‘Basecamp Saint Awesome’ Helps SJ Tourism Industry Connect With Staycationers
It’s difficult to think of an industry that has been hit harder by COVID-19 than the hotel and hospitality industry. Back in March, the vast majority of their clientele were restricted from travelling. No travel means low occupancy rates at hotels and inns.
Paulette Hicks, president of the Saint John Hotel Association, remembers those difficult early months of the pandemic.
“COVID hit and our industry just got wiped out,” recalled Hicks. “Every day, starting March 18, cancellations outpaced our bookings and that continued for a number of months.”
But the Hotel Association refused to accept the new status quo. Instead, the local industry leaders got together and came up with an innovative solution to this unique problem. Knowing that the hotel and tourism sector would have to attract more locals, and people within the Atlantic bubble, the SJHA came up with Basecamp Saint Awesome.
Imagine you are about to take a vacation (or staycation) in the Saint John region, but you’re not sure what adventures to seek or attractions to see. The Basecamp website has already done the research for you. It gives you a list of places to stay and, most importantly, a list of things to do in the area.
If you are a lover of craft beer, you can take the Two Rivers Beer Route to experience the best local brews. Got a bunch of kids to entertain? Basecamp has several family-friendly suggestions, like geocaching at local Irving Nature Park. The website also offers directions to the best birdwatching and mountain biking destinations for outdoor lovers. A person, or family, can literally plan an entire vacation around the suggestions made by the Basecamp initiative.
“We came together, recognizing that this would be a massive hit to our industry. Our summer was going to look very different,” said Hicks on the motivation behind getting Basecamp off the ground.
“We’re going to look at this from a local’s perspective. We are marketing to Maritimers and it’s a very different message.”
One thing COVID-19 has taught the business community is the importance of rallying around a common goal. With Basecamp, hotels that often compete with each other during the peak tourism season were coming up with creative ideas together.
“That’s the beauty in this. We’ve never done this before with this level of collaboration, where all hotels said, ‘we’re in this together,” said Hicks.
“We’re going to give people reasons to come to our region, reasons to stay, and we’re going to give them flexibility.”
The Basecamp idea came at a perfect time in New Brunswick. This summer, to encourage more staycations, the provincial government offered a 20 percent rebate on travel and accommodation-related expenses. This incentive went hand-in-hand with Basecamp marketing.
“This has given folks an incentive to get to know their province and become ambassadors, because they are exploring and learning new things,” said Hicks.
“It’s the biggest tourism promotion that’s been talked about in years. It doesn’t matter where you’re going, people are talking about this 20 percent.”
Basecamp has also been embraced warmly by companies outside of the hotel industry. Gridiron Brewing, located in Hampton, is one of the craft brewers featured on the Two Rivers Beer Route. As a small business that only opened two years ago, free marketing from Basecamp has been greatly appreciated.
“It helps us a lot, in terms of getting the word out there,” said Luke MacGregor, co-owner of Gridiron. “We don’t have a big advertising budget, so things like this we’re happy to participate in.”
“This has been good for us because we’re on the radar of more people now.”
MacGregor estimates that the Basecamp initiative has contributed up to five percent of beer sales this summer.
Like the hotel industry, craft brewers have had to come together as a group and pivot the way they do business. Gridiron’s sales jumped a lot when beer deliveries became legal. Business also got better once MacGregor began selling products made by some of his fellow brewers.
“We probably tripled our sales just by being able to sell other people’s products.”
Another Saint John business that is grateful for Basecamp is TimberTop Adventures. The outdoor adventure park – filled with zip lines and challenging tree-top obstacle courses – usually relies on tourists during the summer. This year, Basecamp has helped give Timbertop exposure to the local market.
David Alston, who founded TimberTop in 2018, said Basecamp has had a noticeable impact on the number of New Brunswickers coming to the park.
“We’ve certainly seen a lot more people from New Brunswick, especially this year, outside of Saint John who have come,” said Alston.
“We’ve had a lot of great feedback. A lot of people are saying ‘I can’t believe I haven’t been here before; it’s right in my backyard’.”
This story was sponsored by the Saint John Hotel Association.