Tourism Product Clustering- Williamsburg & Virginia's Eastern Shore, Virginia
October 26th - October 31st
This mission is intended to visit rural groups/communities who in recent years have built a clustering product concept that has been successful and are actively participating in a coordinated branding effort. Participants will learn about developing partnerships and how to build a complimentary tourism industry versus a competitive industry. The destination visited will highlight main tourism attractions who are supported by high-quality services (hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, etc.) to create a successful clustering concept.
Participants would be regional tourism associations, DMO’s, municipalities, economic development associations, tourism support services, etc. from the 4 Atlantic Canada provinces.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
• To meet with stakeholders within a rural region, who have recognized the value of increased tourism product, and have developed and implemented a strategy for tourism clustering through a mix of services and attractions
• To observe first hand a rural destination with successful product clustering and to gain knowledge on what constitutes its success
• How to integrate the operators and municipal units of destination so that they think of themselves as one part of a larger destination rather than being in competition for themselves.
• To learn techniques on how to encourage buy-in from operators in the area
• How clustering improves competitiveness and sustainability
• What kind of partnerships can be developed with the community leaders and economic partners
• To learn from “real life” implementation projects on how product clustering can be created and maintained
• To learn key marketing tools (signage, logo, taglines, etc.) that are necessary in clustering a region and making it self-sustaining and therefore ultimately successful.
• How can various smaller organizations work together for a greater region
- The professionalism of presenters – they have been “in the trenches” and dealt with real issues and shared from their first hand experience the lessons learned from their exposure to the situations – practical recommendations were passed on.
- The repeated “framing” and “reframing” of presentation and our practical field trips within the content of ideas and concepts being presented about “cluster tourism”.
- Great connections made between other operators in the Atlantic Region both in Canada and the US (Virginia) – hopefully this networking will result in some positive outcomes for our operations on both sides of the border.
