Kahnawà:ke Tourism Newsletter, June 2022

A successful night of comedy

Kahnawà:ke Tourism in partnership with Ristorante La Vista and sponsored by Caisse Populaire Desjardins held a comedy show on Saturday, June 11. The event included a 3 course meal and a $10 donation of every ticket sold was donated to the Kateri Food basket. We will be planning a future event.

Welcome Center Staffing Updates

Meet our new Tour Guides

Each year we recruit new guides to our team, this year we are fortunate to have three exceptional candidates who are eager to help tell our story to our guests. Introducing Bronwyn Johns, Trevor Diabo and Dale Jacobs.

New bilingual tour guide.

New bilingual tour guide.

New tour guide will be joining our team.

Tour Guide Training

On Tuesday, May 31st, 2022, Kahnawà:ke Welcome Center Tour Guide Dwayne Stacey lead an intense training for our Tour Guide recruits. The training consisted of reviewing Kahnawà:ke’s key locations, attractions and exhibits, explaining all the intricate details to becoming one of Kahnawà:ke’s elite Tour Guides!

Any Kahnawakehró:non who is interested in becoming a tour guide is welcome to apply at the Welcome Center! We're always looking to grow our team!

May Tours

This month we welcomed 239 guests for guided tours. Our visitors came from as close as Laval and Boucherville, to Mashteuiatsh, Kitchener, far out California and all the way from France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland! The Welcome Center brought in $2,515.55 in revenue and $1,536.00 in external profits for various community destinations on their tours; Saint Kateri Shrine, food, Tour Guides, Kahnawà:ke Youth Center, & the Mohawk Trail Longhouse. We had an additional 36 walk in visitors at the Welcome Center. To gauge the benefits of our efforts, and the economic spinoff that our tourism industry is generating, we use a formula based on the number of visitors we receive. Therefore, in May, we estimate $2,750.00 in potential revenues throughout the community from our tourists.

Tours and Visitor Stats

41 visitors total, 27 Quebec, 2 Ontario, 1 B.C, 2 California, 1 Boston, 2 Switzerland, 1 United Kingdom, 4 France, 1 Trinidad and Tobago.

Upcoming Event: Strawberry Food Fest

The 7th annual Strawberry Food Fest will be making its appearance yet again this July. The Strawberry Food Fest is a collective event, where the theme of strawberries and community culinary creations made with strawberries is promoted throughout the community for the whole month! Keep an eye out for participating businesses throughout the community and ask them about their specials. Any businesses who wish to participate can contact us by email.

Kiosks & Map Panels

You may notice some activity around the cenotaph, firehall and PK station in the next few weeks. Our team is working to replace the current map panels on site and install a new informational kiosk at the Peacekeepers station. We received a grant from Indigenous Tourism Quebec as part of their development fund program to install the kiosks. Lettrage Express will be doing the on-site installations.

Our map is digital and printed! Use this QR code to access the map directly on your smartphone or computer! If you have a business that is on the map that needs updating, or a new business to add, call us at 450-635-2929!

Online booking & ticket sales NOW AVAILABLE

We are happy to announce that we have joined Rezdy.com to manage our tour bookings and event ticket sales. Rezdy will allow us to offer our guests an easy way to book scheduled tours and buy tickets to our local events. Guests will have access to these bookings directly from our website via our tour options page. We look forward to offering you a more efficient way of booking with us!

Kahnawà:ke Survival School Career Fair

In hopes to recruit and spread interest in the tourism field, we spent the day at the Kahnawà:ke Survival School Career Fair promoting our summer jobs & giving information about our upcoming strategies, projects, and potential jobs that the students can investigate studying. We have two Kahnawà:ke Summer Student Employment Program summer positions still open: Social Media Content Creator & Tourism Clerk. Applications can be sent to info@kahnawaketourism.com. For more info visit tewa.ca/kssep

Montreal Open

Tourism team representatives Lacey, Marianne & Kimberly attended the Montreal launch event May 17, which kicked off the season! This gathering provided the opportunity for us to promote, whilst networking with other tourism industry services and products. It gave us a chance to see what else there is to do in our region, and potentially create new opportunities!

Our booth was positioned next to our partners from the Saint Lawrence River Shrines circuit, of whom are photographed with us below!

Networking and Partnerships

FAM Tour

A FAM tour is a familiarization tour which is normally offered to partners, guests, media and press in the tourism industry. It is an opportunity for those who are either promoting our community on our behalf to get to know the site and offerings on a more personal level.

On May 30th, we welcomed guests from Tourisme Montérégie, Tourism Eastern Townships and Indigenous Tourism Quebec. In the visit, there were marketing agents, directors, sales agents, tour & travel coordinators, and the Director of Tourism Montérégie, Mario Leblanc. They were able to have a tour of the village, Saint Kateri Interpretive Center, Cultural Center, Kahnawake Brewery, and have dinner at Mirela’s! Our team is working on a collaboration with our partners, this visit was the beginning of many discussions to be had as it was the first time in Kahnawà:ke for most of the group.

RVC 2022 Update

Tourism Development Agent, Kimberly Cross, was in Toronto May 23-27 for the Rendez-Vous Canada (RVC) 2022. RVC is the largest Canadian tourism marketplace for operators, receptive tour operators and sellers to gather and make deals! Kimberly met with over 30 prospective partners to bring more groups to the community!

“This year was new to me, in the past we, the sellers, were able to have a booth and be seated while the buyers come to us. I like to call this event, the speed dating of the tourism industry! Kahnawà:ke has always been in the Indigenous Tourism Canada pavilion. This year, the roles were flipped, and I found myself running across the convention floor to my appointments! Nevertheless, it was fun and successful! I foresee many partnerships to come!” -Kimberly Cross, Tourism Development Agent

Kimberly with Laurence Lainé from Wendake, Indigenous Tourism Quebec’s Marketing Agent! Kahnawà:ke businesses may have had a chance to speak with her about marketing, ads and membership!

Kimberly (right) with Sebastien, Vice President of Indigenous Tourism Canada (left), and Greg owner of Moccasin Trails in Kelowna BC (center)!

A photo of the marketplace floor!

Maison de la Culture Longueuil

On May 26th, Tourism team members Lacey and Dwayne were invited to the Maison de la Culture in Longueuil. They represented Kahnawà:ke on opening night of their exhibition which included Native origin artifacts from the municipal archeological collections.

GraVite Media

New Collaboration with GraVite Media! Kimberly is photographed below with Jean Maurice Breton, media-web counselor, and advertising sales agent from GraVite Media. We are working on an advertising promotional campaign in Le Soleil and Le Reflet newspapers. The campaign will include a sleeve type pull out that will highlight Kahnawà:ke and its businesses. Kimberly will be working with Jean Maurice to obtain advertisements for the pages from community businesses. If you see Jean Maurice out and about, you’ll know why!

To purchase an advertisement for this special Kahnawà:ke Tourism issue, call 514-462-5353

Business Spotlights

Kidz-R-Us Playzone is a Family Fun Center owned by Crystal MacKenzie Deer and Jay Deer located on route 138 next to Wolfco Gas Station. The business opened its doors on April 28th, 2019. Despite their primary target being children ages 0-12, Kidz-R-Us boasts they have something for all ages, “Our toddler area is set up for kids who are brand new to crawling, walking and climbing. Most kids over the age of one (1) can’t wait to get on our giant climbing structure with slides and obstacles throughout. Every age can enjoy our redemption arcades and cash in their tickets for fun prizes. We have three (3) party rooms located upstairs and offer a variety of party packages” owner Crystal MacKenzie Deer.

Click here to read the full story!

Upcoming Events

Kahnawà:ke Welcome Center Business Hours

The Kahnawà:ke Welcome Center is open from Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5:00pm. Our visitor center is located on 1 River Road, Kahnawà:ke QC, J0L1B0

Beginning July 1, we will be open 7 days a week. Saturdays & Sundays we’ll be open from 10:00am to 3:00pm

Shop Kahnawà:ke

Shop Kahnawà:ke Gift Certificates are now available for purchase at the Welcome Center! Shop Kahnawà:ke is a spectacular business community offering bountiful products and services to our neighbors near and far. We invite you to visit us and SHOP KAHNAWÀ:KE today and every day!

Visit the Shop Kahnawà:ke Facebook page and website for more information.

Check out Kahnawà:ke Tourism online!

Click this link to view our Virtual Tours page!