A3.   Identifying Other Customer Segments Offering Opportunities for Your Business: Why this is important

You really need to know who your customers are, and who they aren't. You don't want to waste marketing dollars on the wrong markets. And you want to ensure that your product and service offering meets the expectations of the right markets. 

What’s Involved

There are numerous ways of doing the research needed to answer these questions. They include:

• Look at what your competition is doing - visit their businesses and their websites, talk to the owner/manager
• Talk to marketing partners and other businesses in your destination
• Talk to your local/regional destination marketing organization
• Attend conferences and seminars
• Do your own market research using the resources listed below

For More Information - Resources

Nova Scotia Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism - Research Section
Research Section
Select Reports

Specifically, you may want to look at:

• Emerging Markets Reports
• Other Research Reports and Resources

Canadian Tourism Commission   
http://www.corporate.canada.travel
Look under:

• Research and Statistics
• Tourism OnLine
• Tourism Intelligence Bulletin

Travel Activities and Motivations Study – These studies can be accessed through the Nova Scotia Tourism Insights Website (Tourism Insights, Research Reports, Other Research Reports and Resources, Tourism Activity and Motivation Study)
http://www.gov.ns.ca/tch/pubs/insights/AbsPage.aspx?ID=1369&lang=1&site=1

Travel Industry Association of America
http://www.tia.org

Many of their research reports have to be purchased; however, this link provides an overview of key travel trends 
http://www.tia.org/pressmedia/domestic_a_to_z.html

Alberta – Tourism Development
This website includes Tourism Sector Profiles with information on various tourism business sectors and links to other resources:
http://www.alberta-canada.com/tourism/tourismDevelopment/tourismSectorProfiles.cfm
http://tpr.alberta.ca/tourism/tourismdevelopment/tourismsectorprofiles/default.aspx

Tourism On-line Resource Centre  
http://www.linkbc.ca/main/index.php?aboutTorc
(A service of LinkBC, a network of colleges and universities with tourism, hospitality and culinary programs)
(A service of the BC Centre for Tourism Leadership and Innovation)
This is a developing web-based library of tourism research reports and studies that can be downloaded from the site.

This is a developing web-based library of tourism research reports and studies that can be downloaded from the site.

Tourism Intelligence Network 
http://tourismintelligence.ca/

A Quebec-based organization located at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) School of Business Administration, devoted to strategic intelligence gathering in the field of tourism.

For more suggestions and ideas on how to do market research, check out Nova Scotia’s Tourism Development Guides ( http://www.gov.ns.ca/tch/tourism_devguides.asp )for your business type.  Look in the sections on Preparing a Business Concept and Strategic Plan and Feasibility Analysis.