Namaste Niagara

We're just wrapping up the third year of our Namaste Niagara series at Niagara Parks. As much as I am looking forward to having lower key Sunday mornings again, there are few better reasons to wake up early to work on a Sunday.

The Namaste Niagara series is about health and wellness in extraordinary ways, essentially the program is either yoga at our iconic Journey Behind the Falls platform at the base of the Canadian Falls, followed by an incredible brunch at our Queenston Heights Restaurant, or it's a guided meditation workshop at White Water Walk - where the Niagara River becomes class six rapids - followed by a brunch at our Whirlpool Golf Course Restaurant.

The program originated in June 2016, truth be told, as somewhat of a marketing stunt. We on the Niagara Parks marketing team were thinking of unique ways to photographically use our Niagara Parks sites and attractions - as we always found ourselves drooling over the active lifestyle shots found on the likes of Banff's or Travel Yukon's Instagram accounts. So we organized a morning yoga session and invited some travel and food media folks out try it and then enjoy a brunch.

We got the amazing shots we wanted, but even more we got the insistence from the media that attended that because it was such a cool experience we HAD to open it to the public. So we tried again in July, with the same schedule and tickets available online, and found we had both instant demand, and something very unique on our hands.

Flash forward to 2018 and we are doing the alternating yoga and mediation workshops with brunch to follow every Sunday this summer, and tickets sold out for all sessions in a record three hours after posting the link on our social media.

Despite the breathtaking health and wellness experience it provides participants, the program really remains a strategic marketing tactic. Given that the price tag for a ticket just covers any cost on our end, and that the capacity for the yoga is only 40 and meditation only 25, this is certainly not intended to be a money-maker. Instead, what it gives is more intangible, an entirely unique experience that shapes and boosts awareness of the Niagara Parks brand as we have worked to redevelop it over the past three years (more on that in a later post).

It tells a story of the exciting health and wellness opportunities available on our lands, of the cultural impact of the organization to the Canadian travel/tourism industry, and the brunch contributes to our culinary story. The Feast On certification that our Culinary Services have obtained, mandating that the majority of ingredients used in our restaurants are locally sourced, is a key point in our brand story, as it speaks to the authentic presentation of the Niagara river corridor that we strive to present to international visitors. It presents our guests with a true "taste of place."

And of course the online virality numbers from the images and videos posted from the series, whether by us or others, are also a nice little feather in our marketing cap.

Of course, we couldn't have done without the awesome program partners: for the yoga workshops that is Helena McKinney and her Hamilton based In Fine Feather yoga studio, and independent instructor Danielle Hulan. And for the mediation workshops, independent instructor Swapna Krishnamoorthy.

One more Sunday to go, and then that's it until Summer 2019!