism in Canada.

Bridging the Gap Between Food & Drink and Tourism

Although many restaurants don’t consider themselves as tourism businesses, it’s critical that those serving food and drink are open and ready to meet the needs of visitors to your destinations. Similarly, not all tourism businesses harness the value that the local culinary community adds to a destination’s product and service offerings.

The result is tourism attractions, such as museums, often sell food that has nothing to do with the place in which they operate.

This situation is not unique to Canada; in fact, destinations all around the world are continuing to serve the food that they think visitors want. However, our research shows there is consumer demand for higher quality culinary experiences that reflect the destination they’re visiting.

So, what does it mean to bring these two industries together through culinary tourism development?

In short, it means offering more meaningful and multisensory experiences that reflect your destinations. It also means stimulating visitor demand and localizing the economic impact on your tourism operators, businesses, and attractions.

And considering the current realities facing the two industries, a shift towards a culinary tourism model will also help build both resiliency and sustainability into Canadian tourism – especially in the post-pandemic era.

Now that we’ve identified the gap between the tourism industries, let’s define exactly what culinary tourism is. It’s considered “any tourism experience where a person interacts with food and drink that reflects the history, heritage, and culture of a place.”

Food tourism, and gastronomy tourism are other labels for culinary tourism, with one term being used over another depending on the destination; for example, gastronomy tourism is more often used in Europe.

The important thing to remember is that culinary tourism is focused on the meaningful connection between food and place.

There are countless activities and experiences associated with culinary tourism. A few examples are:

• apple picking at a local farm or orchard;
• making maple taffy while on a winter hike; or
• having a local and seasonal goods picnic at a remote location or conservation area.

It’s important to understand the diverse experiences associated with culinary tourism, because it shows that not all tourism experiences stand alone from food and beverage. In fact, there is often overlap, which must be consider when trying to attract culinary tourists to your destinations.

To explain, think about how rural tourism is enhanced when you combine with a culinary-related experience, such as touring a wine region in an RV – with a designated driver of course.

Or consider how outdoor adventures are complemented by culinary tourism, like a guided fishing trip ending with a shore lunch prepared by a local chef using seasonal ingredients from the region’s food producers.

Culinary Tourism Value Chain

Food & drink products and experiences are used by a variety of tourism businesses to capitalize on the growing popularity of culinary tourism. This led to the development of the culinary tourism value chain, which was designed to increase the competitive advantage of your destinations and their operators.

Given the limited capacity of a single service provider or attraction, businesses band together through collaboration in order to deliver combined value to consumers. This allows individual operators to remain focused on what they do best while benefiting from the increased efficiency and effectiveness of working as a collective.

Visitor experiences are also enriched with each layer of value they receive when exploring a destination. This presents the opportunity for your destinations’ culinary communities to form strategic partnerships with businesses and deliver multisensory experiences that exceed the expectations of visitors.

Any business that includes a taste of place or culinary experience as part of their offerings are featured in the value chain, such as:

• accommodations;
• attractions;
• beverage producers;
• cooking schools;
• farmers’ and public markets;
• festivals & events;
• growers, producers, and suppliers;
• foodservice operators;
• retailers; and
• tour operators.

Who are Culinary Tourists?

When talking about the culinary tourist, there is a common stereotype about what type of person that is. Many of us picture someone at a fancy restaurant, taking Instagram photos, and writing about culinary experiences on their food blog.

Although this person is very much a culinary tourist, they are only one part of much larger market segment. In fact, culinary tourists are a very diverse group who are motivated by experiential travel and want authentic connections with the destinations they visit.

In other words, culinary tourists are “visitors who plan their trips partially or totally in order to taste the cuisine of a place.” They are both consumers looking for exclusive meals at high-end restaurants as well as those craving street food from markets stalls, while some culinary tourists are agritourists looking to connect to where their food comes from.

Culinary experiences have become a popular motivator for travel, but they are also discovered in more spontaneous ways by consumers during their trips. So, it’s important to remember that almost everyone is considered a culinary tourist, whether they identify themselves as one or not.

In the end, everybody has to eat. If you think beyond the stereotypical foodie as a culinary tourist, there is tremendous potential to attract new travellers to your destinations.

The Future of Culinary Tourism

Prior to COVID-19, experiential travel was on the rise. And when the tourism industry finally rebounds from the pandemic, research suggests the trend will continue to rise in popularity.

We know there is pent-up demand for travel and consumers are seeking human connection more so than ever. Culinary tourism offers hands-on, multisensory experiences with local businesses and attractions and allows visitors to connect with your destinations in a more meaningful way.

Also, as we’ve seen in the past, and especially through the pandemic, consumers are increasingly more aware of their local food system. And travellers are no different, wanting to know where their food comes from when visiting a Canadian destination.

Culinary tourists are especially eager for hands-on experiences that allow them to interact with the people and stories of the places they visit. For them, it’s a way to get to know the destination better.

The pandemic has also shown that driving trips will be prioritized over flying, specifically with culinary tourism in mind. As such, there’s an opportunity to target Canadian travellers who wouldn’t normally travel within the country but are now looking at places closer to home.

This also indicates a shift to a more safety-conscious decision-making process about where, when, why, and how consumers travel for pleasure. Knowing this, businesses must develop communication strategies to educate travellers about how they are kept safe when visiting your destinations.

Aside from that, outdoor activities and attractions with fewer crowds are bound to be favoured in a post-COVID environment. It’s important to keep this factor in mind when developing culinary tourism experiences in your region.

Module Two: Trends and the Visitor Experiences

General Tourism Trends

Let’s cover some noteworthy trends from the tourism and food & drink industries. By understanding what visitors are looking for, we can better understand who they are.

As you move through this part of the presentation, think about what these trends mean at the operator level and how they relate to exceeding visitor expectations.

The first general tourism trend identified is what’s called purposeful travel. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are re-evaluating their priorities and looking for meaningful experiences and connection. “Purpose-driven travel” is one way to deliver this.

Travel can teach many things, and for some visitors, learning is a key motivation to travel. In fact, gaining new skills and engaging with local communities to learn about different cultures is a goal for many tourists.

Visitors do not need to travel far to learn something new, which is important when considering post-pandemic recovery. Culinary tourism experiences can be geared to locals and those from neighbouring regions, serving to reconnect people to the products and experiences available in their own backyards.

From cooking classes to beer tastings to foraging for wild mushrooms, culinary tourism empowers locals to share the stories and histories of their home. Culinary tourism also presents opportunities for learning and connection, and when done right, this can be transformative for visitors, leading to personal growth.

Food tours and cooking classes are among the top-five fastest growing tour categories on TripAdvisor, and they are important ways visitors pursue purposeful travel.

Food and drink activities have become some of the most popular “Airbnb experiences”, comprising nearly 30% of the platform’s bookings in 2018. When thinking about food tourism experience development in your destination, consider how experiences can be elevated to deliver locally-inspired learnings to purpose-driven travellers.

At the business level, it means providing visitors with experiences that allow for learning and personal growth. More and more, travellers want to feel like they are having a genuine and transformative experience, that they will leave a better person, and that they will leave the destination feeling a sense of connection to the place and its people. By building relationships with your guests, your business can help to facilitate this.

The next trend involves exploratory travel. Travelling to off-the-beaten-path destinations in search of unique, one-of a kind experiences is a priority for a growing number of travellers, including many Millennials.

For these segments, access to VIP experiences in places rarely explored by others is appealing. So, when developing culinary tourism experiences for your business, it’s important to make consumers feel as though they are discovering something new and exciting by communicating the uniqueness of your offerings and tying them to the destination.

In addition, Canada’s federal tourism strategy identified developing tourism in rural and remote destinations as one of the main developmental pillars for 2019 to 2021. Exploratory travel and dispersing visitors away from popular urban areas to reduce the negative effects of over-tourism is part of this strategy.

The development of rural culinary tourism experiences help spread the benefits of tourism beyond urban centres. This also includes offerings that meaningfully integrate food & drink into tourism experiences that are typically unrelated to culinary.

As a business, consider what makes your experiences and your destination unique. Once those elements are identified, the next step is to leverage those assets and communicate their exclusivity to visitors.

Don’t forget, even something as simple as eating at a roadside chip stand has the potential to be elevated, with a great view, for example, or an engaging conversation with the owner and staff.

The third trend in general tourism is destination stewardship. The best food and drink experiences take into account environmental sustainability, as well as the impact on the community and the local economy.

A key strategic consideration for destinations is the extent to which they incorporate sustainability into their management and marketing efforts. There is a connection between purposeful travel and an awareness of social and environmental issues. Visitors who are conscious of this want to have a positive impact on the communities they visit during their travels.

Sustainability initiatives take many forms – from prioritizing local foods and promoting locally-owned businesses to supporting food security programs in the destination. As such, rural destinations have an opportunity to educate potential visitors on the economic and social benefits of visiting smaller communities trying to increase tourism, as opposed to crowded urban locations.

When presented with similar choices, sustainable travel options are often top considerations of the modern tourist. With an interest and awareness in food-related issues, travellers are both conscious and thoughtful of their decisions, which impact where and how they travel. Knowing that their presence and the money they spend benefits the local community, people, and the environment, is important to these travellers.

At the business level, this means using your sustainable practices to attract visitors and always being honest and transparent about your initiatives. That in mind, it’s recommended to highlight the people your business employs, your connections to the community and the land, and any special efforts you make regarding sustainability.

Culinary Tourism Trends

Next, let’s discuss trends in culinary tourism. While the full impact of COVID-19 will continue to unfold long after the pandemic, some current trends are likely to continue, albeit with a few evolutions.

The first trend is similar to purposeful travel, with consumers showing a growing interest in the processes and ethos behind the products they purchase and consume.

With this in mind, it’s important to integrate stories around these aspects of your business into the visitor experience. More and more, travellers expect to have access to this information, as it helps them decide where to spend their hard-earned money. Storytelling online and in person is an important way of transmitting information around production to consumers.

The second trend comes from the University of Guelph’s second “Food Focus Report”, which highlights the rise of the flexitarian. Canadians are more frequently opting to eat less meat, and when they do, they are more mindful of choosing higher quality cuts or more ethically sourced options.

As a business, this is something to be aware of, especially if you are looking to attract more visitors from urban areas, where these behaviours are growing in importance. To meet expectations, this means having more than one vegetarian or vegan offering on the menu and working to meet other dietary requirements like intolerances for gluten or lactose.

Having access to healthier, vegetable-based options can make a big difference to the experience. This is one of the few times it makes sense to stray away from only offering traditional local dishes, because it makes the experience more accessible to a greater audience.

The next trend relating to culinary is restaurant dining, which also includes take-out.

Data from 2018 shows Canadians are increasing the amount they spend on food outside of the home. Canadians are already spending $80 million per year in restaurants and restaurant spending is growing more quickly than grocery store spending. Furthermore, 47% of Canadians say that they are always on the lookout for new restaurants.

It’s important to note, as pandemic restrictions loosen, more data will filter in on the popularity of restaurant take-out versus dining in. Regardless, when people travel, experiencing local food and drink is huge part of the visitor experience.

In a world constantly connected to social media, it’s more important than ever for destinations to deliver on visitor expectations of product, hospitality, and customer service.

Users are creating content on their channels daily, sharing their stories and experiences – both positive and negative – with the businesses they visit during their travels. Meaning, social media, and the internet at large, provides consumers with access to information far and wide, which presents an opportunity for tourism operators, DMOs, and small businesses.

Turning visitors into advertisers and ambassadors is an effective strategy for reaching a broader audience in a way that feels genuine. To that point, of Canadians who use their smartphone for food and drink inspiration, 55% say they use it to decide where to eat.

This is an important travel tool for many tourists, as they use social media to make decisions based on photos and posts of other people’s experiences in your destination.

Culinary Tourism Development Trends in Rural and Remote Destinations

To clearly differentiate themselves from their urban counterparts, rural and remote tourism development leans heavily on the natural environment as a primary motivator for visitation.

In these destinations, culture is a secondary asset that enables visitors to connect more deeply with place. Food and drink are important elements of a cultural tourism offering, especially experiential cultural tourism.

For rural and remote destinations, linking culinary tourism to other forms of tourism is a common approach to destination development. By forging clear links to the land, through ingredients and traditions, food tourism is a natural add on to outdoor tourism offerings.

Types of food tourism experiences offered in rural and remote destinations differ around the world. Food trails, farm stays, festivals, and guided tours are a few examples. At present, Airbnb experiences have yet to take off in a meaningful way across rural and remote destinations, which can be seen as an opportunity for those who operate within that industry.

That said, most of these destinations highlight their unique food and drink specialties, especially those tied to local products, heritage, remoteness, or the landscape; for instance, foraged foods or those with a history that emerged from isolation.

Also, as it relates to leveraging the natural environment, when they exist, designations from UNESCO or PDOs are strongly celebrated in rural and remote destinations.

Finally, transportation challenges around food tourism development are common in regions where public transit is limited. This influences the types of consumers able to enjoy the destination – without public transit, only independent, mobile travellers with access to a personal vehicle are able to experience these types of destinations.

However, this challenge is also an opportunity to respond with unique transportation solutions that add value to the experience and make the destination accessible to more visitors. This could be as simple as bike rentals or tours on trains, while another solution might be to offer horseback riding.

Module Three: Connecting Experiences to Place

Case Study: Dining on the Ocean Floor

As mentioned earlier, connection to place through the landscapes and outdoors is especially important in rural and remote destinations. It is part of the unique value proposition compared to larger cities and helps build one-of-a-kind experiences.

To better understand how connections to place through culinary tourism is utilized to meet and exceed visitor expectations, this module covers two case studies – one from Nova Scotia and one from Sweden.

In the first example, Dining on the Ocean Floor in Burntcoat Head Park, Nova Scotia, you’re given a taste of an experience that really takes advantage of the local landscape.

Here is a summary of the offering taken from Tourism Nova Scotia’s website:

“Experience the ultimate culinary adventure at the site of the world’s highest tides. Savour the best Nova Scotia food, beer and wine in this exceptional experience. Begin by learning about the wild edibles of Nova Scotia, followed by a lunchtime seafood feast where you meet the Chef and enjoy beer and wine pairings. Enjoy a guided tour of the ocean floor, then take a seat at a dining table with a view of the incoming tide for an intimate 3-course dinner on the ocean floor; all followed by an ocean floor campfire.”

Watch a short video explaining this culinary experience via the link in your sidebar now.

Case Study: Sweden, the Edible Country

Next, The Edible Country in Sweden, offers a do-it-yourself gourmet restaurant where you forage and cook your own food in nature.

It’s is a dining experience based on ingredients found in the outdoors, with tables across Sweden available for booking. To enhance the experience, guests are also able to book add-ons like local guides and chefs, a selection of local produce, and mood enhancing table decor. Some locations also offer transport, such as dog sledding and canoeing.

Visitors are provided with a cooking kit, containing all the necessary tools to prepare your meal, as well as a basket of ingredients to cook the recipes outdoors. The menu suggestions of this fine ‘do-it-yourself’ dining experience are co-created with four of Sweden’s top chefs.

Watch Videos 2 and 3 linked now in your sidebar for a look at this culinary experience from Visit Sweden and from the first-hand perspective of bloggers who’ve visited.

Reflection Questions

After watching the videos and learning about each experience, ask yourself the following three questions:

What is the role of the local landscape in this experience?

A few common responses to this question include:

• dining on the Ocean Floor is a world-class bucket list experience that’s tied to the place – it’s something you just can’t do in other places of the world;
• in Sweden, the landscape provides the food – it is the star of the show and highlighted throughout the experience; and
• in both examples, visitors are part of the foraging experience, with the ingredients being used in the meals – guests are provided with interactive and transformational learning as part of the process.

Is there anything else related to place that helps to make this experience special?

A few common responses to this question include:

• in the Nova Scotia example, an element of excitement is added by working alongside the changing tide;
• the meals provided during The Edible Country experience change depending on the location of the table a guest books; and
• both experiences feature menus are created by local chefs in alignment with products available locally.

What else does the hands-on element add to the experience?

A few common responses to this question include:

• Guests are literally dining on the ocean floor in Nova Scotia and eating foods sourced from that exact location;
• in The Edible Country, guests have the option to fully participate in the experience, from foraging the ingredients to cooking the meals, or sit back and relax while their food is prepared by a local chef; and
• and guests are comfortable knowing it’s not a typical five-star restaurant offering – they understand that weather and bugs are part of a unique outdoor dining experience.

Module Four: Localizing Your Experience

Key Takeaways

A key theme throughout the Nova Scotia and Sweden case studies explored in Module Three is the idea of tying experiences to place.

Next, let’s go over a few key takeaways from these examples along with some ideas on how you can tie your experience to your destination.

In both case studies, four elements were present in the experiences. They include:

• celebrating the local aspects of the community, such as the landscape, local ingredients, traditions, and people;
• leveraging a unique combination of characteristics to make the experience difficult to replicate anywhere else – like the vast tracts of forest, jagged coastlines, or cultural traditions;
• developing and showcasing partnerships with other businesses – in the Nova Scotia example, this included local chefs, brew masters, and wineries; and
• embracing creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.

To get you thinking and provide inspiration for developing localized experiences, reflect on the following questions. Please note, a worksheet is now available in the sidebar where you can record your answers and reference back to them throughout the rest of the presentation.

Ask yourself:

What makes your community and region special to you?

• Is it the people you see day-to-day? Views of the river? Local traditions?

Why do you choose to live there?

What makes you most proud to live where you do?

• Showing pride of place helps visitors feel a stronger connection to the destination and the people who live there.

Are you an ambassador for your region?

• Can you make informed recommendations to visitors based on your personal experience in the community?

Do you know about the tourism offerings of other businesses in your region?

• This is more than just knowing about their offerings; it’s also about having tried them for yourself.
• For example, you know there’s a craft brewery down the street from your business, but have you tried their beer? Are you able to offer visitors recommendations based on your experience at the brewery?

Inspiration

Does your community or culture have any traditions to share with visitors?

• Even if it is something that may be familiar to visitors already, a local twist or a new context can make it feel special

Are their experiences or stories a visitor wouldn’t know about your community if you didn’t tell them?

Can you think of anything that feels mundane to you but is special and out-of-the ordinary for a visitor?

• A small creek at the end of the street might seem very basic when you walk by it everyday, but to a visitor looking for the perfect place to stop for lunch, it can be exactly what they’re after.
• What’s more, these types of places aren’t highlighted in a tourist’s guidebook. This means someone from the destination has to connect with the visitor and point these locations out to them, which adds an element of exclusivity to the experience.

It’s important to note, your personal experiences within the destination add weight to your recommendations. This also allows you to tailor your suggestions to the specific needs and expectations of visitors.

Remember, your advice can turn a mediocre experience driving through a destination into a memorable adventure for travellers to your region.

Actions

The first set of reflection questions were meant to inspire your thinking. These next questions revolve around the actions you can take when it comes to developing localized experiences. A second worksheet is now available in the sidebar to record to your answers.

Ask yourself:

Do we tie our visitor experience to place through the stories we tell?

• This can be in person, on your menus, chalkboards, website, or social media channels

Do we source local food and celebrate it?

• If you are sourcing local cheese, meat, vegetables, or craft beer, this is part of your value proposition and should be celebrated as such.
• Residents might be aware that certain products are local, but you need to call those items out specifically for visitors. Otherwise, they won’t know what they are eating and drinking is connected to the destination and its local growers and producers.

Does the experience we offer have a connection to our family or regional heritage?

• If so, it’s important to highlight that connection. And if not, consider adding a few personal or regional connections to your experience through the tastes that you offer. This could be a family recipe or a local specialty that can’t be found anywhere else.

Do we partner with other local businesses?

• This can be done in a variety of ways, such as events, sourcing ingredients, music, art, and collaborative products
• For more information about partnering with local businesses, be sure to watch the Partnering for Success webinar available in the Elevating Canadian Experiences content hub.

Do we incorporate meaningful local details into our décor?

• An example of this is using locally sourced materials, whether it’s a river stone pathway, repurposed barn wood, or a wheat wreath.

Do we offer an experience that appeals to locals and visitors?

• In this instance, taking a typical local experience and sanitizing it to appeal specifically to tourists will eliminates the authenticity of the offering. This reduces the impact of the experience for visitors, which diminishes its appeal.

Module Five: Integrating Food and Drink into Your Experience

Let’s discuss how to enhance the visitor experience with food and drink, starting with how to integrate culinary elements into your offerings.

Adding new and creative culinary tourism touchpoints to the customer journey is most commonly done in three ways: though tastes, tours, and takeaways. This also applies to businesses that aren’t typically considered a culinary tourism provider.

Tastes

Taste can be anything from a complimentary drink when visitors arrive at your B&B, to a warm cup of hot chocolate after a snowshoe tour, to a glass of wine if a guest’s table isn’t ready yet. Even an evening treat left after a turndown service in a hotel can be a culinary tourism experience; a small bag of locally-made sweets left on the bed, for example, is an easy way to achieve this.

Attention to detail is the most important element in this instance. It may seem like a small gesture, but these types of offerings can have a huge impact on the visitor experience as it shows you genuinely care about your consumers.

Tours

Tours provide visitors with an opportunity to connect more strongly with your business.

An example is the Bombay Sapphire distillery in the old Laverstoke Mill in Whitchurch, United Kingdom. Inside the modern greenhouse structure, there are plant specimens of all the botanicals traditionally included in Bombay’s gin. Guests who take a tour of the distillery not only get to learn about the process of making gin, but they are also treated to a unique visual and natural element that brings the process to life.

Many non-food related tours – especially lengthy ones – typically include food and drink to some degree. If you offer such tours, think about local culinary-related businesses to collaborate with to provide guests food and drink that’s tied to the region in some way.

Consider a bike tour offering snack packs. Rather than giving guests the standard bottle of water, a grocery store granola bar, and a pre-packaged cookie, include locally sourced baked goods instead.

Takeaway

Visitors love to take treats home with them as mementoes or to share with family and friends. One way to do this is by offering local products of business swag at small gift shop attached to your restaurant, brewery, or farm.

A unique example is the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto that produces honey on their rooftop and serves it in their restaurants. The Toronto location was the first to implement this initiative, and now over 40 of their hotels worldwide do the same.

Handing guests little jars of homemade honey or jams upon departure is a place-based treat they can take home with them. And the tiny jars are often kept long after the honey or jam is consumed, which adds a longer shelf life for your brand in terms of awareness.

Module Six: Intangible Value and the Visitor Experience

Finally, let’s discuss delivering intangible value and how it fits into the visitor experience, what it adds, and what it can look like.

Intangible value are the elements guests didn’t specifically pay for. It’s the add ons that elevate the experience to make it feel special – like something that cannot be replicated. And when you combine intangible value with the culinary tourism touchpoints mentioned earlier, your offerings become that much greater.

Here are seven examples of intangible value. As you go over these points, think about whether or not they can be applied to your offerings.

1. Warm welcome

• This can be a simple as providing visitors with a welcome drink or a gift bag upon their arrival to your business or attraction.

2. Meeting someone new

• Introducing yourself and taking the time to learn a visitor’s name has a profound impact on the experience. A restaurant owner who takes the time to introduce themselves to a newcomer leaves a last impression and makes the guest feel important. In this instance, don’t forget to train your staff to do the same.

3. Hearing stories

• Offer as many personal or regional tidbits as you can based on the specific interests of your visitors – this is especially important when it comes to the food and drink you serve

4. Locally-inspired décor

• This could involve incorporating pieces of the natural landscape to your business, making an ode to your region’s agricultural heritage, hanging old photographs of customers, or showcasing local art and cultural elements.

5. Thoughtful touches

• This can as simple as choosing local ingredients and products over imported goods or providing guests with free samples.

6. Learning something new

• As mentioned in the trends section earlier, learning something new is a strong motivator for travel these days. This doesn’t have to be as complex as teaching a workshop or foraging for food; it can be as easy as educating guests with stories and quick demonstrations.

7. Great memories

• When you put all these pieces together and layer intangible value with multisensory elements, you elevate the visitor experience and deliver truly authentic memories that last long after visitors return home.

Thank You

Thank you for your participation. Be sure to check out other culinary tourism webinars offered in the Elevating Canadian Experiences content hub.

For more information, or if you have any questions, please visit culinarytourismalliance.com.

Welcome to Attracting Culinary Tourists, an Elevating Canadian Experiences Webinar.

The goal of the webinar is to arm you with the information and tactics needed to attract culinary tourists to your destinations. This includes developing the ability to:

• differentiate between culinary tourism and other forms of tourism, while identifying examples of culinary experiences relevant to your region;
• describe the breadth and diversity of businesses involved in culinary tourism through deconstructing the culinary tourism value chain; and
• explain to tourism operators and stakeholders why culinary tourism is a vital component in servicing the needs of travellers.

This webinar also teaches you how to:

• distinguish between the various types of culinary tourists through an explanation of how the market segment has evolved;
• define foodways and integrate them into existing value propositions to meet the expectations of culinary tourists;
• identify opportunities to generate increased visitor demand through attracting culinary tourists; and
• Apply best practices and grassroots marketing tactics when attracting culinary tourists.

Welcome to Attracting Culinary Tourists, an Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar.

Agenda

Before moving on in the webinar, please note the sidebar along your screen where links to external references and other resources will appear throughout the presentation.

At this time, it’s important to acknowledge the extraordinary value that Indigenous peoples across Canada bring to the tourism industry. The land and traditional territories of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit provide unique culinary offerings that enhance the experiences for visitors to destinations all over the country.

Through the combined efforts of several organizations, including the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada and Indigenous Culinary of Associated Nations, Indigenous culinary has grown into a popular driver for the development of tourism in Canada.

Elevating Canadian Experiences

The tourism sector is a key contributor to Canada’s economy, and there is opportunity to maximize its potential by showcasing our culinary excellence to tourists, both domestic and international, and expanding products and experiences into the shoulder and winter seasons.

Funded by the Government of Canada, the Elevating Canadian Experiences program offers tailored content to help destination marketing organizations and businesses develop strategies to boost culinary tourism as well as winter and shoulder season tourism across the country.

The ECE program is a team effort, in which deep research and shared knowledge are brought together to ensure tourism continues to thrive as an economic pillar in Canada.

Webinar Learning Outcomes

The goal of the webinar is to arm you with the information and tactics needed to attract culinary tourists to your destinations. This includes developing the ability to:

• differentiate between culinary tourism and other forms of tourism, while identifying examples of culinary experiences relevant to your region;
• describe the breadth and diversity of businesses involved in culinary tourism through deconstructing the culinary tourism value chain; and
• explain to tourism operators and stakeholders why culinary tourism is a vital component in servicing the needs of travellers.

This webinar also teaches you how to:

• distinguish between the various types of culinary tourists through an explanation of how the market segment has evolved;
• define foodways and integrate them into existing value propositions to meet the expectations of culinary tourists;
• identify opportunities to generate increased visitor demand through attracting culinary tourists; and
• Apply best practices and grassroots marketing tactics when attracting culinary tourists.

Module One: An Introduction to Culinary Tourism

Intro to Culinary Tourism

Before attempting to attract culinary tourists to your destination, it’s important to understand the gap between the food & drink and tourism industries. By doing so, you’re able to identify ways to bridge that gap, which opens the door to developing compelling culinary experiences that drive tourism in Canada.

Bridging the Gap Between Food & Drink and Tourism

Although many restaurants don’t consider themselves as tourism businesses, it’s critical that those serving food and drink are open and ready to meet the needs of visitors to your destinations. Similarly, not all tourism businesses harness the value that the local culinary community adds to a destination’s product and service offerings.

The result is tourism attractions, such as museums, often sell food that has nothing to do with the place in which they operate.

This situation is not unique to Canada; in fact, destinations all around the world are continuing to serve the food that they think visitors want. However, our research shows there is consumer demand for higher quality culinary experiences that reflect the destination they’re visiting.

So, what does it mean to bring these two industries together through culinary tourism development?

In short, it means offering more meaningful and multisensory experiences that reflect your destinations. It also means stimulating visitor demand and localizing the economic impact on your tourism operators, businesses, and attractions.

And considering the current realities facing the two industries, a shift towards a culinary tourism model will also help build both resiliency and sustainability into Canadian tourism – especially in the post-pandemic era.

Now that we’ve identified the gap between the tourism industries, let’s define exactly what culinary tourism is. It’s considered “any tourism experience where a person interacts with food and drink that reflects the history, heritage, and culture of a place.”

Food tourism, and gastronomy tourism are other labels for culinary tourism, with one term being used over another depending on the destination; for example, gastronomy tourism is more often used in Europe.

The important thing to remember is that culinary tourism is focused on the meaningful connection between food and place.

There are countless activities and experiences associated with culinary tourism. A few examples are:

• apple picking at a local farm or orchard;
• making maple taffy while on a winter hike; or
• having a local and seasonal goods picnic at a remote location or conservation area.

It’s important to understand the diverse experiences associated with culinary tourism, because it shows that not all tourism experiences stand alone from food and beverage. In fact, there is often overlap, which must be consider when trying to attract culinary tourists to your destinations.

To explain, think about how rural tourism is enhanced when you combine it with a culinary-related experience, such as touring a wine region in an RV – with a designated driver, of course.

Or consider how outdoor adventures are complemented by culinary tourism, like a guided fishing trip ending with a shore lunch prepared by a local chef using seasonal ingredients from the region’s food producers.

Culinary Tourism Value Chain

Food & drink products and experiences are used by a variety of tourism businesses to capitalize on the growing popularity of culinary tourism. This led to the development of the culinary tourism value chain, which was designed to increase the competitive advantage of your destinations and their operators.

Given the limited capacity of a single service provider or attraction, businesses band together through collaboration in order to deliver combined value to consumers. This allows individual operators to remain focused on what they do best while benefiting from the increased efficiency and effectiveness of working as a collective.

Visitor experiences are also enriched with each layer of value they receive when exploring a destination. This presents the opportunity for your destinations’ culinary communities to form strategic partnerships with businesses and deliver multisensory experiences that exceed the expectations of visitors.

Any business that includes a taste of place or culinary experience as part of their offerings are featured in the value chain, such as:

• accommodations;
• attractions;
• beverage producers;
• cooking schools;
• farmers’ and public markets;
• festivals & events;
• growers, producers, and suppliers;
• foodservice operators;
• retailers; and
• tour operators.

The Future of Culinary Tourism

Prior to COVID-19, experiential travel was on the rise. And when the tourism industry finally rebounds from the pandemic, research suggests the trend will continue to rise in popularity.

We know there is pent-up demand for travel and consumers are seeking human connection more so than ever. Culinary tourism offers hands-on, multisensory experiences with local businesses and attractions and allows visitors to connect with your destinations in a more meaningful way.

Also, as we’ve seen in the past, and especially through the pandemic, consumers are increasingly more aware of their local food system. And travellers are no different, wanting to know where their food comes from when visiting a Canadian destination.

Culinary tourists are especially eager for hands-on experiences that allow them to interact with the people and stories of the places they visit. For them, it’s a way to get to know the destination better.

The pandemic has also shown that driving trips will be prioritized over flying, specifically with culinary tourism in mind. As such, there’s an opportunity to target Canadian travellers who wouldn’t normally travel within the country but are now looking at places closer to home.

This also indicates a shift to a more safety-conscious decision-making process about where, when, why, and how consumers travel for pleasure. Knowing this, businesses must develop communication strategies to educate travellers about how they are kept safe when visiting your destinations.

Aside from that, outdoor activities and attractions with fewer crowds are bound to be favoured in a post-COVID environment. It’s important to keep this factor in mind when developing culinary tourism experiences in your region.

Module Two: What Attracts Culinary Tourists?

So, what attracts travellers to remote and rural destinations?

As you know, urban regions often seek to attract a broad range of consumers who haven’t visited or seldom visit their destination. An international traveller from the U.K. or the U.S., for example, who might only travel to Canada once or twice in their lifetime.

A rural explorer, on the other hand, is often from a large urban area and looking to escape the bustle of the city. They are interested in day trips to the smaller communities surrounding where they live and are keen to make the most of their free time with family or as a couple. And if a relative or friend is visiting for a few days, these types of consumers will often suggest the unique culinary tourism or agritourism experiences nearby as something to do.

Rural explorers are looking for unique, quality experiences to discover, try, and be pleasantly surprised by. Which presents an opportunity for rural communities across Canada, as they are ideally position to fill the needs of travellers searching for hidden gems, quaint and tranquil sceneries, and small-town hospitality.

Don’t forget, these consumers aren’t interested in the most luxurious, most iconic places; they want to make discoveries off the beaten path, while connecting with nature and creating lasting memories with friends and family. They are also passionate about supporting local businesses and attractions and often seek out farm-to-table experiences when available.

Finally, rural explorers share their adventures with other tourists more often than international travelers, and the potential for repeat visits and additional product sales are much higher – even after they return to their urban homes.

Before moving on in the module, please refer worksheet now available in the sidebar.

In the worksheet, jot down a few points about one of your favorite trips, specifically what you remember about the culinary experiences in and around the destination.

Now, ask yourself:

1. What role did food & drink play in making the trip one of your favourites?
2. Why would people travel to that destination specifically for food and drink?

Module Three: Identifying and Understanding Culinary Tourists

Foodies and Food-Connected Consumers

Next, let’s identify exactly who culinary tourists are.

When talking about the culinary tourist, there is a common stereotype about who that person is. Many of us picture someone at a fancy restaurant, taking Instagram photos, and writing about culinary experiences on their food blog. They are the quintessential foodie and an important part of the market. But they are only part the story.

Although a foodie is very much a culinary tourist, they are only one part of much larger market segment. In fact, culinary tourists are a very diverse group who are motivated by experiential travel and want authentic connections with the destinations they visit.

In other words, culinary tourists are “visitors who plan their trips partially or totally in order to taste the cuisine of a place.” They are both consumers looking for exclusive meals at high-end restaurants as well as those craving street food from markets stalls, while some culinary tourists are agritourists looking to connect to where their food comes from.

Before defining the other segments of culinary tourists, let’s take a closer look at foodies first.

These are the classic, niche food tourists who plan some of their trips specifically around food and drink experiences. And even when they are travelling for other reasons, such as a business trip or family vacation, they are still looking for ways to incorporate local tastes into their itinerary.

Foodies are motivated by food and drink, of course, but they are also interested in a destination’s culinary-related activities and agritourism offerings. These consumers are informed and plan many of their experiences and must-visit attractions in a destination prior to their arrival; this includes making the necessary reservations for accommodation and transportation.

It’s important to note, culinary tourism is a direct subset of cultural tourism, which means many foodies can also be considered cultural tourists. As such, when attracting this type of traveller to your destination or business, remember to clearly communicate the local culture, unique culinary experiences, and experiential tourism offered.

It’s also imperative to have a strong online presence with an informative, accessible website that allows consumers to plan their trip ahead of time.

The second group of culinary tourists are food-connected consumers.

Remember, not all food tourists think of themselves as being that specific type of traveller. So, unlike foodies who often make decisions about travel based on food and drink, food-connected tourists view culinary experiences as a pleasant and enjoyable add on; but it’s not necessarily a determining factor when selecting a destination to visit.

As such, food-connected consumers typically don’t plan all of their culinary experience in advance. This presents an opportunity to spontaneously attract these consumers to your businesses and attractions after they’re arrived to the destination.

To explain, consider a traveller who happily stops by a farmers’ market because the owner of the local B&B recommended it to them. In this case, they didn’t specifically seek out the experience, but having it suggested to them added a multisensory element to their stay, which made the trip that much more memorable.

A third type of culinary tourist is the agritourist, which is a niche segment within food tourism.

Many culinary tourists enjoy agritourism activities, like berry picking and visiting farm stands; however, agritourists take their passion for food and drink a step further, seeking out first-hand experiences such as watching demos, joining a farm tour, or even volunteering to stomp grapes at a local vineyard.

Agritourists are also interested in food production and want to learn about the people, places and practices involved in the agriculture of a destination.

For operators trying to attract this type of culinary tourist, watch the Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar, Growing Agritourism, which is now linked in the sidebar.

Other Types of Tourists and Tourism

The final type of culinary tourist is every other type of travelling consumer.

When you expand your definition of culinary tourism and the culinary tourist, it’s easier to identify the ways you can localize dollars within your region. Remember, all tourists have to eat, and in turn, that creates an opportunity to boost tourism through unique experiences with food and drink.

Even if someone’s primary reason to visit is having an outdoor or rural experience, as a business, there are ways you can enhance their trip through culinary offerings. This is true for restaurants and food providers, but there’s also potential for attractions, accommodations, and festivals as well.

Sometimes, all it takes is good storytelling to convince a visitor the extra dollar for a local product is more than worth it. The key is to connect consumers to the real people – the growers, producers, brewers, and so on – behind the scenes.

When you use the power of this type of local upsell, what you’re doing is turning a general tourist into a culinary tourist. And by doing so, you’re also encouraging them to support the local economy in your destinations.

Food and drink is only a primary motivator to visit a destination for a select group of tourists: foodies. Meaning, culinary tourism doesn’t live in isolation, and more often than not, culinary experiences are seen as a complement to other tourism activities.

This is beneficial as not every destination has the ability to provide a complete food tourism experience. But that doesn’t mean food and drink aren’t still a very important part of the offering. To this point, 88.2% of destinations consider gastronomy a strategic element in defining their image and brand – even if it’s not the main draw of the region.

To explain, consider the history buff who visits a destination to explore its heritage sites and museums. During their trip, their interactions with food and drink, enjoying homemade ice cream while touring a historical town, for example, are what help create a well-rounded and truly memorable experience.

With that in mind, at the destination level, this presents opportunity to build out culinary experiences alongside your primary tourism draws.

Module Four: Attracting Niche Markets to Your Business

When it comes to attracting these niche markets – foodies, food connected consumers, and agritourists – to your business, the strategies are different than luring an international traveler to a major destination like Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver.

Don’t expect your business, particularly small restaurants and farm attractions, to be automatically added to an itinerary because of its immediate appeal. Your products and services are more likely to be complementary to the trip and experienced outside of the traveller’s itinerary.

As such, it’s important to tailor your marketing accordingly, knowing your business is something a visitor will discover once they’ve arrived to the area – or as a special stop along their way from one place to the next. Partnering with main-draw attractions or tourism operators and creating unique packages is another opportunity to attract culinary tourists.

And when you offer authentic, multisensory experiences tied to the people and places of a destination, your business has the chance to become an unexpected highlight.

Before we move on in the module, thinking back to your responses about your favourite trip and how culinary experiences made it more memorable. In the second worksheet now available in the sidebar, expand upon thoughts by answering the following questions:

1. How does access to local food and drink affect the destination’s offering?
2. How could this destination be strengthened by local food supply chains?
3. Do you know where their food supplies coming from? If so, include those locations in your answer.

Genuine and Immersive Experiences

Generally, tourists are looking for authenticity and great experiences tied to the place they’re visiting – which highlights the importance of creating genuine and immersive culinary offerings that connect ingredients, production, and processes to the local culture and traditions.

For instance, in Bangkok, a unique experience is the floating market, where canals are lined with “street food” suppliers. It’s a decades’ long tradition in Bangkok, and part of local, everyday life, but for a traveler, it’s an incredible farm-to-fork experience unique to the destination.

Multisensory Experiences

Next, developing multisensory experiences is vital when attracting culinary tourists to your business. This means taste holds as much weight as sight, sound, smell, and touch.

In other words, food and drink is complemented by all the other types of sensory experiences. In the Bangkok example, food is only part of the draw; it’s a combination of the boat ride, the smells and sounds of the bustling market, and the interesting scenery that makes the experience truly memorable.

In a nutshell, a multisensory experience appeals to all five senses, with food and drink being the only tourism offering capable of doing so. This is why it’s important for businesses with unique culinary products to offer authentic and immersive experiences, such as tastings or on-farm samplings, where all five senses are engaged.

For operators looking for more information on creating this kind of experience, watch the Elevating Canadian Experiences webinar, Multisensory Experience Development, now linked in the sidebar.

Risks & Barriers

We’ve discussed some of the opportunities of attracting niche markets to your business, but what about some of the challenges?

Let’s take a look at what would deter a tourist from participating in an immersive culinary experience.

Safety is one of the primary concerns for travellers considering a food tourism or agritourism experience. Consider the floating market in Bangkok and the potential for water-related accidents; or visiting a Canadian farmstead and the dangers associated with being on a working farm.

Whether it’s picking fruits and vegetables, foraging for mushrooms, or floating on a river and tasting new foods, there are perceived risks to culinary tourism as well as real ones – even more so following a global crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

To reduce fear and build trust with consumers, it’s important to address these risks ahead of time and clearly communicate how your prioritizing the safety of visitors. This starts with identifying all the risks surrounding your experiences; and don’t forget, what appears safe and routine to you, might be totally new to a tourist and outside of their comfort zone.

It’s important to remember, similar to most consumers, tourists will often choose something more familiar than an activity with too much uncertainty surrounding their safety and comfort.

Attracting Niche Markets to Your Business

So, how do you infuse authenticity through local cuisine and traditions into your own business, and how can you create multisensory experiences within your destination?

First, by identifying foodways and where your ingredients come from, and then highlighting why those specific products are important and how they’re connected to your destination’s culture and traditions. This includes why these offers are unique to your business the community you operate in.

Businesses offering authentic and immersive experiences offer layers of value not only with their products or services, but also with the stories told by the owners, their staff, and even their local customers.

Module Five: Defining Foodways

Before moving on in the presentation, let’s refer back to your favourite trip again. You can record your thinking in a third worksheet that is now available for download in the sidebar. During your culinary experiences:

1. Were you ever curious about how the food and drink was prepared?
2. Did you think about the ingredients used and where they came from?
3. Or did you consider whether the cooking techniques and agricultural practices were tied to local culture and traditions?

When you start to think about the journey your food takes from farm-to-table, an interesting story unfolds.

A good example of this how there are multiple versions of a tourtière in Quebec, with each being declared as the original, featuring their own unique stories and flavours depending the region and seasonality of ingredients.

Generally speaking, tourtière, six-pates, and pâté à la viande are all types of meat pies in Quebec. However, the recipes – from the ingredients used, the availability of the meats, the spices, and so on – differ from region to region. So much so, strong competing views exists in the province on what a tourtière really is.

Ask a Saguenéen what a tourtière is, and they’ll give you a very different answer from someone in Gaspé, while another chef in the Montérégies will claim their recipe as being the most authentic. That’s a prime example of a culinary tourism experience that is directly tied to a destination because the pies reflect local cultures and traditions.

In an increasingly globalized world, why do we continue to associate maple syrup with Canada, tacos with Mexico, risotto with Italy, and wontons with China?

You’ll find these foods in the markets and restaurants of your hometown, but many of us will still travel a great distance to try these dishes in the places they originate from. You see, the history of food and drink is often regional, with the ingredients naturally tied to local history, culture, and the landscape.

Which is to say, tacos, risotto, and wontons are more than just menu items; they’re a manifestation of a destination and its regional foodways.

So what are foodways?

Consider foodways as:

• the connection between agriculture and the people of a place;
• the driver of regional culture and traditions; and
• the main contributor to shaping the landscape and livelihoods of the communities across Canada.

This is why culinary tourism plays such an important role in celebrating and protecting rural heritage in your destinations.

Foodways are dynamic. They change in relation to social, economic, and environmental conditions, which is why there are unique stories related to foodways in every destination. Foodways are the who, what, where, when, why, and how of food – they are the reason food becomes part of the fabric of a community.

So, if you offer a culinary tourism experience, foodways are an important piece of the puzzle. Think about the suppliers you support with the food and drink you offer travellers:

• Where do the ingredients come from?
• How are they tied to your region and local traditions?

These elements are something visitors are eager to connect to. Don’t miss an opportunity to share those stories and reflect local foodways in the experiences you offer.

Tastes of Place

Another element to consider are the Tastes of Place, which directly connect locals and visitors to foodways. These are the interactions and experiences that bring life to the stories behind the food and drink of your region.

That said, there is no single taste of place for a destination. For instance, the tourtière isn’t solely associated to Quebec, nor is the dish a complete reflection of the culinary offerings in its many destinations. No, instead, think of the tastes of place as a compilation of experiences and interactions with the food and drink available in your region.

And remember, it’s not just about the ingredients and flavours of a dish, but it’s also about connecting travellers with the people, places, and foodways contributing along the way.

Intangible Assets

Tastes of place aren’t always things that you eat and drink; they can also include intangible assets, such as rural hospitality, agricultural landscapes, community feel and good company. Through storytelling you can tie all these pieces together and make the connections more obvious for visitors.

By including memorable experiences in your business and tying them to the region, you connect to the foodways and create a bond between the destination and traveller, making the experience unique and more meaningful.

Local Food

Culinary tourism can move a trip from great to unforgettable, with food and drink adding an additional sensory layer to the memories – that of taste. And local food is an excellent way to deliver this type of experience.

The concept of farm-to-fork, or sea-to-table, is about connecting diverse local supplies to authentic culinary experiences. Doing so creates added value, which most tourists desire and are often willing to pay a little extra for – from paying a dollar more for a local craft beer to seeking out food and drink retailers with specialized goods and unique atmospheres unlike anything found at the average grocery store.

Personal vs. Regional Foodways

That said, local food is not the be all and end all of culinary tourism. It’s also important to consider the evolution of recipes when exploring a region’s foodways. Think of an Indian restaurant on Vancouver Island: perhaps they offer a local blueberry lassi alongside the traditional mango variety.

This is a cultural fusion reflecting the influence of local ingredients on traditional recipes. Yes, local food and drink plays a key role in defining the foodways of an area, but in this instance, local sourcing is not essential to food tourism development. Instead, the personal or regional foodways are a more important highlight.

For some travelers, food is more than sustenance; it’s a way of understanding a place. That’s why showcasing foodways through storytelling is so important when communicating tastes of place to visitors – it illustrates personal food journeys and makes the consumer’s experience more meaningful.

A simple example of this is when a menu explains a family restaurant’s connection to the dishes they offer and the foodways that brought the ingredients to the visitor’s plate.

Tips for Integrating Foodways

To help you integrate foodways into the development of culinary tourism in your destination, please refer to the following five tips. You can also download the full list of tips for reference through the link now available in the sidebar.

• Tip 1: Offer a unique “taste of place” or expression of your region and understand how your business fits into the regional food tourism narrative. Most importantly, let people know that you do this to attract food tourists to your business.
• Tip 2: Identify where your ingredients and products are sourced from, including promoting your suppliers
• Tip 3: Celebrate your partnerships within the local community, including online
• Tip 4: Share stories about the recipes you use and the food you serve, and how it is tied to the region or your family history, both in person and online
• Tip 5: Offer tastings, trainings, and/or educational opportunities that empower your staff with the knowledge required to sell your food, because if the owner isn’t always present, staff need to know the stories too.

Module Six: Reaching the Market

So far we’ve discussed how to attract niche markets such as culinary tourists. Now, let’s touch on how your reach these types of consumers. Fill out these reflection questions in the new worksheet available in the sidebar.

Before we dive into this section, let’s think back to your trip memory again. Recall that favourite trip and reflect on these two questions, including the most common responses:

1. How did you learn about the experience before selecting it as part of your travel itinerary?

2. Was it an experience you planned for before leaving, or something that was impromptu and complementary?

Use the Right Mediums

People are getting their news from an ever-increasing list of non-traditional mediums. Such as:

• Buzzfeed;
• news apps; and
• review sites

Having a website isn’t enough today. Keep in mind, if a consumer has browsed your website and is ready to purchase a product or an experience, it’s likely that individual was attracted to the site by many other forms of media beforehand.  Your website is often the last path to purchase, so it’s important to consider how you’re driving traffic to your website.

Remember, your audience is ‘hungry’ for easy to digest, engaging, beautiful content and they are using modern tools and apps to do so. This highlights the importance of connecting to consumers using the right mediums, while providing relevant content that educates, entertains, and inspires.

It’s also important to note the current trends of popular media. In this case, visuals – such as captivating images and videos – receive more engagement in the form of shares, likes, and comments.

Social Media Content

Education and awareness are key elements to creating a lasting impression online. Social media can drive sales, yes, but rather than selling a product through your posts, seek to inform, guide, and educate your followers instead.

The internet is a noisy place, with consumers being bombarded by advertising and sales messages at every turn. To stick out from the crowd, focus on drawing travellers to your website by telling inspiring and educational stories about your destinations and the experiences you offer.

Your posts don’t have to be picture-perfect either; as long as you offer value through interesting and engaging content, visitors are more likely to be interested to learn more.

For instance, a farmer can share a short, simple video on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok explaining the growing process of apples. Or the owner of a local seafood shop can share a short blog post about their first time catching lobster and how the experience inspired them to follow fishing as a career path.

These are types of stories and content that create excitement around your destination and the businesses within it. Again, it’s about highlighting the connection between the ingredients, the place, the agricultural techniques, and the people who make up the culinary experiences you offer.

Engaging Through Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)

Destination Marketing Organizations and Provincial Marketing Organizations, TripAdvisor, Yelp, and AirBnB experiences are all examples of Online Travel Agencies and tourism social media channels.

Claiming your space on any of these platforms presents you with opportunities to connect directly with consumers and potential visitors. And don’t’ forget, clients leave reviews on these channels, so one of the best way to stay top-of-mind is to review the pages of the businesses within your destination and responding quickly to customer reviews – whether they are positive or negative.

Prepare your messages in advance if you want to save time, but try and make each response as personalized as possible – you don’t want to sound like a robot! Be responsive, spontaneous, and use humour when appropriate. Most importantly, be respectful, genuine and show compassion when answering reviews.

Engaging consumers through Online Travel Agencies is the perfect opportunity to showcase the whole culinary experience, not just the taste. The temptation is to just post pictures of our storefront, restaurant, barn space, or picturesque scenery, but it’s the food and the ambiance of a destination are what attract culinary tourists the most.

So focus on what you serve; not your space. And don’t be afraid to showcase the ingredients you use along with where they are sourced from, especially if it’s local.

Brand Positioning & Storytelling Tips

Finally, to help you establish a strong brand positioning and attract culinary tourists through the power of storytelling, please refer to the following tips, which are also available in a final download in the sidebar.

• Tip 1: Include high-quality photos of food products and experiences in your online presence
• Tip 2: Share food-based updates through your social media channels and encourage customers to do the same
• Tip 3: Actively collect feedback from customers on your food products and/or experiences
• Tip 4: Facilitate positive reviews of your food products and experiences on review sites and respond constructively to negative comments, as appropriate
• Tip 5: Know the key components of your food and drink story and share these consistently
• Tip 6: Share your story in diverse ways, both in person and online
• Tip 7: Ensure visitors leave your establishment with a clear understanding of your food and drink story
• Tip 8: Empower staff to be ambassadors for the region who can recommend other food and drink experiences for visitors to enjoy

Thank You

Thank you for your participation. Be sure to check out other culinary tourism webinars offered in the Elevating Canadian Experiences content hub.

For more information, or if you have any questions, please visit culinarytourismalliance.com.