Yukon TourismWild Strategic Challenges

"To be the place the world wants to be." This is a rather lofty vision, but this is the goal that the Yukon Territory's Department of Tourism and Culture established for the department's 2013-18 Strategic Plan. Its mission is to "support the tourism industry, promote the arts, and preserve our diverse culture and history."

The mission and vision of an entity is always a very good starting point when assessing the strategy of an organization. It establishes the context for the direction the organization is going toward, both in the short and long term. But often these two statements are about all that one will learn about a company's strategy. Most firms, especially not-for-profit or government departments, will not share further information on key aspects of strategy.

Luckily for the reader of this case, the entity in question, Yukon's Department of Tourism and Culture, shares its plans readily. The most recent 2013-18 marketing strategy (http://www.tc.gov.yk.ca/pdf/TC_strat_plan_booklet_FNL.pdf) sheds some light on where the department is focused. And this focus is external, where it is fully aware of the daunting challenges facing an area that is geographically remote and difficult (and expensive!) to access. With uncertain economic times and plenty of competition for the world's tourists, Yukon tourist operators face an unenviable challenge.

To meet this challenge, Tourism and Culture created its current marketing strategy. There were a total of six strategic goals, including spurring economic growth, actually spurring that growth, and enhancing culture and the quality of life for Yukoners. Tourism and Culture believes in the importance of sharing the stories of both those who live in and those who visit Yukon, as it is believed that this storytelling will make the Yukon experience more attractive for those potential visitors.

Strategies, such as "Explore Your Yukon," which launched in 2016, leverages the reach of social media and the propensity of people to share through it. But Tourism and Culture is also looking at ways to blend the entities that make up its name"tourism" and "culture"more often. The Art House Carcross, located in Carcross (short for Caribou Crossing), is a grassroots example of this integration. Supported by Tourism and Culture, the Art House showcases a unique blend of visual arts through the lens of diverse Yukon artists. Presented in the quaint Carcross Pavillion, the Art House exhibits are seen by over 100,000 people each summer season, but they are also shared through the Art House's active Twitter and Facebook accounts.

In an aggressive and ambitious effort to give an international audience to Yukon's indigenous artistic community, Tourism and Culture sent a group of filmmakers to Berlin in 2017 to promote their work in the European market and learn about the global trends in film making and marketing at the Berlin Film Festival. "The opportunity for a producer to attend an international forum such as Berlinale is invaluable," said independent filmmaker Carol Geddes, a member of the Teslin Tlingit First Nation in the Yukon. "It gave me a chance to not only pitch projects to international production companies but also to get a sense of the kind of storytelling that is trending in the world marketplace. The networking opportunities extend far beyond the event itself, and the cards I collected through meetings provide potential future opportunities. In addition, the experience of effective pitching will carry over into other domestic and foreign marketplaces."

Further funding from the government is going toward encouraging local artists not only to deepen their craft, but also take it on the road, as it were, to present it to the worldagain, a dual strategy to promote both tourism and the arts. As Minister of Culture and Tourism Jeanie Dendys said in 2017 when a bundle of arts funding programs were launched, "Through our arts funding programs, we are supporting artists, cultural professionals, and community organizations to foster artistic development, inspire creative communities, and enrich the lives of all Yukoners."

All in all, it is clear that Yukon's Department of Tourism and Culture is embracing the challenge of the marketing environment and approaching it strategically, reminiscent of a private firm that recognizes its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threatsand takes action with this knowledge.

Sources

Art House Carcross,http://www.arthousecarcross.com/about/(accessed April 30, 2017)

"Funding Programs Support Artistic Exploration and Creative Communities," Government of Yukon, April 13, 2017, http://www.gov.yk.ca/news/17-068.html#.WQXwhBIrJ8c, accessed April 30, 2017

Government of Yukon, Department of Tourism and Culture, http://www.tc.gov.yk.ca/ (accessed April 30, 2017).

"Yukon First Nation Filmmakers Attend Berlin Film Festival," Government of Yukon, March 22, 2017, http://www.gov.yk.ca/news/17-052.html#.WQXzHxIrJ8c (accessed May 1, 2017).

Questions:

This is an individual assignment. You should write it in essay format (NOT question-answer format) following APA style and proper references. You MUST read it many times after completing the assignment and correct grammatical and other mistakes as much as possible. Assignments that have not been proofread and contain mistakes like small letters at the beginning of a sentence, etc. will not be accepted.

1.IN YOUR OWN WORDS, write down in THREE or more pages, an introduction and history of the company.

2.Conduct a detailed SWOT analysis for Tourism Yukon.

3.Devise a competitive advantage statement for Yukon Tourism and Culture, based on the quotes provided in the case.

4.In THREE or more pages, describe the strategic plan that the company uses in order to be successful. Then describe marketing mix available to Tourism Yukon based on its strategic plan. What season does Yukon Tourism hope to attract most of its customers?

5.Assess the mission statement for Yukon Tourism and Culture. Is it suffering from marketing myopia?

6.Read ALL the references given and ALSO do your own Internet research. Write in YOUR OWN WORDS a two-page summary of the threat faced by indigenous communities all over the world - of becoming non-existent as increasing urbanization encourages and even forces communities and cultures to follow the city culture.