Creative Rural Communities - Prince Edward County, Ontario
October 19th - October 24th
Destination provided an authentic tourism experience related to culture, arts, food, heritage and people. Destination was one where there is cooperation among all segments of industry to cater authentic experiences to the tourist. This mission focused on local foods, heritage, culture, tradition, culinary techniques and the process of capitalizing on these elements to establish a rural experiential destination.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- How to grow a creative rural community through authentic experiences related to culture, arts, food, heritage and people
- The process of establishing a destination as a rural experiential destination – the partnerships, challenges, successes, and end results of the project
- How to tap into the trend towards local experiences as a way to make our operation more “tourism friendly.”
- How to create authentic experiences, through local food and wine, for visitors that are thematically linked to culture and heritage.
- How to establish cooperation between all segments of industry, especially the craft, agriculture vs. retailers in order to provide the customer with a well rounded and consistent experience
- The importance of finding and fostering partnerships in the area to better source local product and working together with more non-tourism oriented businesses.
- How to offer unique experiences through experiential itineraries, touring routes, and weekend packages (i.e. rustic nature trails to signature wine/culinary touring, Arts Trail, etc.) to extend visitation.
- How to encourage positive communication between sectors (culinary, wine, and artisans)
- How to connect producers and potential consumers through educational events like fairs, markets, and local events as a means to showcase products
- To learn media and communication ideas for promoting at the destination level as well as the operator level
- How to achieve success at marketing to both customers of existing businesses as well as attracting business investment to the community.
- What are the economic benefits of providing authentic experiences through local products and how can leveraging rich cultural resources support the local economy and community development (what business investment has taken place since redeveloping the region)
- To learn about new ideas and techniques to improve the guest’s authentic experience and what types of experiences can be used to help increase the interest and understand the importance of the authentic experience through food and people.
- How to incorporate tourism into an agricultural enterprise
- How to create a Culinary Trail that works to link agriculture, tourism and the food community that promotes sustainable cuisine by celebrating the joys of local, seasonal, and artisan cooking
- How to develop product ideas linked to local regional/themes
- How to create regional consistency of entire customer experience with emphasis on presentation
- How to assume distinct roles in preparing the region for further market readiness, and work together to create unique experiences for the visitor (i.e. culinary and wine education sessions)
- How to achieve price points that will compete with industrialized product but also will compensate the operators
Destination provided an authentic tourism experience related to culture, arts, food, heritage and people. Destination was one where there is cooperation among all segments of industry to cater authentic experiences to the tourist. This mission focused on local foods, heritage, culture, tradition, culinary techniques and the process of capitalizing on these elements to establish a rural experiential destination.
- Make a greater effort to work with other tourist venues aside from the arts
- We have the “authentic experiences” but we need to organize and focus
- Partnerships of the inns with attractions and promotion of the other sites is a wonderful model.
