Assessment Findings and Suggestions Report Truro, Nova Scotia & Surrounding Areas October, 2015 INTRODUCTION

Assessment Findings and Suggestions Report Truro, Nova Scotia & Surrounding Areas October, 2015 INTRODUCTION Opportunity Assessment 2) Websites 3) Brochures and printed materials INTRODUCTION 4) Publicity (articles) In August of 2015, an Opportunity Assessment 5) Word of mouth - the most effective means of Truro, Nova Scotia, and area, was conducted, and the findings were presented in a two-and-a- We searched the internet for activities, requested half hour workshop. The assessment provides an and reviewed printed materials, and looked for unbiased overview of the Truro 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 The marketing assessment determined how attract overnight visitors. 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. Truro and the surrounding one-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. Tourism special trip? is the front door to all your economic development Where most communities falter is when they merely efforts. 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 Truro worth the trip? the sale: Always promote your primary lure first - what 1) Personal contact (visitor information centers, makes you worth that special trip. THEN, promote trade shows, etc.) your diversionary, or “complementary” activities. 2 Truro, Nova Scotia & Surrounding Areas - Assessment Report INTRODUCTION Would you go to Anaheim, California, if Disneyland businesses as much as public spaces and amenities. wasn’t there? Do you think that Universal Studios and Knotts Berry Farm mind that Disneyland gets For every shortcoming or challenge we note during all the glory? Of course not. Eighty percent of all the assessment process, we provide a low-cost tourism spending is with those secondary activities. “suggestion,” where possible, on how the challenge Disney does the heavy lifting in terms of advertising can be corrected or overcome. The suggestions and promotion, and the diversionary activities are not termed “recommendations,” as they were benefit. developed without consulting the community first about possible restraints, future plans, or reasons In a nutshell, the Marketing Effectiveness why the suggestions may not be appropriate. Assessment looks for what makes your community Hopefully this assessment process will open worth a special trip, or a great place to live, or to dialogue within the community, leading people to do business. We look for details, details, details. Do adopt some or all of the suggestions, taking them you give a reason for visiting, and do you provide from suggestions to recommendations. enough information to make it easy to plan a trip? Are the marketing materials good enough to close It’s important to note that to increase the the sale? area’s tourism industry, fulfilling one or two of the suggestions may have little impact, but The second part of the assessment process is implementing a number of them, if not all, can have the On-site Assessment. During this part of the a profoundly successful impact on an area’s ability assessment, we spent several days in the area, to tap into the tourism industry. looking at enticements from the highways (signs, billboards, something that would get a visitor Implementation of these suggestions must be to stop), beautification and overall curb appeal, a region-wide effort, involving both privately wayfinding (ease of getting around), visitor owned businesses as well as local, county, and amenities (public washrooms, visitor information, provincial agencies, where appropriate. Every local parking), activities, overall appeal, retail mix organization plays a role in tourism, downtown (lodging, dining, shopping), critical mass, customer revitalization, or economic development efforts. service, area attractions, pedestrian friendliness, A Destination Marketing Organization (DMO, CVB, gathering spaces, evening activities, and the Chamber, TPA, etc.) will not be successful if the availability of marketing materials and their tourism effort is not region-wide. effectiveness. In many cases, issues may come up that you are The area benefits from tourism when visitors already aware of and are already working on. In spend money, and they do that in the local gift that case, the assessment validates those efforts. shops, restaurants, hotels, etc. Therefore, the On- But more often than not, the assessment will point site Assessment includes a candid look at private out things that you are aware of but can’t mention Truro, Nova Scotia & Surrounding Areas - Assessment Report 3 INTRODUCTION 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? Does your community 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 area, we have looked B&B’s, and hotels, ultimately opening their wallets at all of these issues, and have developed some to make purchases. That is what helps your local suggestions and ideas the region can discuss economy, your small merchants, your hoteliers, and and possibly implement to help increase tourism your tax coffers. 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 the necessity of having to provide extended social and other services. Visitors come, spend money, then go home. When you import more 4 Truro, Nova Scotia & Surrounding Areas - Assessment Report INTRODUCTION lodging establishments, eat virtually all their meals in local restaurants, and their top diversionary THE THREE TYPES OF TOURISM activity is shopping and dining in a pedestrian- 1. Visiting friends and family friendly setting. 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.

Load more