Newfoundland and Labrador Product Development Strategy

- 25 -For those interested in purchasing a package, the most popular were packages involvingscenic rural or coastal tours, historical/cultural tours and dinner theatre and localentertainment. Visitors from Other Canada were more interested in scenic rural or coastaltour packages, in city tour packages and in motorcoach touring packages, and less interestedin dinner theatre and local entertainment packages, with those from the Maritimes moreinterested in adventure packages and dinner theatre and local entertainment packages.Other ReportsOver the past ten years, there have been numerous studies and reports completed onNewfoundland and Labrador’s tourism sector. A few have been broadly-based province-widestudies (Newfoundland and Labrador Product Market Match Study and the TourismMarketing Strategy Review Study), some have been sectoral in nature (e.g. on golf,snowmobiling, group touring, conventions and meetings), many have been local area orregional tourism development strategies (e.g. Destination Labrador Tourism DevelopmentStrategy, Twillingate Islands Tourism Master Plan) and others have covered specific aspectsof tourism within a region or a particular attraction or initiative. As well, the provincialDepartment of Tourism, Culture and Recreation has prepared numerous papers and strategicissue documents, many related to transportation and infrastructure issues as well as to productdevelopment and marketing. Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador and the various sectorassociations have also prepared position papers and reports on various issues.The consulting team has reviewed the findings and recommendations in many of thesedocuments and, where relevant, incorporated them in appropriate sections of this report.ConclusionsNewfoundland and Labrador offers a diverse range of experiences to visitors, and the visitorsreport being extremely satisfied with these experiences. In part, this may be due to the factthat their expectations are not clear, and perhaps not that high. As one tour operator put it,“Expectations are usually met because people have no idea what to expect in the first place”.And attendees at the focus groups in Ontario commented on the perception in Central Canada(where most of the province’s visitors come from) that Newfoundland and Labrador is full ofpoverty and an unattractive province.Obviously visitors are having a great time, their expectations exceeded. This is great news.But these comments also signal a lack of awareness about what the province really has tooffer. How many people never bother to consider Newfoundland and Labrador as adestination for their vacation trip? Are we understating or overlooking the real things thatmake the trip a success?Clearly the province has numerous ‘tourism experience’ strengths on which to build andenhance so as to support growth of the tourism sector, both in the peak season and in theshoulder and off-seasons. However, there are challenges to be overcome particularly inseasonality, and in maintaining sustainable and viable experiences with operators andmanagers that understand what the market is seeking and how to deliver on the promise.THE ECONOMIC PLANNING GROUP of Canada Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism Product DevelopmentD. W. Knight Associates Strategy and Accommodation Needs Study