Tourism Asset Mapping
October 10, 2024 - Amanda Huculak
Getting your TOURISM EXPERIENCES ‘on the map’
Canadian Ecotourism Services’ passion is to help our clients get their destination on the map. A first and important step to growing your local tourism industry is to understand and recognize the tourism assets and resources you already have. Using a community-driven, grassroots approach, we will work with you to identify your region’s tourism businesses, cultural and natural features, and celebrate and recognize all types of businesses from start-ups all the way up to established attractions.
Why is a tourism asset map important?
Map it.
Tourism Asset Mapping helps to define opportunities for creating connections and awareness for your region, identify gaps in visitor assets, map out areas that are culturally and environmentally significant, define new opportunities for economic corridors and thematic routes, and contribute to social, environmental, economic, and cultural benefits for your community.
What CES can develop for you:
Detailed tourism asset database for internal planning purposes
Interactive online customized map accessible on all devices
Customized map icons and branding for your destination
Self-guided thematic routes, encouraging visitors to explore multiple places and support local businesses
Beautifully designed printable map that celebrates your destination
Digital enhancements for the mapped experiences such as Augmented Reality features
A Story to Share:
The Blackfoot Confederacy Tribal Council recently developed an Indigenous Tourism Asset Database and Map to help identify the region’s tourism businesses, cultural and natural features, and new opportunities for tourism development. This project resulted in creating connections and awareness for their region, identifying infrastructure and resources needed to welcome visitors, and defining new opportunities to build upon what the region already has to offer.
Accomplishments:
Used a grassroots approach to engage Indigenous community members, tourism businesses, and youth in all
four Nations of the regionDeveloped a detailed database with 170 assets
Mapped out 146 Assets on custom Google Map
Created 8 Self-Guided themed experiences
Developed a beautifully designed brochure map that highlights Indigenous experiences in the region
“It’s a first step towards building a grassroots Indigenous tourism destination for the Blackfoot Confederacy Nations. We are excited to see how our region will grow as a destination and having all of our tourism assets and resources compiled in a database and mapped out along key economic corridors.”
- Kimmy Houle, Environment and Economic Development Director, Blackfoot Confederacy Tribal Council.
It was such an honour to be part of this exciting project and helping to bring our client's vision to life. It was so inspiring to discover all of the tour operators, experiences, and significant sites throughout the Blackfoot Confederacy, they truly have so much to offer. What made this project successful was using a grassroots driven approach, and we couldn't have done it without the valuable insights and contributions from Kimmy Houle, the Environment and Economic Development Director for the Blackfoot Confederacy Tribal Council, and the Community Liaisons from each of the four Nations that assisted with using their on-the-ground knowledge to help gather tourism assets. I'm so excited to see what this project leads to since it has already opened up so many doors!