Assessment Findings and Suggestions Report Yarmouth & Acadian Shore - November, 2013 Introduction

Assessment Findings and Suggestions Report YARMOUTH & ACADIAN SHORE - NOVEMBER, 2013 Introduction Opportunity Assessment trade shows, etc.) 2) Websites INTRODUCTION 3) Brochures and printed materials In July of 2013, Roger Brooks International 4) Publicity (articles) performed an Opportunity Assessment of the Yarmouth & Acadian Shore, Nova Scotia, and the 5) Word of mouth - the most effective means findings were presented in a two-and-a-half hour We searched the internet for activities, requested workshop in October. The assessment provides and reviewed printed materials, and looked for an unbiased overview of the area - how it is seen articles and third-party information. As we prepared by a visitor. It includes a review of local marketing for travel to your community, we searched both efforts, signage, attractions, critical mass, retail mix, commercial and organizational websites promoting ease of getting around, customer service, visitor the area, tourism websites, and read travel articles amenities such as parking and public washrooms, and guidebooks. overall appeal, and the community’s ability to attract overnight visitors. The marketing assessment determined how effective the marketing was in convincing a In performing the Opportunity Assessment, we potential visitor that the area would be worth a looked at the area through the eyes of a first-time special trip, a stop, or an overnight stay. The key to visitor. No prior research was facilitated, and no the marketing assessment is to see if you have a community representatives were contacted except primary lure that makes you worth a special trip of a to set up the project. The towns and surrounding two-hour drive - or from further away. The question area were “secretly shopped.” Any person looking on most visitors’ minds is: What do you have that I to relocate their business, industry, or residence will can’t get closer to home? What makes you worth a come to your community as a visitor first.T ourism special trip? is the front door to all your economic development efforts. Where most communities falter is when they merely provide “lists” of what the community has, whether Once potential visitors find information about your it’s truly “unique” or not. Nearly every community area, are the marketing materials good enough to in North America promotes the usual list of close the sale? In the Marketing Assessment, we diversions: local museums, shops and restaurants, reviewed your visitor website and print marketing plenty of lodging, golf, outdoor recreation, historic materials. downtowns, scenic vistas, etc. Of course, nearly every visitor can do these things closer to home. So, A typical community has five opportunities to close what makes the Yarmouth & Acadian Shore worth the sale: the trip? 1) Personal contact (visitor information centers, Always promote your primary lure first - what 2 Acadian Shore, Nova Scotia - November 2013 Introduction makes you worth that special trip. THEN, promote The area benefits from tourism when visitors your diversionary, or “complementary” activities. spend money, and they do that in the local gift Would you go to Anaheim, California, if Disneyland shops, restaurants, hotels, etc. Therefore, the On- wasn’t there? Do you think that Universal Studios site Assessment includes a candid look at private and Knotts Berry Farm mind that Disneyland gets businesses as much as public spaces and amenities. all the glory? Of course not. Eighty percent of all tourism spending is with those secondary activities. For every shortcoming or challenge we note during Disney does the heavy lifting in terms of advertising the assessment process, we provide a low-cost and promotion, and the diversionary activities “suggestion,” where possible, on how the challenge benefit. can be corrected or overcome. The suggestions are not termed “recommendations,” as they were In a nutshell, the Marketing Effectiveness developed without consulting the communities first Assessment looks for what makes your community about possible restraints, future plans, or reasons worth a special trip, or a great place to live, or to why the suggestions may not be appropriate. do business. We look for details, details, details. Do Hopefully this assessment process will open you give a reason for visiting, and do you provide dialogue within the communities, leading them to enough information to make it easy to plan a trip? adopt some or all of the suggestions, taking them Are the marketing materials good enough to close from suggestions to recommendations. the sale? It’s important to note that to increase the The second part of the assessment process is area’s tourism industry, fulfilling one or two the On-site Assessment. During this part of the of the suggestions may have little impact, but assessment, we spent several days in the area, implementing a number of them, if not all, can have looking at enticements from the highways a profoundly successful impact on the area’s ability (signs, billboards, something that would get a to tap into the tourism industry. visitor to stop), beautification and overall curb appeal, wayfinding (ease of getting around), Implementation of these suggestions must be visitor amenities (public washrooms, visitor a region-wide effort, involving both privately information, parking), activities, overall appeal, owned businesses as well as local, county, and retail mix (lodging, dining, shopping), critical mass, provincial agencies, where appropriate. Every local customer service, area attractions, pedestrian organization plays a role in tourism, downtown friendliness, gathering spaces, evening activities, revitalization, or economic development efforts. and the availability of marketing materials, A Destination Marketing Organization (DMO, CVB, their effectiveness, their helpfulness in finding Chamber, TPA, etc.) will not be successful if the attractions, and if they over-sell or under-sell the tourism effort is not region-wide. experiences. In many cases, issues may come up that you are already aware of and are already working on. In Acadian Shore, Nova Scotia - November 2013 3 Introduction that case, the assessment validates those efforts. the necessity of having to provide extended But more often than not, the assessment will point social and other services. Visitors come, spend out things that you are aware of but can’t mention money, then go home. When you import more or bring up without paying a political price. Local cash than you export, you have a positive “balance politics can be a killer of the tourism industry. of trade.” Communities with successful tourism programs easily see that the industry subsidizes the While marketing efforts are important, product community, whereas other communities find that development is the most important factor of a they subsidize visitors – providing services visitors successful tourism industry. Visitors want activities, use without them leaving enough money behind to not just things to look at. How much time can a cover the cost of those services. visitor spend enjoying activities - that cater to their interests - in your area? Do your communities The primary goal of the tourism industry is to bring have truly unique attractions the visitor can’t get more cash into the local economy. This doesn’t closer to home? You must be able to deliver on happen when visitors come into the community, your marketing promises – otherwise visitors might get out of their cars, and take photographs. And come once, but they won’t come back. It’s much it doesn’t happen when visitors go swimming in more cost effective to bring people back, than to the lake at your park all day, sunning, and eating always go out and entice new visitors into town. the lunch they brought from home. And it doesn’t “Been there, done that” communities eventually run happen when visitors hike down your trails, enjoy out of visitors and find they don’t have a sustainable your interpretive centers, or stroll through your tourism industry, or they simply become pit stops lovely arboretums. These are all great things to do, or gateways on the way to somewhere else. and, of course, you do want your visitors to do these – but, you also want to entice them into your shops, After spending several days reviewing marketing your cafes, espresso stands, restaurants, galleries, materials and assessing the community, we have B&B’s, and hotels, ultimately opening their wallets looked at all of these issues, and have developed to make purchases. That is what helps your local some suggestions and ideas the communities can economy, your small merchants, your hoteliers, and discuss and possibly implement to help increase your tax coffers. tourism spending locally. To entice visitors to spend money in your SUCCESSFUL TOURISM TRANSLATES TO CASH community, you need to have places for them to spend it – you need to have the right mix of shops, Tourism is successful when the community imports restaurants, entertainment, and lodging facilities, more cash than it exports. When residents spend all in an attractive setting, as well as attractions that their hard-earned money outside the community, make them want to visit you in the first place. the community is exporting cash – often referred to as “leakage.” Tourism helps fill that gap, importing cash into the local economy without 4 Acadian Shore, Nova Scotia - November 2013 Introduction THE THREE TYPES OF TOURISM activity is shopping and dining in a pedestrian- friendly setting. 1. Visiting friends and family The number one reason people travel is to visit The average leisure visitor is active 14 hours a day, friends and/or family. If you did nothing to yet typically only spends four to six hours with the promote tourism, you would still have tourism primary lure. They then spend eight to ten hours in your community. However, when friends and with diversionary activities - things they could family come to visit, do your residents take them do closer to home, but will do while in the area.

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