Jasper will play host to Alberta’s first ever experiential travel training conference in February, to teach business owners and tourism operators how to refresh their products and attract today’s travellers.
The three and a half day conference—tentatively titled Jasper Experiential Travel Training (JETT)—is being organized by Travel Alberta and the members of the Jasper Partnership: Tourism Jasper, Parks Canada, the Municipality of Jasper, the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce and the Jasper Hotel Association.
JETT is based on a similar conference held annually in Newfoundland, called Edge of the Wedge. Eight Jasperites attended that conference in Gros Morne National Park last year and will now act as the ground team for Alberta’s own conference.
According to Pam Clark, visitor experience manager for Parks Canada, there are two reasons that Travel Alberta selected Jasper to host the pilot project.
“Number one we have this strong commitment of people who have gone to Edge of the Wedge; people who are still committed to being a part of the ground team—because of course it’s going to take a lot of support to pull it off—[and number two] we have some experiences to showcase that others can learn from, so it’s a real pat on the back for our destination.”
Some of those existing experiences are included on the Canadian Tourism Commission’s list of “Signature Experiences.” They include Maligne Canyon icewalks, motorcycle tours down the Icefields Parkway and the Miette Hotsprings, just to name a few.
For the inaugural conference, the hope is to attract 24 participants, including a large number from Jasper.
“This isn’t for the masses,” said Mary Darling, CEO of Tourism Jasper and a member of the conference’s ground team. “To really elevate our experiential tourism product to the world, we really want the pilot program to be Jasperites, and then with Travel Alberta as a major partner, they’ll be looking at inviting some other Alberta destinations into the fold.”
The conference’s facilitators will be none other than those from Edge of the Wedge: Nancy Arsenault and Celes Davar.
The dynamic duo have been collaborating partners for the last 15 years, delivering experiential travel training in different communities across the country in that time. Their role will be to design, develop and deliver the training next February.
That will include classroom sessions and hands-on experience in the park, where participants can go out and see how other operators are creating and delivering experiential products.
“We want to really demonstrate that you don’t have to be an interpretive guide to provide an experience or to build on experiences. It’s about everything from your food to where you’re sleeping,” said Clark, noting that experiential travel triggers all of your senses and provides an authentic, interactive experience.
“It’s not just a guided walk where it’s show and tell; there are elements of interactivity, food from that place, people that live here—these are all things that more and more visitors are looking for, they’re more sophisticated and they really want to know about a place that they’re visiting.”
Darling agreed, noting that it’s about providing visitors with unscripted, authentic experiences.
“It’s not cookie cutter,” she said. “It’s a customized connection that is being created with each individual person.
“So not every single person is going to take away the exact same thing.”
That’s how you create “goosebumps moments,” said Clark.
Registration for the conference is set to open sometime this month and will be made available on Travel Alberta’s website. Once it’s up, Darling said invitations will be sent out to individuals and businesses in town.
Nicole Veerman
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