Workforce Development & Industry Training

The primary objective to guide Workforce Development & Industry Training in Northern Ontario over the next year is to facilitate and support the attraction, development, and retention of a tourism workforce to enhance the customer experience

Success Stories:

400+ individuals have participated in TEN training
100% of participants said they would take additional training through TEN
133 businesses have been helped through the Fast Track to Success program

Destination Northern Ontario continues to take a leadership role in proactively guiding Workforce Development and Industry Training for tourism operators, employers, communities and destinations, and educators in Northern Ontario through a wide variety of programs ultimately focused on enhancing visitation and the “Visitor First” experience.

Through its award-winning Tourism Excellence North (TEN) program, Destination Northern Ontario continues to implement its five-year workforce development and industry training strategy and DNO’s 2023-28 Post-Pandemic Strategic Focus, by developing and delivering enhanced and new training solutions to address skills gaps and new visitor patterns and interest, update and deliver curriculum, collaborate with partners, deliver posttraining mentorship, and incorporate technology where appropriate, under the Recovery Project.

Over 400 individuals have participated in the Tourism Excellence North program to date; when surveyed, 100% of participants said that they would take additional training through the program.
Destination Northern Ontario has also led approximately 90 Service Excellence courses in partnership with the Ontario Tourism Education Corporation over the past two years to operators across the North.
In addition to the Tourism Excellence North program, Destination Northern Ontario hosts the largest industry-focused tourism event in Ontario, the Northern Ontario Tourism Summit. This event has engaged over 1400 tourism representatives and business owners since its inception in 2014.
Tourism Skills Net North successfully recruited and trained more than 540 employees and matched them with available job opportunities within the tourism sector.

Success Stories:

400+ individuals have participated in TEN training
100% of participants said they would take additional training through TEN
133 businesses have been helped through the Fast Track to Success program

Tourism Excellence North

Tourism Excellence North is a suite of training solutions designed to strengthen the ability of tourism operations to respond to changes in the marketplace, adapt to quality visitor expectations, develop innovative experiences that raise the bar on visitor value and deliver increased returns for operations and the destination as a whole.

Tourism Excellence North is aligned to support priorities for tourism development in Northern Ontario, specifically those of Destination Northern Ontario (DNO).

Visit Tourism Excellence North

Tourism Rocks

One out of every five businesses in the north is tourism related. Meaning there are many opportunities to find a life long rewarding tourism career right here at home. If you are already working in tourism and want to share your passion for our industry, we want to hear from you!

Find out more about how you can be a leader and have a positive impact on closing the labour gap in our industry.

Visit Tourism Rocks

The Value of Tourism Excellence North

Learn more about Tourism Excellence North and how it's training program benefits tourism business operators, communities, and destinations.

Northern Ontario Tourism Summit

Building on 80+ years of successful fall conferences for the outfitting sector, the Northern Ontario Tourism Summit was developed as a partnership event between Nature and Outdoor Tourism Ontario and Destination Northern Ontario to bring together tourism businesses, organizations and suppliers as well as all levels of government at a single event to find solutions to challenges facing the industry.

Visit the NOTS website

Industry Leader Awards

The Northern Ontario Industry Leader Awards recognize excellence in the province's tourism industry. Recipients provide outstanding leadership, exemplify best business practices, innovative marketing and deliver tourism experiences that contribute to the success of Ontario's tourism industry, which generates over $36 billion in economic activity and supporting more than 400,000 jobs.

See past award winners

To be inspired by these outings is one step forward.

As owners and forward strong people we would encourage other owners to take part in these exercises and learning venues. Not only what you take away from it in knowledge but to use that knowledge and excitement to push those owners forward.

Owners of smaller tourist businesses in the North are scared and unsure how to move forward... and for the most part to spend money. To be inspired by these outings is one step forward. We hope that word will spread so that more businesses will be present for the next trip. Talking directly to the owners or management made everything so real and easy to process. To us this experience was exceptional value.

Stephanie Wagner, Owner & Manager, Temagami Shores Inn & Resort (Participant on ‘Welcome the World to Your Business: Understanding & Attracting the International Visitor’, April 2018)