Many travellers today are seeking out specific travel experiences that speak to their values and interests when travelling. Whether as a couple, a group of friends, or an extended family group, many Canadians have become more aware of the opportunities and benefits of travel closer to home. They are more willing to stay in a location for three to four days. When travellers search for unique ways to encounter local people, or take part in unique experiences, they often look for things to do that reflect local culture, stories, foods, or traditions that they can take part in.
One way that global companies, destinations, and tourism operators have been doing recently this is to develop hands-on, interactive experiences involving a local guide, some kind of unique activity, access to local foods, and stories and out of the way places. This is known as Experiential Tourism.
Here in Nova Scotia, three community partners have recently joined hands to develop a suite of 16 new experiences in the Annapolis Valley region to be available for travellers by spring of 2023. In order to do that, stories (and storytellers) will be coached and developed as new accessible experiences, that will be easy to book online. The Wolfville Farmer’s Market, Blomidon Naturalists Society and Earth Rhythms are developing these new experiences with local area farmers, artists, and naturalists to offer new experiences not both in the summertime, but also in the wintertime as well. Many of these experiences will include an outdoor walk (we have all become aware of the importance of spending time outdoors as a result of the pandemic), a unique activity with a farm producer, local artist, a naturalist, forager or perhaps a community songwriter. “I think that building a whole series of experiences that really champion food, food stories, culinary tourism and a sense of place are well-placed in terms of what visitors want access to,” says Celes Davar, of Earth Rhythms.
Kelly Marie Redcliffe, Executive Director with the Wolfville Farmer’s Market said “...it’s exciting that the experiences that will be created, will be educational and beneficial not only to tourists, but to people living right here in the Annapolis Valley.” Redcliffe said she believes the project will be good for the agriculture and tourism sectors as a whole. "Blomidon Naturalists Society president Soren Bondrup-Nielsen said that because of issues such as the loss of species and the climate crisis, being a naturalist today means also having to advocate for nature. Bondrup-Nielsen said he would be working with farmers who appreciate these facts to help bring more people to their farms and help visitors better understand where their food comes from.” (Excerpted from Saltwire Article, March 24, 2022. Wineries, Ski Martock, Wolfville Farmers’ Market get federal grants.)
Italian company Voomago has been championing what is known as Experiential Tourism for over seven years. Their take on having authentic, visceral experiences is at the heart of what they offer visitors to their towns and villages. "When all of your senses combine to complete an experience, it becomes more meaningful to you. Studies have shown the more senses you engage, the deeper and longer lasting your memories will be. Experiential travel will have you coming back changed, inspired, and more complex, holding on to something that no tangible souvenir can ever replace.” What a wonderful goal!
That’s what we are after here in the Annapolis Valley. To work together with community partners, to help create a new narrative, that when you plan to come to “the Valley”, you will have not only the wineries, cideries, and opportunities for self-driven hiking, dining and sight-seeing. But, in addition, there will be new opportunities for local stories to be accessible as revenue-generating experiences benefiting local people. These experiences will be different from an ordinary tour. They will offer a more intimate, slow-travel way to interact with people who live here, perhaps being inspired to think about gardening, or songwriting, or purchasing food that they eat understanding the local ecology of why these foods are so nutritious, brought to life in an experience with a passionate storyteller.