Your Adventure Awaits

THE SITUATION

New Brunswick, one of Canada’s Atlantic provinces, has always been well-known for their motorcoach and family travel offerings, appealing to travellers interested in the destination’s culture, heritage, and coastal charm. In late 2014, New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture looked to Bannikin for help on capturing new markets in North America; specifically the adventure travel niche in the United States. Bannikin was keen to get involved in organizing the province’s first-ever adventure travel FAM trip in 2015.

WHAT WE DID

With Bannikin’s reputation in the trade industry as the representatives of the most under-the-radar and unique adventure offerings worldwide, we successfully executed New Brunswick’s first-ever adventure travel FAM trip. Bannikin’s efforts included:

• Working in a consultative role to curate a special interest-focused itinerary for the FAM using the province’s natural resources, such as marine wildlife viewing, hiking/walking, sea kayaking, cultural immersion, history, and more. We like to call this ‘experience design’.
• Creating a target list based on trade partners with highest potential for interest in the destination, then performing all outreach with a tailored strategy.
• Organizing end-to-end trade participation on FAM trip, including invitation design, guest list management, and itinerary development for 5 American tour operators and 1 member of the Adventure Travel Trade Association.
• Sourcing Atlantic Canada specialist photographer for duration of the FAM, creating content to be used by trade partners in destination promotion
• Providing guidance on post-FAM followup with participants
• Creating customized post-FAM feedback form to solicit suggestions for improvement and perception of destination from participants
• Providing New Brunswick with a report with participant feedback and our recommendations for best practices for successful experience design using their resources.