The Compelling Tourism Communities Initiative will help local leaders throughout the province further understand what inspires people to visit and spend time and money in their communities. Programming will include market research, advertising, support for community visitor information centres, website development, and digital marketing training.
Click on the columns below to learn more about the programs and activities included in this initiative.
Research
Voice of the Visitor Survey Program
This is an opportunity to work with our research team to gain insights about visitors’ perspectives on topics that are important to your business or organization. Tourism Nova Scotia and our market research partner will help you craft questions to effectively derive the feedback you are seeking, administer the survey, and provide you with a report that analyzes results for your questions. Eligible tourism businesses, organizations, and government partners can apply online to participate in an upcoming survey at no cost.
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Surveys/focus groups
In spring 2022, Tourism Nova Scotia engaged with Nova Scotians and visitors to deepen our understanding of Nova Scotia’s unique strengths as a vacation destination, digging into the regions. This research is helping to inform programs and activities and will be shared with our program partners. If you’re interested in learning more about the research findings, please contact Richard Foot, Research Manager at richard.foot@novascotia.ca.
Accommodation Needs Assessment Update
Tourism Nova Scotia is working with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency to update the 2017 Tourism Accommodation Needs Assessment. The project will provide current data that will allow communities, accommodations operators, investors, and tourism businesses to inform their business decisions. Updates will be shared when the research is complete.
Community Destination Development
Emerging Destinations Program
Tourism Nova Scotia will work with municipalities, chambers of commerce or business associations to determine opportunities to attract travellers to their community during their preferred season (summer, fall or winter), and identify short-term actions to help them increase awareness of their community in 2023-24. Partners will receive target market research insights for regional travellers, coaching using new community tourism tools and resources, and new marketing content, such as a social media post and photography from a travel media/influencer visit and a new story or itinerary on NovaScotia.com.
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Compelling Tourism Communities Toolkit
Tourism Nova Scotia is developing the Compelling Tourism Communities Toolkit to help communities identify their competitive strengths and position their most unique and compelling businesses, products, and experiences to entice travellers to stay longer and spend more in their communities. The toolkit will include a collection of tip sheets and work sheets and will launch in 2023.
Digital Adoption
Tourism Digital Assistance Pilot Program for Communities
Eligible communities can receive up to $15,000 in services from qualified digital consultants to help overcome gaps in their digital marketing and online services to better promote their tourism products and attract travellers. Eligible activities include website design, search engine optimization, digital marketing strategy, social media management, content development, and website analytics.
This pilot program builds on the successful Tourism Digital Assistance Program for businesses and will also be delivered in partnership with Digital Nova Scotia. There is no cost to participate.
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Marketing
NovaScotia.com Upgrades
Nova Scotia’s official trip planning website received more than 14 million views in 2022. Tourism Nova Scotia is conducting a comprehensive review and update of content on the site featuring more than 40 communities throughout the province. We will be using community pages, stories, itineraries, and imagery to highlight each community’s most compelling tourism experiences to inspire people to visit.
Community and Tourism Cluster Marketing
- Content Development Program: Established community destinations or lead organizations for tourism clusters (such as groups of wineries, arts and culture, museums, campgrounds, trails, events, and outdoor activities) will work with Tourism Nova Scotia to develop new engaging content to support marketing efforts. This could include photography, video, and/or travel media content or coverage.
- Digital Marketing Program: Communities or lead organizations for tourism clusters that already have high quality marketing content and will collaborate with Tourism Nova Scotia and our marketing agency of record to deliver a community-focused digital marketing campaign targeting travellers in the Maritime Provinces.
Visitor Services
Tourism Nova Scotia works with the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia, Truro & Colchester Chamber of Commerce, and Destination Eastern and Northumberland Shores to provide funding to 50+ community visitor information centres throughout the province. Through the Compelling Tourism Communities Initiative we provided additional funding to these community visitor information centres to help extend their operating season into the fall, improve infrastructure, and upgrade digital technology to enable sharing of content to promote local products and experiences.