Create a 3-Day Tour Package for VIA Rail Travellers Arriving in Winnipeg

Situation: Offering High-Yield Tourism Packages to VIA Rail Travellers

As a local tour operator, you have identified an important and untapped market. VIA Rail has trains filled with tourists going from coast to coast to coast. At present, travellers arrive in Winnipeg on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays for brief two to three-hour stays. It would be ideal to turn these low-yield visitors into high-yield tourists by encouraging them to disembark the train and embark on the following train a few days later. That would mean that visitors would either have a 2 or 3-night stay in Winnipeg depending on the arrival and departure days (Mon, Thurs, Sat).

You will create itineraries that can be purchased by train travellers. They are available from May through October. You offer a 3 day package for tourisst. You will design a three-day package.

Dates – 2021 (high season is May to October inclusively). The tour package must be market-ready during this period (people must be able to use a “buy it now” button)

Duration – 3-night stay

The tour/package cannot already exist

Tours must be viable and profitable

Indicate who you think might like this tour and why (Your ideal target market)

Destinations are limited to Winnipeg (you can leave Winnipeg for short day-trips within 1hr of the city’s perimeter)

Days must fill a minimum of 10 hours

Include Lodging (couch surfing and Airbnb are not acceptable options, our goal is to boost the local tourism economy)

You must include a minimum of two paid attractions or activities per day

You must include restaurant choices for at least 2 meals per day (except departure day). Restaurants cannot be national chains (ex: Boston Pizza or McDonald’s).

You must consider transportation (how will they get from point A-B)

You must include at least one extra added option. Ex. For an extra $100 add a ticket to XYZ (only available on these dates…)

** Note, you will learn about tour pricing in other classes. Please include Rack-Rates here – aka the price prior to negotiation.

Tour Name

Tour overview. Imagine what a tourist would read in a brochure (approx ½ page) including what makes this specific tour experiential.

Describe which train travellers would be attracted to this tour and why (Who Is Your Target Clientele)

Explain why this will work. Cite at least two articles that support that this is a good idea for a tour (could be to support the target market or other current trends).

1. A paragraph that states: Included In This Package (what the tourist will be purchasing). Remember that hotel stays, attractions and other paid elements will be presented to the purchaser as vouchers.

2. An explanation of the 3 day itinerary

3. Ensure that the product market-match is evident and sensible (do not send birders to a nightclub)

4. Ensure that the sequencing and location of attractions are logical (loops and hub and spoke are better than going all over the place in no logical order)

5. Proposed Itinerary – Using the itinerary grid.

6. Added « extra » item – something that can be tacked on to the package at an extra cost to the consumer (not included in the tour price)

7. Additional information that may be of help for your instructors to grasp

8. On a separate page (appendix) list of partners and suppliers including websites

-Real cost per activity, the hotel Rack-Rate, transportation, etc.

Why do you think people would purchase this tour package? Justify your answer (approx ½ page).  Explain why this package would be a valuable addition to Winnipeg’s tourism industry?