This isn’t our first rodeo.
Over the last decade, the Culinary Tourism Alliance has worked collaboratively with many levels of government, countless destination marketing organizations, industry associations, as well as educational and research Institutions to grow food tourism in their regions.
Below is a selection of more recent projects our team is particularly proud to have contributed to. For more information on how the Culinary Tourism Alliance can help contribute to your food tourism development work, please contact us.
2024
Explore Waterloo Region
Agritourism Food Trail Feasibility Study
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CTA worked with Explore Waterloo Region (EWR) to conduct a feasibility study for an agritourism food trail. Through sustained engagement with the farming community, government stakeholders, as well as local cultural leaders, CTA generated interest in the project, and established a roadmap for EWR to create a trail celebrating the area's unique agricultural offerings.
2024
Shuswap Tourism
Farm Stand Trail
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In partnership with Shuswap Tourism, CTA designed and developed a farm stand trail to be implemented in British Columbia's Shuswap Region. CTA leveraged insights obtained through engagement with agricultural operators and local Indigenous communities to produce a trail program with a multi-year maintenance and growth plan that will help Shuswap grow as a destination for culinary, cultural, and agritourists alike.
2022
Town of Essex
Ambassador Program & Toolkit
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CTA designed and developed a course on craft alcohol tourism for George Brown College. With an emphasis on case studies, the micro-credential teaIn 2022-2023, the CTA worked with the Town of Essex, Ontario to help them implement their Agritourism Development Strategy. This included the creation of an Agritourism Development Toolkit, and the launching of a new Agritourism Ambassador program. All of these programs and documents can be found on the Town of Essex Agritourism portal.
2022
Tourism Industry Association of Ontario
Elevating Ontario Experiences
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CTA worked with the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario (TIAO), and RTOs across Ontario, to design and deliver a workshop series focused on helping tourism business operators develop and elevate their culinary experiences. Workshop participants were also given the opportunity to participate in one-on-one coaching sessions with subject matter experts from the CTA team.
2022
Ontario Craft Brewers
Toolkit: Best Practices for Growing Craft Beer Tourism
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The Ontario Craft Brewers Association (OCB), as part of its commitment to support strategic projects in alignment with the growth and recovery of the Ontario craft beer sector, engaged the Culinary Tourism Alliance (CTA) to conduct research into best practices in driving tourism to craft breweries across Ontario. The CTA presented this research at the OCB’s annual conference and produced an extensive best practices toolkit, which was distributed to OCB members. The CTA also worked with the OCB to develop a province-wide craft brewery trail featuring businesses that offer visitor-facing experiences.
2022
Ontario Ministry of Tourism & Craft Alcohol Sector Groups
Feasibility & Impact Study for Craft Beverage Alcohol Tourism Concept Stores
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The Province of Ontario on behalf of the craft alcohol industry in the province engaged the CTA. A collective of craft alcohol industry operators and owners brainstormed ideas to help the craft industry recover from the covid-19 economic downturn. An All-Ontario craft alcohol outlet store at a high-traffic location in the province was identified as a leading proposal; Toronto's Pearson international airport was selected as the prime location for the flagship outlet of this craft alcohol collective. Using comparator research, Key stakeholder interviews and market research The CTA was commissioned to create a feasibility and impact study and high-level business plan for the collective, or social enterprise, and the outlet store itself. The feasibility study explored the possibility of positive impacts on the industry as well as the ownership and operation models of the collective. The business plan further explored the operation and created a high-level financial plan's according to different forecasted scenarios. The CTA concluded that this project shows immense potential to create a lasting economic, social, and cultural impact across Ontario's craft alcohol industry and the communities they operate in. The CTA believes this project has the potential to help develop other opportunities for the province, specifically in tourism and expanding Ontario’s craft alcohol industry.
2022
Municipality of Central Manitoulin, Indigenous Tourism Ontario, Destination Northern Ontario
Food tourism development strategy & Implementation Plan
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Our professional services team worked with the Municipality of Manitoulin Island, Indigenous Tourism Ontario and Destination Northern Ontario to develop a culinary tourism development and implementation strategy. This landmark effort makes Mnidoo Mnising / Manitoulin Island a leading example of a collaborative effort to establish a culinary tourism strategy that represents 50/50 Indigenous and non-Indigenous stakeholders, and the first example in Ontario, of what it looks like to implement the FEAST: Growing Indigenous Tourism in Ontario Strategy.
2022
Ontario Tourism Education Corporation
Online training course about local food sourcing for hospitality businesses
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The Culinary Tourism Alliance, in partnership with the Ontario Tourism Education Corporation (OTEC), created a dynamic, free, online training course for hospitality businesses to better leverage the power of food tourism in Ontario. The self-paced eLearning course is called Making Local Sourcing Work for You. It is divided into five (5) modules, culminating in a live interactive virtual Masterclass session hosted by the Culinary Tourism Alliance. The course covers local sourcing, storytelling and partnership development to grow businesses and attract more people to Ontario.
2022
Visit Flanders
International culinary strategy consultation
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The CTA worked with Visit Flanders, the Destination Management Organization for Flanders in Belgium, to develop a positioning strategy and craft storylines to support their culinary tourism strategy across all key tourism pillars and in alignment with their Travel to Tomorrow Vision to strengthen the positive power of tourism.
2021
Tourism Industry Association of Canada
Building Canadian Experiences and the Visitor Economy – Culinary Tourism
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The CTA worked with the Tourism Industry Association of Canada on a national project to strengthen the culinary tourism capacity of the country’s tourism industry and develop culinary tourism strategies for four destinations. This project involved working in every province and territory across the country, including the delivery of 48 capacity building workshops on various themes relevant to industry in each location. The culinary tourism strategy processes designed as part of this work were piloted and evaluated. Findings were used to develop a strategic tools and national guidelines for culinary tourism development in rural and remote destinations across Canada. FInd out more at ecehub.tiac-aitc.ca
2021
Greenbelt Discovery
Routes
Curated hiking and cycling routes celebrating local food
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The culinary tourism alliance worked to re-focus the Greenbelt Brewery Discovery Routes into a more user-friendly tool that supports value-added agricultural activities and creates new local food connections in the regions attached to the Ontario Greenbelt. The resulting routes strengthen connections between local food growers and makers and consumers and remain sustainable, meaningful to the businesses involved and appealing to the target audience – food tourists.
2021
Fáilte Ireland
Guidelines for the Development
of Food Trails
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CTA worked with Fáilte Ireland, the national tourism industry organization in Ireland, to review and create guidelines for the development of food trails across Ireland. The CTA supported the research and development of the guidelines through research into food trail development, inclusive of background document review, market research into trends, best practices, and comparators. The CTA supported the engagement of industry partners at the national level through the coordination and facilitation of a key stakeholder meeting as well as several key stakeholder interviews. The project resulted in actionable and highly designed industry-facing guidelines for the development of food trails in Ireland.
2021
RBC + The Avion
Collection
Taste of Adventure Video Series
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The CTA curated, filmed and editted a series of six virtual culinary experiences offered exclusively to Avion cardholders across Canada, drawing from talent within the Feast On ® Network and highlighting member destinations. The series featured chefs in-conversation with Agatha Podgorski while performing short cooking demonstrations featuring local ingredients.
2019 - 2021
Tourism Saskatoon
+ Saskatoon Food Council
Food Tourism Experience and Social Enterprise Development
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The Culinary Tourism Alliance is worked with Tourism Saskatoon on a two-part project around food tourism experience and social enterprise development. Tourism Saskatoon and the Saskatoon Food Council engaged the Culinary Tourism Alliance (CTA) to help organize and facilitate a one-day food tourism visioning and development meeting held in September 2019. Through a highly participatory meeting we achieved the aims of gathering the food tourism community to think collectively about Saskatoon and the area’s food tourism identity. Second, we supported the group with conceptualizing a potential food tourism product to develop and market as part of Saskatoon’s food tourism offering.
2020
Indigenous
Tourism Ontario
Indigenous Food Tourism Strategy
and Tool Development
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Indigenous foodways are an intrinsic part of Canadian food identities, and Indigenous tourism experiences that incorporate food and drink are a celebration of cultural heritage. There is great potential to develop food tourism as a meaningful contributor to Indigenous communities and entrepreneurs in Northern Ontario and beyond. CTA was engaged by Indigenous Tourism Ontario, in collaboration with the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada and Destination Northern Ontario to develop a plan that harnesses this potential. By the end of Part 2, this highly participatory and community-based research project resulted in two significant outcomes: a strategy for growing Indigenous food tourism in Northern Ontario and a tool for building capacity in Indigenous food & drink and tourism businesses across the province.
2019
Peterborough
& the Kawarthas
Agritourism Research Project
+ the World Congress on Agritourism
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CTA undertook a research project with Peterborough & the Kawarthas Tourism to determine whether agritourism is a viable tool for promoting sustainable economic growth. As part of this work, the project team attended the 1st World Congress on Agritourism hosted by EURAC Research in Bolzano, Italy. The event brought together experts from around the world, seeking to clearly define agritourism, and explore the future of rural tourism. This project also included a literature review, the development of an agritourism concept map, and multiple community engagement research techniques. In order to share the results of the research and explore agritourism development of agritourism as a community, the project ended with a community forum on agritourism.
2019
Letchworth Gateway Villages, New York
Community Food Tourism Research and Development
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Letchworth Gateway Villages (LGV) is a municipal collaboration designed to catalyze economic growth and new tourism-related market opportunities for the communities that serve as “gateways” to a local state park. The Culinary Tourism Alliance was engaged to help LGV successfully secure funding from the USDA, and then worked with the collaborative to explore the potential for food- and agri-tourism to provide a tool for local economic development. This project involved the development of a white paper on food tourism development in rural areas, a community food tourism assessment, the design of a food tourism learning journey, and the development of technical assistance tools and resources for food- and agri-tourism stakeholders. The tools were then brought to life to with interactive workshops for businesses in the community.
2018
Scotland Food & Drink + Scottish Tourism Alliance
National Framework to
Grow Food Tourism
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CTA worked alongside Scotland Food & Drink, the Scottish Tourism Alliance, and a newly appointed Food Tourism Strategy Board, to develop Scotland’s first National Framework to Grow Food Tourism. Food and drink is a key theme in Scotland’s national tourism strategy and a key part of the food and drink industry’s new and ambitious strategy. Scotland is at an advanced stage of food tourism development and has many assets and established infrastructure. The National Framework to Grow Food Tourism, which aims to capitalize on these assets and infrastructure to grow food tourism in an inclusive way, will provide the nation with a huge opportunity to shine the spotlight on their quality products, and to establish Scotland’s identity as a place of outstanding food and drink experiences.
2018
City of Temiskaming
Shores
Lake Temiskaming Tour Capacity Building & Product Development
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With support from FedNor and Destination Northern Ontario, the City of Temiskaming Shores is undertaking a project to enhance the Lake Temiskaming Tour by supporting the development of new or expanded food tourism experiences. The Culinary Tourism Alliance has been engaged to facilitate the process. This work builds on a project from 2017, in which the food tourism community identified enhancing the Lake Temiskaming Tour through food and drink as the tourism development opportunity with the highest potential.
2018
Banff & Lake Louise Tourism
Food Tourism Value Proposition
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The Culinary Tourism Alliance worked with Banff & Lake Louise Tourism to position food and drink as a demand generator in Banff National Park. Although working to develop food tourism in a national park, an area where food is not grown, raised or harvested, posed a challenge, our project team overcame this by working closely with restaurant owners and tourism partners to collaboratively develop Banff and Lake Louise’s food tourism value proposition. Through the research process, three food tourism value propositions were developed, which along with the strategic recommendations will facilitate Banff and Lake Louise Tourism and its members towards achieving the initial goal of positioning food and drink as a tourism demand generator for the region.
If it’s interesting, we’re interested.
Our clients come in all shapes and sizes.
For a list of our current membership base, click here.
We work with:
Government including municipal, provincial, national levels; in departments including economic development, tourism,
and agriculture, etc.Regional Tourism Organizations
Destination Marketing and Management Organizations
Industry Associations
Educational Institutions
Private Enterprise
