Boosting culinary tourism in New Brunswick

Driven by the growing interest of consumers in local products and authentic experiences, the New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage wanted to boost the culinary tourism offer in its province. As part of the community assessment program developed by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), the city of Shediac was selected to accelerate the development of seafood and lobster tourism, for which it is renowned. The city of Saint-Quentin, for its part, was chosen to develop the tourist attractiveness of experiences related to maple and maple syrup production.

ACOA's community assessment program consists of three phases:

Stage 1: Community Assessment: The sustainable tourism community exploration tool created by Tourism Atlantic was useful in analyzing the economic, environmental, and social characteristics of the destination. Through interviews, the exercise makes it possible to clarify the roles and responsibilities of actors in tourism development, but also to establish a timetable and identify the expected results.

Stage 2: Accelerated Market Preparation for Selected Operators (PPAM): This program allows tourism businesses to increase their standards of excellence (products, service quality, operational efficiency, partnership opportunities, etc.) through the possibility of consulting independent and qualified experts on issues specific to their activity.

Stage 3: Capacity building sessions: The two previous phases make it possible to identify issues and opportunities that deserve to be explored through workshops led by experts and offered to all tourism stakeholders or all persons interested in the sector in the community.

Tourism evaluations of these municipalities have allowed elected officials and development actors to better understand their offer as well as the trends that constitute opportunities. Thus, the exercise made it possible to define priority areas of intervention for both communities in order to maximize the reputation of destinations, to diversify the offer, to fight against seasonality and to commit to the path of sustainable development. An action plan including a short, medium and long term timetable accompanies communities in these activities.

For operators selected for the PPAM, the program allows them to improve the customer experience, their strategic knowledge as well as their competitiveness, which translates into increased earnings and profitability.