5.3 Îles de la Madeleine
Through this case study, explore how other DMOs are furthering their efforts to develop a sustainable strategy for the destination through Design Thinking and by involving the community.
Through this case study, explore how other DMOs are furthering their efforts to develop a sustainable strategy for the destination through Design Thinking and by involving the community.
Through this case study, explore how other DMOs are furthering their efforts to develop a sustainable strategy for the destination through Design Thinking and by involving the community in the planning of the strategy and how this is helping them better achieve their goals.
Jason Bent mentioned that there are three main experiences to discover the destination: nature, culture and flavour.
Through this case study, explore how other DMOs are furthering their efforts to develop a sustainable strategy for the destination through Design Thinking and by involving the community in the planning of the strategy and how this is helping them better achieve their goals.
Jason Bent mentioned that there are three main experiences to discover the destination: nature, culture and flavour.
Through this case study, explore how other DMOs are furthering their efforts to develop a sustainable strategy for the destination through Design Thinking and by involving the community in the planning of the strategy and how this is helping them better achieve their goals.
Jason Bent mentioned that there are three main experiences to discover the destination: nature, culture and flavour.
In 2013 they launched their responsive design website, where they used storytelling to showcase different sides to the islands and promote the offerings they have.
He states that like any other destination, they have itineraries and circuits. The problem they had was that none of them was linked to the three main museums of the destination. That is what sparked the idea behind applying design thinking.
This project's journey started with a one-day activity through which over 50 stakeholders and business owners in the archipelago prototyped new projects and initiated new collaborations.
The goals of the project were:
At the same time, there were 6 phases to the project, based on the principles of design thinking:
If you'd like to hear more about what they did in each of the phases to achieve their goals, make sure to watch Jason's entire talk. We are sure it will provide many new ideas!
Jason and his team at the DMO worked under a marketing strategy focusing on nature, culture and food, and pride themselves as a Creative Friendly Destination with certification from the Creative Tourism Network in 2016. In 2020 Îles de la Madeleine was also recognised as one of National Geographic's Best Trips due to the harp seal observation tours.
In 2018 Îles de la Madeleine updated their current development policy in order to reduce friction between businesses amongst the islands. Due to the steady increase of visitors, friction came up again during July and August of 2020.
The next strategy takes into consideration Îles de la Madeleine's approach to tourism – the quality of life of the population. How did they get to that point? How do you design a strategy that will satisfy the population and the tourism industry?
They held public consultations on tourism through online surveys and public activities, alongside meeting with stakeholders in order to truly understand what it is people need and organising priorities. The results at the time were to focus on waste management, water, recreational infrastructure and housing.
With this in mind, Îles de la Madeleine began working with UQAM to curate the marketing strategy. This was halted due to the impact of the pandemic. After the summer season discussions started again, another round of consultations began to review the impact of the season. This led to a new set of focus tasks thanks to the pandemic revealing holes in the previously curated strategy:
In October they continued work with the tourism industry to evaluate products and experiences for the rest of the year. Working closely with hoteliers and restaurateurs, Jason and the DMO asked for input on their own projects in order to properly align their own projected products with the developing marketing strategy of the DMO.
Jason explains how the DMO worked on a very hands-on approach in communicating with interested visitors as well as local businesses. This involves newsletter surveys and Exit Survey data to figure out how they'll start to market these projects asking what the perception of the islands is during the off-seasons.
This process has been the combined efforts of everyone involved, pulling together in the same direction to improve the quality of services for tourists as well as locals.
Dominic explains that as a researcher, destinations are complex to transform. Tourism is an industry that involves many factors that are constantly shifting focus. As an example, restaurants shift between catering to locals and visitors depending on the season.
These services and the clusters of businesses they include are the network webs that are being analysed in order to renovate this new marketing scheme. Everything is intertwined, and as such you have to break away from the dichotomy of tourism and non-tourism businesses in order to thoroughly discuss how businesses interact.
In terms of strategy planning, you have to consider how to sustain the way of life and environment so that tourism can appeal to as many people as possible.
If a destination erodes the quality of life of the residents then it will face workforce issues, it will face recruitment issues. On the other side, if the residents start to have hard feelings about tourism, then the welcoming that makes tourism interesting erodes instead.
The process is all about learning from history and other sources, creating as large of a pool of information as possible. Taking information out of the context of business and seeing the extended impact in order to include as many stakeholders as possible.
The philosophy behind the research with Îles de la Madeleine is going to co-create a hybrid plan involving all stakeholders to increase budgets and attract richer thoughts for products, strategies, and policies.
Through this case study, explore how other DMOs are furthering their efforts to develop a sustainable strategy for the destination through Design Thinking and by involving the community in the planning of the strategy and how this is helping them better achieve their goals.
Jason Bent mentioned that there are three main experiences to discover the destination: nature, culture and flavour.
Through this case study, explore how other DMOs are furthering their efforts to develop a sustainable strategy for the destination through Design Thinking and by involving the community in the planning of the strategy and how this is helping them better achieve their goals.
Jason Bent mentioned that there are three main experiences to discover the destination: nature, culture and flavour.
In 2013 they launched their responsive design website, where they used storytelling to showcase different sides to the islands and promote the offerings they have.
He states that like any other destination, they have itineraries and circuits. The problem they had was that none of them was linked to the three main museums of the destination. That is what sparked the idea behind applying design thinking.
This project's journey started with a one-day activity through which over 50 stakeholders and business owners in the archipelago prototyped new projects and initiated new collaborations.
The goals of the project were:
At the same time, there were 6 phases to the project, based on the principles of design thinking:
If you'd like to hear more about what they did in each of the phases to achieve their goals, make sure to watch Jason's entire talk. We are sure it will provide many new ideas!
Jason and his team at the DMO worked under a marketing strategy focusing on nature, culture and food, and pride themselves as a Creative Friendly Destination with certification from the Creative Tourism Network in 2016. In 2020 Îles de la Madeleine was also recognised as one of National Geographic's Best Trips due to the harp seal observation tours.
In 2018 Îles de la Madeleine updated their current development policy in order to reduce friction between businesses amongst the islands. Due to the steady increase of visitors, friction came up again during July and August of 2020.
The next strategy takes into consideration Îles de la Madeleine's approach to tourism – the quality of life of the population. How did they get to that point? How do you design a strategy that will satisfy the population and the tourism industry?
They held public consultations on tourism through online surveys and public activities, alongside meeting with stakeholders in order to truly understand what it is people need and organising priorities. The results at the time were to focus on waste management, water, recreational infrastructure and housing.
With this in mind, Îles de la Madeleine began working with UQAM to curate the marketing strategy. This was halted due to the impact of the pandemic. After the summer season discussions started again, another round of consultations began to review the impact of the season. This led to a new set of focus tasks thanks to the pandemic revealing holes in the previously curated strategy:
In October they continued work with the tourism industry to evaluate products and experiences for the rest of the year. Working closely with hoteliers and restaurateurs, Jason and the DMO asked for input on their own projects in order to properly align their own projected products with the developing marketing strategy of the DMO.
Jason explains how the DMO worked on a very hands-on approach in communicating with interested visitors as well as local businesses. This involves newsletter surveys and Exit Survey data to figure out how they'll start to market these projects asking what the perception of the islands is during the off-seasons.
This process has been the combined efforts of everyone involved, pulling together in the same direction to improve the quality of services for tourists as well as locals.
Dominic explains that as a researcher, destinations are complex to transform. Tourism is an industry that involves many factors that are constantly shifting focus. As an example, restaurants shift between catering to locals and visitors depending on the season.
These services and the clusters of businesses they include are the network webs that are being analysed in order to renovate this new marketing scheme. Everything is intertwined, and as such you have to break away from the dichotomy of tourism and non-tourism businesses in order to thoroughly discuss how businesses interact.
In terms of strategy planning, you have to consider how to sustain the way of life and environment so that tourism can appeal to as many people as possible.
If a destination erodes the quality of life of the residents then it will face workforce issues, it will face recruitment issues. On the other side, if the residents start to have hard feelings about tourism, then the welcoming that makes tourism interesting erodes instead.
The process is all about learning from history and other sources, creating as large of a pool of information as possible. Taking information out of the context of business and seeing the extended impact in order to include as many stakeholders as possible.
The philosophy behind the research with Îles de la Madeleine is going to co-create a hybrid plan involving all stakeholders to increase budgets and attract richer thoughts for products, strategies, and policies.
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