Leveraging Your DMO

Tourism businesses often ask how they can work with their destination marketing/management organization (DMO) to take advantage of the services these organizations provide. Reading recent stakeholder newsletters from DMOs across Canada it struck me that the time has never been better to leverage the numerous programs that are currently offered. DMOs are delivering a wide array of innovative programs to support industry, product and business development.

Here are just a few examples of the array of training opportunities and tools available, many of which the Tourism Cafe has been involved in developing and delivering. To find out more about what’s available in your area, visit your community, regional and/or provincial DMO’s website.

Travel Alberta is offering its fifth, four day SHiFT - transforming products into experiences program in Sylvan Lake from March 21-24, 2019. While this year’s program is full, it’s offered annually by Travel Alberta. This program immerses participants in experiential learning opportunities to build capacity for experience development, with post-course support from the local DMO and Travel Alberta industry development team.

Offerings of Travel Alberta’s new one-day Experience Essentials workshop occurred in January in the Crowsnest Pass and Canmore in February and will continue to be offered throughout the year.

Tourism Excellence North in Ontario offers an array of self-assessment tools, case studies and group learning opportunities for tourism businesses, including case studies, experiential travel training workshops offered, self-assessment tools, best practice missions and individual business assessment and coaching through the Fast Track to Success program.

RTO8 in Ontario offers experience development opportunities through its partnership with Northern Edge Algonquin and the IGNITE experiential training program. The IGNITE training experience focuses on working with operators to commit to actions, enhancing collaboration between attendees and hands-on experience development over 3 days of learning, networking in off-the-grid splendour.

Destination British Columbia recently launched its new learning centre which houses a wide variety of resources for industry on digital marketing, social media, experience development, travel trade and travel media, as well as emergency preparedness and leveraging the Super, Natural British Columbia® brand.

The Gros Morne Institute for Sustainable Travel (GMIST) will be offering its 42nd, well-known and nationally respected Edge of the Wedge experiential travel training program April 8 - 11, 2019. The Edge of the Wedge is an immersive, hands-on opportunity that helps tourism operators explore opportunities to increase revenue potential, competitive market position, new tourism experiences and long lasting community partnerships.

Photos:

Mine and Dine Experience, SHiFT Drumheller 2017, Credit: Travel Alberta

Fort William Historic Site, TEN Experiential Travel Training, Thunder Bay, 2018