Partnering for Success

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.