When the COVID pandemic moved Northwest Territories Tourism (NWTT)’s AGM online last fall, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI) also had to adapt the delivery of its long-standing professional development day.
Highlights NWTT Conference - Minister addresses NWT’s tourism industry
In lieu of its traditional in-person training workshops, ITI partnered with NWTT and enlisted Outcrop and digital marketing experts advertience to fund a series of one-on-one online digital bootcamps designed to help tourism businesses maximize the virtual presence of their products and services.
The demand for digital marketing training was certainly there. Once the sessions were announced they were quickly filled within hours; prompted a waiting list and additional sessions being added.
Tourism Digital Bootcamp Training Expanded to Meet Demand
Between November 2020 and March 2021, a total of 34 NWT Tourism members were put through the paces.
For each business, a website audit was conducted by advertience followed by individualized insights provided to each participant, detailing areas for improvement.
Participants expressed how informative and relevant the sessions were. Another common theme in the customer reviews was an appreciation for how easy the sessions were to follow and how confident they all felt in applying what they had learned. In addition, almost all participants inquired about and expressed a desire for future funded training programs that would allow them to expand their expertise.
In their own words, here are a few of the raving reviews that NWT tourism members left on the post-training evaluation survey:
“I found the overall training very well prepared. All facilitators were very knowledgeable and I look forward to working with the team to help move my business marketing to the capacity that has been advised.”
“If I didn’t take this I would be losing out on a wealth of information and tips, where to find and capture the clients, etc.”
“I think this training session is hugely helpful for small businesses unfamiliar with the back end of the digital landscape. It helped me become familiar with terminology and the purposes of the many different metrics/data categories seen on platforms like Google Analytics and how to use them.”
“I first want to thank GNWT for arranging this. It was invaluable. The team on the call from both Outcrop and advertience were exceptional. [I was] thoroughly impressed with their research, preparation and actionable items. I've been through a number of similar forums, but none that were carried out to this level.”
These digital marketing sessions exemplify ITI’s commitment to invest in programs, services and funding to help tourism operators get through this pandemic and emerge positioned for future success.