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 Anna Moran, Director of Research, Planning and Decision Support at anna.moran@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
The Emerging Destinations Program helps communities identify and position their most compelling tourism product and attractions to increase awareness with potential travellers. Tourism Nova Scotia will collaborate with municipalities, chambers of commerce or business associations to determine opportunities to attract travellers to their community during their preferred season (fall, winter or late-summer) and identify short-term actions to help them increase awareness of their community. Partners will receive target market research insights for regional travellers, coaching using 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/travel 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.
Digital Adoption
Tourism Digital Assistance 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 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 receives more than 11 million views annually. 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.
Compelling Tourism Communities Marketing Initiatives
CTC Advertising: We are inviting partners such as regional tourism organizations, municipalities, community tourism organizations or business chambers, sector organizations, and product clusters to provide input and insight into what attracts visitors to their regions, and we will use this input to inform campaign content development. Three provincial campaigns, summer, fall and winter will be developed to run in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
CTC Content Development: Using input from our partners, we will identify opportunities to create high-quality photos and videos to build marketing assets, particularly in areas/sectors that have untapped potential for content to support effective marketing initiatives. TNS will capture content by working with content creators such as production companies, photographers and/or influencers. Final content will be uploaded to Simpleview (TNS’s photo and video content bank) for use by the tourism industry and travel media/travel trade to promote the province as a travel destination.
CTC Travel Media: Using input from our industry partners, we will work to identify content creators in each core market (Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Germany) to explore a specific area/region of the province or a specific product/ experience cluster. The goal is to create content that encourages travellers to visit and enjoy Nova Scotia’s unique, compelling communities and experiences. Content will focus on ‘hidden gems’ not yet captured, seasonal content, events, and new and existing products generating tourism interest.
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.
2023-24 Regional Reports
Tourism Nova Scotia created regional reports under the Compelling Tourism Communities Initiative that break down results for each of the seven tourism regions in the province. Download the 2023-24 reports:
Bay of Fundy & Annapolis Valley
Cape Breton Island
Eastern Shore
Halifax
Northumberland Shore
South Shore
Yarmouth & Acadian Shores