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We are proud to welcome Fernanda Macedo to the Tourism Café team as we grow our e-learning opportunities across Canada. Born and raised in Brazil, Fernanda emigrated to Canada in 2019. She is a talented graphic designer, e-course author, and illustrator with a diverse background ranging from animation in the gaming industry to e-learning and branding. She uses her creativity and keen attention to detail to create engaging and fun online-learning weaves her diverse experience in education in digital media and 3D animation to bring self-paced learning to life. As the newest member of the Tourism Café team, Fernanda brings her passion for travel and tourism, an innate design skillset and an appreciation of in-person and online blended training. She is passionate about eco, responsible and sustainable tourism and is excited to weave this into her contributions as a core member of our team. Fernanda’s has a Bachelor Degree in Industrial Design and Digital Media from Pontifícia Universidade Católica in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and a Graduate Certificate in 3D Animation from Seneca College in Toronto, Canada. Adaptable, optimistic and a team player, Fernanda is wired to find creative ways to bring online learning to life, applying videos and animations, while respecting budgets and client time constraints. When she’s not at his desk, Fernanda enjoys doing yoga, hiking, cuddling with her bunny, fostering animals, and watching movies and series. Join us in welcoming Fernanda to our Tourism Café team. Welcome to the team Fernanda!

Wow, what an honour it is to be a finalist for Businesswoman of the Year, an award that recognizes outstanding contributions to British Columbia's tourism industry. I always scour the list of award finalists and winners to see if any of our program participants, case study companies, or organizations we've supported through research, business or strategic planning is on the list. So it's humbling to see my name there. In working on the development side of the tourism industry, my role is to ensure the success of others. It’s an honour to have my contributions recognized as industry development is a ‘behind the scenes’ activity that fosters the success of others. I love helping businesses create amazing visitor experiences, designing training that inspires and transforms, conducting research that informs actionable strategies, and volunteering to give back to community. Being a finalist in a provincial award hosted by the BC Tourism and Hospitality Industry, sponsored by the Tourism Industry Association of BC (TIABC) and the BC Hotel Association (BCHA), has led to a time of great reflection. Over the years, I've been called the energizer bunny, the rubix cube gal, a catalyst for change, an experiential travel expert and a transformer. Each of these terms makes me smile for different reasons. But it's my passion for inspiring others, creating memorable travel and training, driving change, taking calculated risks and leaving a legacy that propels me forward. I appreciate that my name is on the finalist list, but I'm just the catalyst. None of what I've achieved in my career could have been achieved on my own. I have an amazingly supportive family, a fantastic team at the Tourism Café and incredible collaborating partners. Add to the mix the synergy that comes through collaborating and pushing the boundaries with our clients that provide the fodder for creativity, innovation and taking calculated risks. The legacy of seeing others succeed, knowing they were influenced by the training or development work we do at some point along their journey, is what has driven my passion throughout my career. To all of those on this journey with me, thank you for your influence on my career.

We are honoured to have been awarded the Innovative Business Award by the Comox Chamber of Commerce for developing a unique e-learning business model that allows us generate the business partners and investment to create leading edge online training to support tourism recovery. The Innovative Business Award presented by F12.net, recognises a business that demonstrates advancement in utilizing technology to drive efficiency and productivity. When the pandemic hit, as a tourism training and destination development leader working across Canada, we had to pivot to e-learning and explore different engaging ways to reach our clients. The tourism industry is diverse and represents a wide range of ages, backgrounds, and comfort with technology, but we stepped up to the challenge to create relevant learning that is accessible, affordable, engaging, bilingual and suited for all abilities. “Innovation is essential in the times we live in. It involves creativity, imagination, collaboration and taking calculated risks to carve out new opportunities.” - Nancy Arsenault, Managing Partner Our unique business model for investing in and developing training is based on leveraging affordable contributions with our destination partners to benefit their stakeholders and the larger industry. We are working with destination partners across the country on co-creating blended, virtual and instructor led training using our new Tourism Connects platform. It has been a two-year labour of love, supported by partners in all parts of Canada and our home province of British Columbia, who have collaborated on finding a unique, made in Canada, bilingual training solution for the future. Our entire team at the Tourism Café appreciates this recognition. We are all inspired to continue innovating and growing in the e-learning space. Visit our Tourism Connects platform to register for a course or take our brand-new Tap into Trends 2022 course.

As we approach our second Covid-Christmas it is surreal. When we created the company 11 years ago, we could never have imagined the past 21-months that our industry has experienced, our communities, our families, friends and colleagues. Add to that British Columbia's extreme fires and floods that have literally changed the landscape of our province, and the natural disasters around the world. It reminds us that we must take care of mother earth and we are part of an eco-system that goes beyond our immediate self, job and community. In the spirit of the greater good, we opted to donate to the British Columbia Floods & Extreme Weather Appeal. Every dollar is matched by the federal and provincial governments until the 26th of December. As we pause for the holidays and reflect back, then dream forward, we are grateful to all those we have had the pleasure of working with this past year, the new learnings, the collaboration and creativity, the kindness and trust. We know people will continue to travel, pent-up demand will push us forward, and together we can set a path forward for the tourism industry. As the Managing Partner of the company, I am also extremely grateful for the amazing team we have at the Tourism Cafe. Every person contributes uniquely to the success of our operations. We are a finalist for the Chamber of Commerce Business Innovation Award, and this could not have been achieved without the talents of this amazing team, plus our many collaborating partners and clients who continue to collaborate and co-create for the future of tourism. It is the spirit and heart of those who choose to work in tourism that continues to inspire the future. We are thankful to be a part of the solution contributing to shaping the future of our industry. Happy holidays. We look forward to reconnecting when our offices reopen on January 4th, 2022.

We are honoured to be part of a new tourism training collaboration to create a new leading-edge Indigenous Experiential Travel Training program in Alberta. Two months of engaging and insightful meetings between Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), Indigenous Tourism Alberta (ITA), Travel Alberta and our team at the Tourism Cafe has led to an agreement to move forward. We've added to our team, Tracey Klettl of Painted Warriors (AB), and two colleagues from Moccasin Trails - Chief Frank Antoine and Greg Hopf (BC). Today we travel to Edmonton to share the best of what we all bring from our past in tourism training and development to co-design a new course for ITA to offer to their Indigenous tourism businesses in the fall of 2022. This collaboration responds to four calls to action identified by the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. We are thankful to ISC who continues to champion tourism development and capacity building in Alberta.

We are excited to announce that Kristi Denby has joined the Tourism Café team in a new position as our Sustainable Tourism Development Specialist. An experienced program manager, researcher, and sustainable tourism professional, Kristi’s career in Canada, Peru, Norway, and South Africa has honed her skills and knowledge in advancing complex projects and building collaborative working relationships with government, academic institutions, NGOs, industry associations and Indigenous communities. A certified sustainability practitioner with a Master’s of Science in International Development Studies, Kristi brings a passion for sustainable and inclusive development, social entrepreneurship, female and youth empowerment and social justice to our team. In addition, Kristi will add a valued perspective to the online and in-community tourism training and destination development activities of our company. And while she is new to our team, we have collaborated on many projects over the past few years with her in her former role as the Industry Development and Program Manager with the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association. Amy Thacker, CEO of the CCCTA shared, “While we are sorry to see Kristi leave, we are delighted that as she embarks on the next stage of her career, she will be part of the Tourism Café team that has been a collaborating partner of ours for many years. We wish her all the best and are fortunate that her talents will remain in the tourism industry.” Welcome aboard Kristi!

We are proud to welcome Gabe Guimarães to the Tourism Cafe team as we stage our contribution to rebuilding the tourism industry as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has changed how we work and is opening doors for exciting remote learning opportunities. ​ E-learning, online learning, digital learning - call it what you like - but it is exploding due to COVID-19 and paving the way to permanent additions for tourism industry training and workforce development. Gabe is a native of Brazil, living in Toronto, who will assume the new role of E-learning Developer. He will be a critical member of the team whose design and language skills, combined with his appreciation of in-person and online learning experiences help us expand the training opportunities available from the Tourism Cafe. Gifted with a diversity of technical skills, Gabe loves finding the best technological solutions to enhance e-learning experiences and bring learning online to life. His belief is that learning should be fun, seamless and lasting. He will work closely with our instructional designers and industry topics specialists to design self-paced learning and exciting blended training options that combine virtual instructor-led learning with self-paced elements. After decades of in-community training with online coaching (which we will continue), we look forward to expanding the reach of the training we offer to a broader audience through expanded course opportunities through our e-learning branch of our business Tourism Connects. Welcome to the team Gabe! ​

We’ve made it quick and convenient for you to manage your blog from anywhere. In this blog post we’ll share the ways you can post to your Wix Blog. Blogging from Your Wix Blog Dashboard On the dashboard, you have everything you need to manage your blog in one place. You can create new posts, set categories and more. To head to your Dashboard, open the Wix Editor and click on Blog > Posts. Blogging from Your Published Site Did you know that you can blog right from your published website? After you publish your site, go to your website’s URL and login with your Wix account. There you can write and edit posts, manage comments, pin posts and more! Just click on the 3 dot icon ( ⠇) to see all the things you can do. #bloggingtips #WixBlog

When it comes to design, the Wix blog has everything you need to create beautiful posts that will grab your reader's attention. Check out our essential design features. Choose from 8 stunning layouts Your Wix Blog comes with 8 beautiful layouts. From your blog's settings, choose the layout that’s right for you. For example, a tiled layout is popular for helping visitors discover more posts that interest them. Or, choose a classic single column layout that lets readers scroll down and see your post topics one by one. Every layout comes with the latest social features built in. Readers can easily share posts on social networks like Facebook and Twitter and view how many people have liked a post, made comments and more. Add media to your posts When creating your posts you can: Upload images or GIFs Embed videos and music Create galleries to showcase a media collection Customize the look of your media by making it widescreen or small and easily align media inside your posts. Hashtag your posts Love to #hashtag? Good news! You can add tags (#vacation #dream #summer) throughout your posts to reach more people. Why hashtag? People can use your hashtags to search through content on your blog and find the content that matters to them. So go ahead and #hashtag away!

With Wix Blog, you’re not only sharing your voice with the world, you can also grow an active online community. That’s why the Wix blog comes with a built-in members area - so that readers can easily sign easily up to become members of your blog. What can members do? Members can follow each other, write and reply to comments and receive blog notifications. Each member gets their own personal profile page that they can customize. Tip: You can make any member of your blog a writer so they can write posts for your blog. Adding multiple writers is a great way to grow your content and keep it fresh and diversified. Here’s how to do it: Head to your Member’s Page Search for the member you want to make a writer Click on the member’s profile Click the 3 dot icon ( ⠇) on the Follow button Select Set as Writer

One positive aspect of COVID-19 has been companies stretching their boundaries, revisiting their business plans, finding new and creative ways to partner, collaborate and engage with their tourism industry colleagues and community. The rapid sharing of knowledge that has been co-created through the voices of numerous tourism businesses and their support communities has been amazing. Through our multiple series of Ideas Labs in BC and Ontario, 'conversations that matter' between like-minded businesses were sponsored by the BCRTS, RTO8 and RTO9 in Ontario. Live and in real-time, a wealth of new, post-COVID-insights and inspiration emerged. In the spirit of 'we are all in this together,' Central Counties Tourism (RTO6) invited us to aggregate the learning that involved coast-to-coast business examples to benefit the operators in their region as well. The first of two feature articles, "Attracting Small Groups Through Adapting Your Offer" is published The core story is anchored around this thought-provoking graphic we created as an extension of collaborating with so many tourism businesses this past year. We admired their strength, entrepreneurship, and reflected on the Tourism Cafe'sjourney to 'pivot our business' into the enhanced e-learning space and could completely identify with the hundreds of tourism businesses we engaged with these past 8 months. Take a moment to reflect on the Progression of Adaptation relative to your business. Where are you in this cycle? Then enjoy reading and sharing the article produced for Central Counties Tourism, launched during Tourism Week that highlights feature stories from Roots, Rants and Roars in Newfoundland and Westben and Elliot Tree Farm in Ontario.

The purpose of a survey is to get honest information on which to base decisions. When I received a recent invitation to complete a Superstore survey, it made me angry. On the survey page, they say they want to make my shopping experience better, great. But on the survey invitation, they are telling me how to rate them! Leave a 5 out of 5. What a waste of the customer's time and your research dollars to request a certain rating. How can that be of value to improving your business? People are giving you their time which must be respected. You are investing in research and you should want the best information. Don't lead the response, ask for an honest opinion and learn from the results. If you receive a high average score, pat yourself on the back. If you are afraid you won't get a good rating, perhaps the survey isn't necessary as you already 'know' there are areas to improve and really don't want confirmation. And, if you receive an average of 3.4 on a 5 point scale, this is extremely valuable information to help you reflect on your business and ask "How and where can we improve?" As we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are being inundated with surveys. They are important to help shape the future of business. Telling people what to answer on their survey is wrong and a waste of time and money.