Newfoundland and Labrador Product Development Strategy

- 34 -pricing, rate structures, discounting, and yield and revenue management were two of thespecific management training needs identified.o The province generally, and a number of areas specifically, were identified as being inneed of more, better quality and/or character accommodation properties. This type ofproperty was seen as having potential to help attract business to a region or to theprovince. Among those areas identified as needing this type of accommodation were St.Anthony and the top of the northern Peninsula, the Gros Morne area, Twillingate, theBonavista area, and the Trinity area.o Concerns were expressed about the growth in unlicensed properties in some areas of theprovince, and a need was identified for the province to enforce licensing standards andregulations.o Representatives of the tourism industry in some areas of the province expressed concernthat a lack of quality accommodation or the right type or quantity of accommodation intheir region (e.g. other than hotels/motels) was constraining the growth of tourism.o Inconsistencies in the quality of accommodation and in the Canada Select ratings wereidentified as a concern.Market PerspectivesMarket perspectives on accommodation trends, and on needs and opportunities as well asstrengths and weaknesses were obtained from secondary sources, as well as from primaryresearch with tour operators (in and outside the province) and consumers (both qualitative andquantitative research).Tour OperatorsTour operators offered a variety of perspectives on accommodations in Newfoundland andLabrador. The product in St. John’s was generally seen as appropriate in terms of quality butthere are serious concerns around availability, particularly in periods of the year with highconvention and meeting activity. Outside St. John’s thereis perceived to be a shortage of good qualityaccommodation and limited availability, particularly for“The price value equation (and star rating)of accommodation outside St. John’s doesin many cases not make sense”“A challenge, both in terms ofquality and availability”groups, in the better quality properties. These twofactors are creating challenges for tour operatorsin assembling a program both from ascheduling/availability point of view and from aquality perspective and are limiting the province’sability to attract more business from the grouptour segment.Tour operators spoke of “bottlenecks” in several locations in Western Newfoundland wherethere are five or six ‘icons’ but only a few properties of appropriate quality that can handletwo coaches a day. Several other areas of concern were identified in Western Newfoundland,concerns that are limiting potential demand and/or traffic to a certain part of the region.These included the lack of appropriate quality accommodation in the St. Anthony area, a needfor more and better quality accommodation in the Rocky Harbour/Norris Point area and for aTHE ECONOMIC PLANNING GROUP of Canada Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism Product DevelopmentD. W. Knight Associates Strategy and Accommodation Needs Study