THE OPPORTUNITY

Canada’s first National Urban Park is located on the edge of Toronto, Canada’s largest metropolitan area. Home to a diverse natural, cultural and agricultural landscape, Rouge National Urban Park set out to understand the market and experience opportunity before undertaking the development of a gateway visitor centre for the park.

THE PROCESS

The tourism market assessment and visitor experience conceptualization with Rouge National Urban Park was undertaken as a joint project by BC Hughes and ^the Tourism Company. The project started with the development and delivery of a series of workshops which were designed to get Parks Canada staff to think about the goals of visitor experiences at the visitor centre, and the essence of the national park as a destination for visitors. These elements acted as important fundamental factors used to guide multiple stages of the project.

THE OUTCOME

An assessment of the best bet target markets for the tourism attraction was completed to ensure visitor experiences developed would attract visitors.  The resulting markets were used to guide the recommendation of 15 potential visitor experiences that the tourism attraction could implement. Nine were fully conceptualized, working through the plan with a small group of parks staff, visualizing the experience concept, details, market, revenue potential and competitive differentiation setting each experience apart from others being offered by the competition.

Wow, what an enjoyable and excitement-building document to peruse. HUGE kudos to you and the team on this amazing work. On a gloomy grey Monday like today, this was just the inspirational and colourful read that I needed.     – Parks Canada Staff Member