SEARCH RESULTS

The Tourism Cafe Canada is excited to announce that Lesley Anderson is joining our team to provide the additional skills, knowledge, expertise and industry networks to propel our business forward and respond to growing demand. Launched in 2010, the Tourism Cafe is enjoying its 6th year of operation. “As requests for our tourism training and destination development services continue to grow domestically and internationally we created this new position for Lesley to enable us to extend our reach into new markets, develop and deliver innovative and diversified training solutions” says Dr. Nancy Arsenault, company co-founder. “It was important to recruit the right individual to integrate seamlessly into our team. The fit couldn’t be better.” Lesley Anderson is a destination marketing and development professional with a wide ranging, diverse career in the private and public sectors as an operator and educator. Her 20+ years in the tourism industry has encompassed government destination marketing, airlines, cruise, receptive tour operations, on-the-ground tour operations and the wine industry. Her vast industry experience is backed by her educational credentials that include a Master of Arts in Tourism Management from Royal Roads University, Provincial Instructor Diploma from Vancouver Community College, and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from Queen’s University. Recent career highlights include: Executive Director for Tourism Nanaimo, Brand Experiences Manager with the Canadian Tourism Commission (now Destination Canada), and a Backroads guide in eight countries, where her multi-linguistics skills served her well. She’s also enjoyed position with the Banff Television Foundation, E&J Gallo Wines and Canadian Airlines. Lesley is not new to the Tourism Cafe, she has been an industry colleague for many years helping to design and test critical frameworks that contribute to our training. She is also a member of our company’s FasTurtles cycling team that fundraises for charity events. Her new coordinates are: lesley@tourismcafe.org and mobile phone 250.668.5988.

Today we give a special shout-out to Tourism Cafe business partner Todd Lucier, his wonderful family Northern Edge Algonquin Celebrates 21 Years(Marth, Tim, Emily and Natalie), Gregoire (their amazing chef) and everyone else at Northern Edge Algonquin. The Windsor News just posted a fabulous article on their 21 year journey that takes saw their passion as educators be unfulfilled in a traditional classroom, yet thrive in a nature based educational retreat centre they have built to Canadian Signature Experience and Ontario Signature Experience recognized company. Follow your hearts and dreams and amazing things happen. As the article states: “One of the benefits of the retreat is that it’s off the grid. “There are not many places in the world where people can go and be disconnected from the technology that supports their daily lives. This is a place where people can come to restore and recharge,” says Todd. “There’s something special that happens when you’re sitting at a table and someone isn’t whipping out their cellphone.” With travelers coming from far and wide, even attracting such exotic guests as Tibetan monks and Peruvian and African shamans, Martha explains how, “we are building bridges to other cultures, and other ways of being, that are offering ways of living more fully.” In 2009, their educational commitment extended beyond their retreat when Todd became a partner in the – tourism training and industry development company – and was able to continue their love of education in yet another business venture. Congratulations!

On behalf of our team at the Tourism Cafe – Happy New Year! We wish you all the best in 2016. To kickstart our year, we’d like to give thanks by supporting a worthy charity “Water Brigades” through the University of Victoria who’s mission is to ” to empower communities to access sufficient clean water through infrastructural development, water treatment, community leader training and education.” We are fortunate in tourism to work in an industry that creates opportunities for people to travel around the world and experience the many people, cultures and special places. Many communities however first need the basics, so we start our year with a shout out to the UVic students who will volunteer with Water Brigades to enrich the community, themselves, learn, love, and share with others.

The disruptive economy – a term all arage now as business models are being redefined to respond to the marketplace. As I watch the debate over love/hate Uber/Airbnb the bottom line is they are here, serving a need, generating income in different ways in a community and have a huge fan base. Check out how Uber has been an inspiring underpinning for OYO in India’s hotel sector as one of the newest disrupters in this article on reinventing hotel distribution in India.

The importance of the EXPERIENCE is not new to business. Pine and Gilmore first penned the foundational concept for the Experience Economy in 1999 and businesses around the world have been embracing the economic potential for going on two decades. For tourism businesses, this is certainly been essential to product and market development in ensuring the EXPERIENCE is paramount. Today, one of my favorite authors Brian Solis is quoted as saying “There’s marketing as we know it (broadcasting, a lot of talking, shiny object chasing, vanity metrics, etc.) and marketing as a form of engagement and community building (listening, learning, context, culture, targeting, collaboration, co-creation, etc). Brands don’t mean what they used to mean. They’re now experiential.” It all comes back to the EXPERIENCE, and we know from Colin Shaw and associates that a great customer experience is the combination of the physical and emotional engagement – the latter is the one we are all looking to master! At the Tourism Cafe we created a conceptual model in 2012 that captures the importance of any tourism business examining the physical and emotional connections throughout all touchpoints of the visitors’ journey – before, during and after they travel. This is important because our business is only part of a travel experience. The ability to craft meaningful experiences, and weave together a journey that leads to fans and advocates must consider all touch points. Businesses must excel at doing what they do best and partnering for the rest to have an impact.

Morgan Blake wrote “2015 was a year of disruption. In 2015 the world’s largest taxi company owns no taxis (Uber), the largest accommodation provider owns no real estate (Airbnb), the most popular media owner creates no content (Facebook), the largest telecom operator owns no telecom infrastructure (Skype and WeChat), the world’s largest software vendors don’t write the apps (Apple and Google) and the world’s largest movie house owns no cinemas (Netflix).” This is real, the future, and debates about ‘should it be allowed’ will be just that debates. The reality is, all of these innovators have cleverly found massive markets where a need was not being met. You may argue whatever angle you like, but the numbers don’t lie – these are companies that are a force to be reckoned with. What is more instructive is what can you learn from these businesses to apply to your own thinking? When you are bogged down in infrastructure investments, acquisition, and development have you stopped long enough to think about the customer experience. And, if you have, and it’s not ‘the kind you fancy’ do you dismiss the idea. The reality is – it’s not about you, its about your customer, visitor, buyer, business partner. Understand what they need, dare to be different and only day your name may appear in lights – even if it is a smaller world with a tighter influence.

Take five and enjoy reading this new case study published by Travel Alberta on Jasper Motorcycle Tours. A Canadian Signature Experience, this company has exploded onto the Jasper scene enchanting guests with a unique, highly personalized and engaging side car tour on a Harley Davidson. Dressed in chaps, full biker gear and feeling the breeze as you whisk through the mountains with an amazing storyteller, this experience is attracting people of all ages, particularly ‘wanna-be-bikers’. It is the only experience of its kind in North America and their journey, as a new experiential business, is worth a read. Plus this case study offers more than print – follow the underscores in the text and it will lead you to video clips that bring the story to life! Thanks so much Candace Broughton, owner/operator of Jasper Motorcycle Tours for sharing your story with others may learn and be inspired! Thanks to Travel Alberta for building case study examples of excellence into your training to bring the success of your businesses to life.

If you ever debated about the power of the consumer to communicate THEIR version of a destination AND offer travel advice to others, in two languages, then take a look at this. Diane Davis from Gander NL recently posted about her friends Edwin and Hilda who have visited Newfoundland several times and loved it so much they have taken to promoting it as a passion. Offering visitor information in English and Dutch, they respond to inquiries, particularly from Europe, and provide trip planning advice to help people plan their visit. Check out their website. This takes blogging to a whole new level and is driven by a travellers’ desire to share the destination through their own eyes. Not the PMO, not the DMO, the RTA or the business. Talk about a positive impression to inspire such action. Businesses wake up! You must engage online – strategically and thoughtfully. It is so curious to me that some businesses still don’t have a website (yes it is true). Others remain afraid of TripAdvisor (#1 trusted source and only requires your time), and the killer reasons: (1) I don’t have time to invest in all the online options (2) I don’t understand where to invest (3) I can’t afford it. You could have the best business in the world, but if visitors don’t know about you, can’t find you online you will be less and less relevant in the consideration set of travellers each year. Sure your local and loyals will continue to provide business – but what happens when they stop and you haven’t kept up with the world! Many travellers don’t know what Destination marketing/management organizations are, so when they are google searching and a site like Edwin and Hilda’s one comes up – looks professional, has more information than many tourism businesses offer – who would you believe? Trust? If I was the DMO – I’d thank them for their passion and ask them to put a link to the official sites!!!

Just wanted to share news of TripAdvisors New Green Leaders program. GreenLeader hotels and B&Bs apply to be included in the TripAdvisor GreenLeaders Programme. If accepted, GreenLeaders achieve one of four statuses: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The higher the status, the greater the impact of a property’s green practices. If there is anything we can do to grow sustainable tourism it’s promoting organizations that follow best practices. There are two ways tourism businesses can be recognized for green practices – certification and award recognition. TripAdvisor is already the worlds most popular website for travel is well positioned to both certify and recognize green leaders. I have long been an advocate for sustainable tourism awards as opposed to certification because of the cost of assuring certification compliance is usually put on operators making most certification systems really expensive. Certifying bodies require significant infrastructure and staffing costs as well. Most certification systems provide financial rewards to consultants at the expense of tourism operators. Many certifying agencies exist such as Green Key, Green Globe and others. The International Ecotourism Society has a helpful sustainable tourism certification and standards resource addressing a number of issues related to certication. TripAdvisor’s program is innovative in that the tourism operator can complete a complete a comprehensive survey-based tool that results in recognition for accommodators with green practices. TripAdvisor assigns accommodators a certification level based on their sustainable practices reported. Northern Edge Algonquin, our Algonquin Park nature retreat recently completed the application process and achieved a Platinum Level recognition which is really nice. It took just two weeks from filling out the survey to having the Green Leaders icon added to our TripAdvisor listing. By adding the Green Leader Badge to accommodation listing, travelers are assured the operator is following best practices in sustainable tourism. The Green Leader Application / Survey is a really nice comprehensive checklist of things for accommodators to consider – even if they don’t yet qualify for a green rating. Just completing the survey is a great way for accommodations to learn about best practices in sustainable tourism. Most importantly, the program is free! TripAdvisor’s Green Leaders program avoids the costs normally associated with certification compliance because in TripAdvisor’s ecosystem, the guest review system is the quality assurance system. It costs TripAdvisor little to ensure compliance. TripAdvisor members assure operators deliver the quality services they promise. Certification of an operators green practices is ensured because in essence any guest could report an operator’s practices if they didn’t comply with the standards of green leadership. TripAdvisor’s Green Leaders program seems to do both provide recognition (award in the form of a badge linking to green practices) and certification (crowd-sourcing compliance with guest reviews). The Green Leaders program recognizes leaders while crowd-sourcing the sometimes expensive certification process, replacing it with member reviews. Kudos TripAdvisor! Learn more or apply to be a TripAdvisor Green Leader:

This past week I was very pleased to welcome Atlantic Canada tourism allies to my Algonquin Park home, Northern Edge Algonquin in the ‘Explorer’s Edge’ region of Ontario. The purpose of this mission was to showcase a range of tourism experiences and tourism providers that demonstrate Best Practices in culinary, cultural, experiential, and nature tourism under the umbrella of sustainable tourism. Over the past decade I have been privileged to work with tourism industry professionals throughout Atlantic Canada, in particular as a course designer and facilitator for the Edge of the Wedge Program at GMIST where I have shared many stories of innovation and transformation from this community over the years. I was nervous. It is one thing to offer tourism training to tourism professionals in a classroom or conference centre. It’s also easy to write reports or make recommendations by writing about tourism. It’s quite another thing to offer learning experiences for my colleagues right in my own home (our nature retreat sleeps up to 30 in winter) with our partners and local businesses. I felt quite naked – exposed. Stories are a great way to learn, but on this mission we spent the week with my team, partners and tourism allies from the surrounding community to learn how our remote, rural community has built world class experiential tourism offerings. Centred at our solar-powered nature retreat on the edge of Algonquin Park, participants experienced first hand how our team is crafting unique and targeted visitor experiences recognized as Canadian and Ontario Signature Experiences. From this base, we visited inspiring destinations, companies and most importantly – learned from people in the region. Although we learned a bit about business practices we really explored concrete ways to leverage community assets – in people, experiences, and locations to build resilient communities with tourism experiences that involve multiple stakeholders. Having never organized a Best Practice Mission, I was delighted to be able to put this one together in a way that brought focus to a variety of themes that I have come to realize embody truly sustainable tourism. You won’t find most of these in the manuals on sustainable tourism, but over the past three and a half years since I’ve been living and working exclusively in my community I’ve found them to be the most important components of sustainable, cultural, culinary, experiential and nature tourism. We wove together ideas/themes including: Gratitude. Inviting Collaboration. Me to We. Small. Tailored. Fusion. Joy. Care. Slow. Up close. Inspired people. Under-utilized assets. Authentic. local FIRST. Stories. Continual enhancement. I am very grateful to the people I work with who shared their time and expertise with us this week. From our opening session with Ojibwa artist Dan Commanda who taught us about the medicine wheel and helped us create medicine pouches, to a walk in the forest with Tom Bryson, a logger practicing sustainable forestry for more than forty years, Kara Mitchell who taught about sustainable trails and growing Shiitake mushrooms in the forest, yoga with Vicki, Bees with Boards, music with Sean Cotton and Tree Ring Records and so much more. All of it was backed up admirably by my team at the Edge including (of course) Gregor Waters who did so many things I’d have to write another post to get it all in. My hope is that participants came away with a deep appreciation for the value of infusing experiences will local flavours at mealtime and beyond, and inspiration to leverage their own resources to build new and exciting visitor experiences with an appreciation for the importance of community collaboration. #SustainableTourism

If you go to a networking function – TO MEET PEOPLE AND PERHAPS SOLICIT BUSINESS – you dress for the event, put on your best smile, and find the conversations that will be mutually beneficial (you hope). Simple. Why is it then when people join B2B websites like Linkedin for the very same purpose (albeit in cyberspace) they don’t post their picture? Do you want to communicate anonymously but not be seen? Why if you want to do business? Are you afraid of being recognized online? Why, what did you do…..? How can I find you in a crowded room if we cross paths one day and have an opportunistic chance to talk face-to-face? If you are online for your business – I suggest you smile for the camera, post a great photo and let people recognize you! It just may be the touch of personalization that differentiates you in today’s world?

Building on a commitment to sustainability and conservation initiatives, Starwood Hotels & Resorts has introduced sustainable-meeting guidelines at every North American property. Starwood’s Sustainable Meeting Practices (SMP) will also roll out globally in 2011. The program revolves around five core components: Paperless Meeting Planning, Sustainable Meeting Services, Sustainable Food & Beverage Practices, Impact Assessment Tools, and Socially Conscious Activities. Starwood operates 1,000 properties worldwide, and expects to open another 80 hotels over the next year. “Rolling this program out across North America formalizes environmental practices our hotels have been implementing and we are excited to encourage,” said Sandy Swider, Starwood’s Vice President for Global Citizenship. “Clients who rely on Starwood properties for great meetings also appreciate that they become our partner in sustainability and environmental stewardship by cutting waste and conserving resources.” Starwood’s iconic hospitality brands include St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, and the recently launched Aloft®, and Element SM. The program’s five core components include 18 practices – from sustainable menu choices and bottled water alternatives to energy-efficient digital signage and potted plants in place of fresh-cut flowers – to be incorporated into all on-property meetings and events. Each component is designed to enhance meetings and all 18 practices were carefully conceived to remain cost-effective and operationally efficient. Starwood has also launched the Meeting Impact Report, an internal online tool that generates a report for clients that demonstrates the impact of their meetings on the environment. As meeting and business travel rebounds throughout 2010, Starwood is seeing increased demand for sustainable meeting solutions, Swider said. “There’s already a strong sensitivity toward sustainability concerns from meeting planners, and they appreciate the programs we’ve put in place,” Swider said. “We think the next generation of meeting planners and attendees will simply expect green practices and sustainability initiatives as a given for meetings and facilities.” Championed by Starwood’s internal Global Citizenship team instated by CEO Frits van Paasschen in 2009, Starwood is committed to delivering tangible improvements to the company’s environmental, social and business performance. “Developing Sustainable Meeting Practices was a year-long process to determine how to meaningfully incorporate sustainability into our meeting practices while maintaining a superior guest experience and keeping costs low for hotels, meeting planners and clients,” said David Dvorak, Vice President of Catering and Convention Services for Starwood. “We are proud of the progress we have made to date – but there is still more to come with additional Core Components and a global roll-out. As an overall Starwood mission, we will continue to provide sustainable resources and practices to our guests, owners and associates throughout our portfolio and corporate offices.” Related Link: Starwood Sustainable Meeting Practices