Newfoundland and Labrador Product Development Strategy

- 213 -General ConclusionsOther conclusions the consulting team has reached on development funding include thefollowing:o As mentioned earlier there is a need for both capital and operational support for naturaland cultural attractions development.o Close the door when a particular opportunity is filled. Take care to not supportoverbuilding.o Funding agencies could benefit from coaching on incentives and how to bundle them,particularly for proactive initiativeso We need to get over the thinking that all communities/areas are deserving of support fortourism development – that refusing a community support is condemning it. That policyframework is simply unfeasible and destructive to viability and sustainability. The onlysustainable policy is to build on strengths – communities that can really becomedestinations, hubs and service centres and make them strong with critical mass. This isthe cluster concept, which is key to success and sustainability. Section 7 addressed thisissue.o The funding agencies need to develop an entrepreneurial, strategy/opportunity drivendevelopment process, to operate independently from application-based programs, such asthe Business Development Program and the not-for-profit/community developmentassistance programs under SCIF for example.Impact on Competitors IssueSupporting a tourism development project inevitably raises the question of ‘If you are helpingone project, are you hurting others catering to the same or similar markets?’Section 9 addressed the issue of how to address the competitive impact of new accommodationsprojects or expansions and proposed an approach to dealing with the challenge. In the text tofollow we have generalized and modified that approach to make it more general to fit productdevelopment more generally.First of all, it is important that the question of whether the issue of competitive impact should bean important consideration in dealing with a particular project. It shouldn’t be just that one ormore other operators object. There needs to be a more systematic assessment of this question ineach case. The discussion of this question with respect to ‘demand generating’ development, andwith ‘demand influencing’ projects is important in this regard. Projects that meet a high standardof demand generating/influencing should merit more emphasis on the strategic and economicbenefit side of the question and less on the competitive impact side.THE ECONOMIC PLANNING GROUP of Canada Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism Product DevelopmentD. W. Knight Associates Strategy and Accommodation Needs Study