Achieving AWEsome: Turning Your Tourism Idea into a Memorable Visitor Experience
Do you have a great idea for a visitor experience that’s engaging, exciting, and memorable? The Achieving AWEsome program helps Saskatchewan tourism businesses and entrepreneurs turn ideas into market-ready, bookable experiences that go beyond traditional tours and packages. From concept to promotion and delivery, you’ll get step-by-step guidance, expert training, and coaching. By the end, you’ll have a visitor experience ready to inspire guests and grow your revenue.
Tourism Saskatchewan is committed to fostering the development of distinctly unique tourism experiences.
The Achieving AWEsome program combines training and consultation supports together as one complete experience development program. The cost of the program is free for successful applicants.
Individuals who are new to tourism, as well as business operators who have no previous experience in developing or delivering a tourism experience to the travelling public are eligible to apply. Applicants must be willing to invest time and resources to create an interactive, hands-on guest experience.
Application
The program is application-based.
Timelines
The program is designed to move participants along in a scheduled format. Steps One to Seven will be completed within four months of the program starting date. After Step Seven, timelines will vary depending on the experience in development, time of year or season the experience will be offered, and readiness of the applicant to complete all steps.
Program Financial Investment
The cost of training supports is sponsored for successful applicants.
Approved participants are fully and solely responsible for any and all costs associated with developing and piloting (testing) the experience and must confirm they have the financial resources to do so.
Required Connectivity
Approved participants must have a computer and internet access adequate for attending online meetings and completing the training throughout the program duration.
Journey to Achieving AWEsome
Program Delivery:
Week One and Two
STEP ONE: Introduction to the Visitor Economy – This is an online self-directed course that will take approximately two hours to complete. You will learn about the tourism industry in Saskatchewan, the impacts of tourism, Tourism employment, Tourism myths and success stories, and Tourism Saskatchewan's 10-year strategy for tourism product development across the province.
STEP TWO: Marketing Saskatchewan – This online self-directed micro-course will take approximately one hour and includes a short quiz to complete. It is designed to give you a foundational understanding of the marketing approach used by Tourism Saskatchewan. This course will provide information on Saskatchewan’s unique selling points, market segments, and priority niche markets for growth, all considerations that are important when developing a new tourism product in the province.
STEP THREE: Introduction to Storytelling – This online self-directed course will take approximately one hour to complete and includes a multiple-choice quiz and a simple workbook to submit. This micro-course explores the world of narrative-driven travel experiences and is crafted for individuals wanting to unlock the art and science behind effective storytelling. Upon completing this course, you will possess a comprehensive understanding of storytelling and be able to start to put things into practice.
Week Three and Four
STEP FOUR: AWEsome Experience Design Studio – This online self-directed course that will take approximately 8 hours to complete and includes a workbook to submit. The goal of the AWEsome Experience Design Studio is to inspire and guide you to enhance an existing product or create a new visitor offer with unexpected and high-quality encounters that you will be proud of. Through this course, you will begin to design a memorable Saskatchewan visitor experience that works for you and your customers.
Week Five
STEP FIVE: Tourism Experience Exposure – (in person) This step will bring the participants together in a central location to have them directly participate in an in-market immersive experience so that they all have an improved understanding of what an immersive hands-on tourism experience is. You will come away from this with new ideas and concepts to implement in your own experience design and delivery.
Weeks Five to Fourteen
STEP SIX: AWEsome Actions – This is a facilitated online self-directed course and includes one one-on-one coaching and online scheduled group meetings. This course aims to inspire you by expanding on the concept that you worked on in the previous steps. It will be offered with asynchronous and synchronous sessions (self-directed and group sessions), allowing the participant to work on assignments on their own, and then meet up with their peers and the course instructor to discuss where they are at and continue the development process.
Week Fifteen
STEP SEVEN: Applying Marketing Strategy – This online self-directed course will take approximately one hour to complete and includes a simple workbook to submit. This micro-course is designed to provide you with the knowledge to start creating a marketing strategy for your tourism business. Participants will explore key concepts and tools essential for creating an effective marketing strategy that aligns with provincial planning. By the end of this course, you will have gained the knowledge and skills needed to create, implement, and evaluate effective marketing strategies in various business contexts.
On Demand
STEP EIGHT: Piloting – (in-person, on-site) – on demand
Considering that revisions and refinement of newly developed experiences are a critical step in the development process, it is recommended that new experiences are piloted with individuals who are knowledgeable about the tourism industry and that key (ideal target market for the experience) Tourism Saskatchewan staff are engaged in this process to provide meaningful feedback, advice and support to the program participants. If appropriate, this step could also include the photo and video capture of the piloted experience to assist with future marketing efforts.
STEP NINE: Digital Content Capture – (in person, on-site) – on-demand
This step includes professional services of a photographer/videographer. The content collected will be valuable for the promotion of the experience. This would be implemented when most appropriate for the experience provider and financially supported by Tourism Saskatchewan.
Please note: Program information may be subject to change.
Testimonials
Freba Pottery, Back2Nature Wellness and Adventures, Shekinah Retreat Centre and others talk about their experiences with the Achieving AWEsome program.
AWEsome Graduates
Explore some of the experiences on offer from graduates of the Achieving AWEsome program.
What is the difference between an experience and an attraction? Nancy Arsenault, Managing Partner at Tourism Cafe, discusses the differences in this short video: Fireside Chat - Raising the Bar on Visitor Value
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