In the photo, facilitator Jane Osler presents EQ marketing tips to participants at the CTC workshop held in Kelowna on March 21.

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With hosting support from TOTA, the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) recently presented a free 'Explorer Quotient®' workshop in Kelowna to 50 Thompson Okanagan Tourism stakeholders to help them learn how to incorporate EQ techniques into their marketing.

The half-day workshop, presented March 21 by EQ trainer and veteran marketing and tourism executive Jane Osler, offered an in-depth look at how to use EQ for tourism destinations in the region that already have some understanding of the EQ approach to marketing and a travel experience that lends itself to the EQ style of promotion.

"This CTC workshop took people further into the research and insights, and is the next level of training after the 'EQ Bootcamps' that were offered last year in Kamloops and at the Tourism Summit," says TOTA International Market Experiences Specialist Howard Grieve.

This CTC session also complements free EQ tools on the CTC website and provided practical tips for developing EQ-style promotional messages which grab the consumer's attention.

TOTA provided the workshop venue, copies of the resource materials, and snacks and refreshments.

TOTA recently became one of just five organizations in Canada to subscribe to the Canadian Tourism Commission's full EQ program. EQ is the result of years of work by CTC and Environics Research to go beyond simple demographics and discover the underlying travel motivations and social values of potential travellers from Canada's 10 key tourism markets – the U.S.A., U.K., France, Germany, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Mexico, China, and the domestic market.

TOTA is beginning to include focused, experiential messaging in its strategies and marketing materials, aimed at the four traveller types most likely to visit the Thompson Okanagan – Free Spirits, Authentic Experiencers, Cultural Explorers, and Rejuvenators.

Grieve notes, "EQ is an integral part of the Thompson Okanagan's new 10-year Regional Tourism Strategy, which focuses on building partnerships among communities and stakeholders to develop and market more of our region's great travel experiences."

He adds that TOTA will launch its own series of workshops in the coming months, to offer stakeholders practical and easy-to-use techniques for incorporating the power of EQ into their marketing initiatives.

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In the photo, TOTA CEO Glenn Mandziuk speaks to participants at CTC's EQ workshop.