Francophone heritage and culture as tourism drivers

The Economic Development and Employability Network (RDÉE Canada) is an organization dedicated to the vitality of Francophone and Acadian minority communities in Canada. The promotion of Francophone culture and its tourism products is one of its major development levers.

One of the flagship projects in this field is Hello Canada, formerly called The Francophone Heritage, Cultural and Tourism Corridor. However, the awareness of communities about their tourism potential is fairly recent and many challenges arise. Following this observation and with the desire to confront it, the renewal of the tourism strategy was necessary.

Touriscope has carried out several mandates for RDÉE Canada, always in line with these issues and objectives.

- A tourism strategy for French-speaking minority communities, over 4 years;
- A tourism strategy for its Quebec partner CEDEC (Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation) for English-speaking minority communities in Quebec;
- A business plan for the Corridor made it possible to specify the offer and the target customers as well as to identify a distinctive value proposition leading to the development of an effective sales pitch;
- Support for the preparation of a recovery plan following the COVID-19 crisis was provided, as well as for its implementation. This includes strategic intelligence to facilitate decision-making;
- Two tourism training workshops for RDÉE Canada members on virtual tourism experiences and on tourism marketing.

Thanks to this recurring support, RDÉE Canada has been able to exercise stronger leadership with its partners and tourism players. The result will be increased competitiveness of operators in French-speaking minority communities in the Corridor in the long term.