QUALITY AND CONSISTENCY Port of Charlottetown sets standards

Posted on 05/20/2016 | About Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

The Port of Charlottetown has made it mandatory for all private tour operators serving cruise ship passengers to be certified. Training took place over the winter and now all companies that pick up passengers from the port (with the exception of taxis) will adhere to the same standards of service.

The tourist training covers presentation, passenger psychology, tour planning, managing difficult situations and handling emergencies. 

Port Charlottetown business development manager Corryn Clemence said "We did a bit of research, I guess, over the last couple of years and decided that we wanted to implement a certification programme for the private tour operators on the Island.” 

“Last year we notified them all and they had the past year to get the training through the Tourism Industry Association of P.E.I. or through Aquila, which is a Saint John company." 

She added, "I guess from our perspective we wanted to make sure we had a certain standard that the private tour operators would be operating by. We know that the pre-booked shore excursions that are contracted through the cruise lines, they have their own standards in place and we just wanted to make sure that we had standards for quality." 

25 people have paid for the course and completed the training. They can now use the certification to promote their business. 

In regard to the tourists, Clemence said "We want to make sure that the ones that are doing independent tours are still getting a quality product and leaving happy."