Product Tours - Concord, NH; Middlebury and Manchester, VT; Worcester and Boston, MA
March 30th - April 4th
Atlantic Canada has many artisans/craftspeople considering how to make their production process into a tourism experience. This mission will visit a destination that has capitalized on the experiential tourism trend and has created experiences involving production processes and facilities.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- How to showcase and manage project workshops using craftsman to produce products and give the visitor a better understanding of the process
- What types of educational tools are necessary to explain the production process, techniques, and materials, and to provide other relevant information.
- How to effectively use exhibition space to show visitors the creativity of craftspeople from a historical and /or contemporary perspective
- How to efficiently use public areas for reading, documentation and archives – enabling visitors who want to learn more about the craft practiced by the craftsperson to read and consult documentation.
- How to properly showcase your salesroom/boutique for sale of the products made by the craftsperson for visitors.
- How to market against industrial standardization
- Learn how to have the experiential production capacity to cater to tourism group tours
- What types of partnerships are necessary to build and maintain when developing a production experience
- How to effectively use visual merchandising and theme development
- How to improve practices in customer service and expand tourism knowledge
- How can artists/artisans open their studios to the public so tourists experience the artistic process first hand
- How to capitalize on a traditional technique or know-how by creating an authentic experience around the craft being produced.
- How adding experiential component to your operation will help become part of a larger regional tourism experience
- How to tap into the trend towards local experiences and making the operation more “tourism friendly”
- To visit craft operators who demonstrate interpretation of their production and open their doors to the public as a means of a tourism experience
-Attempt to keep better records on current and potential clients in order to really “know” my market and be prepared for their future needs.
-We will be testing ways to make the Centre more visitor-friendly and more of an experiential event. We will also be assessing our educational programming and are examining the potential of projects and partnerships based on what was learned on the trip.
-It is clear we do not have the advantage of being next door to large populations and so much work will have to be done by many to increase traffic to our part of the world. Tourism and economic development at all levels of government will need to be involved. Clearly championing the concept of establishing the arts as an economic sector thus stimulator is imperative.
