Community Promotion: Capitalizing on the Experiential Tourism Opportunity

Patrick Ryan is one of Clarenville's (and Newfoundland's) biggest tourism boosters - He lives in Nova Scotia.

Each fall, for the past decade, Ryan and a half dozen or more of his ATVing friends have been coming to Newfoundland and making a week-long trip across the island on the old rail bed (T'rialway). Ryan has been documenting his travels in a Vlog series called, appropriately, Crossing Newfoundland by ATV (and its companion YouTube Channel EastCoastATV )

Each January, he posts their fall trip in video installments - and each year, thousands of people watch these videos - a good number of whom are inspired to make the trip for themselves.

Ryan's videos have presented a golden opportunity for us to better prepare to capture the benefits of this exposure.

Opportunities for Clarenville and Clarenville area Businesses

For east-west trips, Clarenville is always their first overnight stop. His videos feature Clarenville, the services available here and the local trails, prominently. In this year's videos for example, In Part 1 they highlight their stay at the Quality Hotel and its excellent restaurant, Coastal Outdoors and their superior service, the ease of trail access within the town, Locomotive 900 at the Railway Museum, Tavernor's Pit and Shoal Harbour Pond. See for yourself:

Capitalizing on Opportunity

One of the positive outcomes that have come out of the pandemic has been the boom in experiential outdoor activities. These encompass outdoor, physically distanced sports like skiing, biking, hiking, camping, ATVing and Snowmobiling. We are fortunate in that we have all of these opportunities at our fingertips and that we are relatively close to the largest market in the Province. We have the support locations, businesses and facilities to take advantage of these opportunities. The work of volunteer organizations such as the Discovery Trail Snowmobile Association and the Clarenville Nordic Club serve as good examples of groups effectively organizing to take advantage of these types of experiential tourism opportunities as they arise. DTSA's trail stickers provide valuable funding for work on trails, their fire pits and their communication. Clarenville Nordic Club has demonstrated excellence in building membership, promoting inclusive activities and promoting its trails system - with platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google Maps.

The opportunity exists for the Clarenville business community to further capitalize on this opportunity through more partnerships with local clubs, White Hills Resort, the Town and with each other. With the example of the DTSA and Nordic Clubs. We have the basis for many excellent partnerships with exceptional results!

YouTube: EastCoastATV
Website
Facebook: @crossingnewfoundlandbyatv
Twitter: @ATVNL

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