TIAPEI's new 5 year strategy hopes to grow high season

The Tourism Industry Association of Prince Edward Island is in the process of putting together a new five year strategy, due to be released in November, and the focus is how to get more tourists to stay longer.

President Robert Jourdain told CBC's Compass, the strategy will discover where the industry is and where it wants to go in the next five years.

"We need to go and increase the visitation. We are currently at about 1.3 million a year," he said.

"We need to grow that, we need to grow their spending and we also need to look at how do we grow the high season."

Jourdain said he's heard from many operators that want a longer season so it will be a more viable business opportunity. He suggested another month or two added to the high season and go beyond the traditional "100 days of summer."

He also hopes the strategy makes Islanders realize it's not justrestaurants and hotels that benefit from tourism.

"It's for every Islander, every Islander benefits from tourism," he said.

The research so far has found awareness of P.E.I. as a destination is up.

Focus groups and surveys

"They're finding us through digital marketing, which a lot of our operators are getting involved in digital marketing," Jourdain said, but they also heard from some operators who said they needed training in digital marketing.

The information was gathered through seven focus groups held across the Island and surveys to operators.

Jourdain said abig challenge to putting together a five year strategy is the lack of control over three key factors to a successful tourism season: the weather, gas prices and the US dollar.

"But maybe it's developing more products that aren't weather dependent," he said. "By knowing what our threats are, we can define some strategies to work around those."

In the short term, operators are reporting a good early start to the season.

"We're hearing some really positive feedback," he said. "We have operators that have said they are 55 per cent or 50 per cent, 75 per cent booked."

"A lot of inquiries, the phones are ringing, the emails are coming across, so it's sounding really positive."