Upcoming Missions

The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) is a trail that offers 135 miles of hiking and biking between Cumberland, MD, and Duquesne, PA, near Pittsburgh. To stimulate the local economy along the GAP, the exemplary Trail Town Program was developed, creating a continuous trail experience that connects communities and towns along the trail to service today’s trail users who frequent restaurants, bike shops, grocery stores, small town shops, etc. This is a destination where clusters of tourism products and businesses exist in conjunction with walking trails for visitors and the trails effectively partner with these local businesses. The purpose of this mission is to learn how to develop trail products/communities that encourage the trail user to get off the trail to enjoy the scenery, services, and heritage of the towns. How to develop partnerships with local businesses/communities, and gain insight into what trail users expect for standards, price and length of stay will be key components of the mission.

Niagara-on-the-Lake and South West Ontario, Ontario

Research tells us there is a growing demand for travel experiences that include food and more travelers are seeking locally sourced foods and information about the characters responsible for their growth and presentation. This mission will visit establishments that provide an authentic, hands-on, tourism experience whereby one learns about, appreciates, and consumes food/drink that reflects the local, regional, or national cuisine, heritage, culture, tradition, or culinary techniques. Food interpretation, cooking school experiences, and culinary tourism experiences will be featured and the mission will reinforce the higher price point that visitors are willing to pay for experiential components.

Riding Mountain National Park and Winnipeg, Manitoba

A great proportion of visitors in Atlantic Canada are looking for tourism “experiences” – this mission will concentrate on interactive tourism experiences and packaging. Celes Davar, President of Earth Rhythms Inc., will be facilitating this mission and providing the group with the opportunity to experience his company, which is a leader in experiential learning, learning adventures and customized experiences in Western Canada. The group will meet with facilities and service providers, who create experiences that are inherently personal, engage the senses and make connections on an emotional, physical, spiritual or intellectual level through the programs, guides, and facilitators used.

Cape Cod, New Hampshire and lower Massachusetts region, USA

This mission will explore extending the fall season, encouraging travel in the spring season and will visit a destination that demonstrates successful, innovative, season extension initiatives that can be applied in Atlantic Canada. Destinations visited will have similar seasonal challenges but have collaborative efforts among stakeholders to develop an action plan to promote and develop season extension. This mission will explore opportunities to develop shoulder season business while paying attention to programming, itineraries, packaging, and value-added features.