News release

Training to Meet Visitors' Needs

Tourism, Culture and Heritage (Dec. 2003 - Jan. 2011)

NOTE: The following is a feature story on visitor services staff member Kari Lewis prepared for Tourism Week, June 5-11, by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage.


No matter where they are from or what they are interested in, Kari Lewis knows how to help visitors to Nova Scotia have the vacation of a lifetime.

Kari is the supervisor of the visitor information centre on the Halifax waterfront. She knows Nova Scotia's tourism products like the back of her hand, and she knows how to sell them.

"I've taken quite a number of courses and participated in other opportunities to provide good travel counselling to our visitors," she says. "It's helped me advance my career in the tourism industry, and it helps ensure Nova Scotia has satisfied -- and repeat -- customers."

Kari began working as a travel counsellor in the Amherst visitor information centre 10 years ago. As a member of visitor services staff with the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage, she took numerous mandatory courses to ensure quality service.

Kari continued taking courses to improve her skills and service. In 2003, she took a course offered through the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia to achieve national certification as a travel counsellor. The course included a written exam and a visit by a "mystery shopper" who asked Kari for travel advice and assessed her performance.

"Nova Scotia is a leader in developing training opportunities for its tourism industry and we have the highest number per capita of nationally certified tourism professionals in the country," she says. "I've benefitted from these courses, and I believe in their importance so much that I helped with amendments to the certification manual and the pilot of the new Service First program."

Service First focuses on making connections with visitors in order to make them feel welcome and valued and to help determine the kinds of experiences they will enjoy in Nova Scotia. It is one of many courses offered through the Nova Scotia Tourism Human Resources Council.

Kari put those skills to work with a family of tourists from Texas who had driven to Halifax without any plans for their two weeks in Nova Scotia.

"They'd been in the car for a long time so I began by just letting them talk," she says. "They all had different interests. One talked a fair bit about scenery, another mentioned craft shops, another museums, and the fourth wanted to just relax and experience our culture."

When the group left the visitor information centre, they had a two-week itinerary for their Nova Scotia vacation, complete with accommodation reservations all around the province. It ensured a relaxed pace and included a trip around the Cabot Trail, visits to craft shops and museums, and musical events taking place along the way.

"They left feeling secure that they had accommodations and a plan to follow," says Kari. "Two weeks later, this group of Texans came back to the visitor information centre to thank me for the plans I'd made for them. They said it was the best vacation they'd ever had and in fact one of them wrote to me for years afterwards."

Visitor information centre staff across the province are improving their performance with the same kind of training Kari received. With the skills they have learned, they are better able to meet visitors' needs and also sell them on spending more time in the province.

Training to help members of the tourism industry engage visitors is a key element of Nova Scotia's tourism plan for 2006. The plan is developed by the joint industry-government Tourism Partnership Council. It is based on extensive research and designed to expand the tourism industry in Nova Scotia. It is available on the website at www.gov.ns.ca/dtc .

Tourism is a $1.29 billion industry in Nova Scotia employing 33,000 people.