AI-Powered Tourism Planner

The planned Ontario Garlic Tours is an online travel planner for tourists. Harnessing AI and LLM, it is intended to offer personalized recommendations and route planning, connecting tourists with farms, restaurants, and attractions, thereby boosting economic opportunities for Ontario's agriculture and tourism sectors, with potential applications beyond. The pilot will harness artificial intelligence and large language models (LLM) in the promotion of the tourism and agriculture industries. This initiative, with the pilot to launch August 2024, offers an opportunity for students to apply their skills in a real-world setting, addressing limitations in current online travel planners. Joining us in this endeavour are developers Reza Zeinali and Fariborz Lesani. Reza and Fariborz bring experience in software development, innovative technology applications, and a strategic approach to driving innovation across various sectors. The pilot project will benefit significantly from their expertise and visionary leadership. Timeline: Current plan is to develop a beta model to launch August 2024, with a full-scale tool launching August 2025.Ontario Garlic Tours: Benefits for AllTourists: The planner unlocks hidden gems for adventurous eaters. Instead of generic tours, it helps tourists curate agri-tourism trips full of local flavors. Farm visits, culinary events, and niche farm products offer personalized 'beyond the plate' experiences.Farmers: The planner forges direct connections with consumers, fostering brand awareness and boosting profits. It's a showcase for garlic and other farm offerings, increasing crop visibility and sales potential.Rural Economic Development: This tool reshapes 'peak season', making a region attractive during off-peak season. It drives traffic not just to farms, but to surrounding businesses – multiplying the economic benefit. The critical mass created by clustering offerings from multiple communities makes destinations more enticing, lengthens stays across communities, diversifies experiences, and contributes to regional brands. Data from the planner can guide future development decisions.Food & Beverage: Restaurants gain visibility among a foodie crowd, with hyperlocal promotion tapping into the 'farm-to-table' trend. Garlic acts as a hook, attracting diners eager for destination dining. The planner streamlines reservations and orders, boosting conversion without adding to a restaurant's workload. Participation showcases a commitment to local sourcing and positions establishments as part of a thriving culinary ecosystem.The concept of single-food tourism celebrations and collaborative tourism –where multiple businesses and community partners participate in something greater than the sum of their parts–is not new. Other very successful single-food events include Maine Lobster Fest, Georgia Peach Fest, Bala Cranberry Festival, Annapolis Valley wine tours, and Gilroy Garlic Festival, generating millions of dollars in revenue. These events and others will serve as a partial template for the development and implementation of the Ontario Garlic Tour planner.Why Garlic:Garlic is universally revered and connects with diverse interests and activities. This includes:Garlic’s prominence as the most widely used ingredient in virtually every cuisine, after water and salt.Garlic’s hidden culinary properties, including its use in dessert and alcoholic beverages.Garlic’s essential use in every culture for all kinds of medicinal purposesGarlic’s connection to a wide range of popular and esoteric interests including health and wellness, cultural identity, gardening and farming, climate change and space travel.Garlic featured in popular culture, including film, vampire lore and literature and music.Garlic as a bridge between cultures, contributing to shared garlic-themed experiences among people from all ethnic and religious communities.

E-Commerce Platform for Added Value Food Producers

Start immediately. End date: August, 2020 or later ( flexible). Work Remotely. Compensation To Be DiscussedChallenge Covid 19 has forced a re-evaluation of the 10th anniversary Toronto Garlic Festival and a pivot to online platform to help local vendors including farmers and food producers sell their products and to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales. The project involves the research and hopeful implementation of a plan for a year-round platform, to sell and distribute added-value food products made by farmers and food producers in Ontario, and to assess the possibility for vendors to realize a reasonable profit on the sale of their products through the platform. A few of the the problems the platform will solve for local vendors:Limited Access to Traditional Markets - difficult to get into supermarkets while profit margins are slim, while farmers' markets have a wait list for new vendors trying to get into the market. SEO & Marketing (If You Build It They Will Not Necessarily Come) - SEO and other types of online marketing require a high degree of sophistication, beyond the capability of most small-scale food businesses. Volume Price Discounts on shipping, and suppliesWeak Internet - About 12% of Ontario's population do not have access to the Canadian service standard of 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload. BackgroundThe Toronto Garlic Festival provides economic opportunities for small-scale farmers, chefs, and food producers and promotes Canadian cultural diversity through the celebration of the most universally loved food ingredient – garlic. At the annual Toronto Garlic Festival 4,000 visitors buy garlic from farmers and local chefs cook with garlic. Founded in 2011, and incorporated as a not-for-profit in 2017, the festival is largely volunteer run, with revenue applied to operating costs including venue rental, security and insurance, public relations and advertising. www.torontogarlicfestival.ca www.twitter.com/torontogarlic www.facebook.com/torontogarlicfestival www.instagram.com/TorontoGarlicFestivalTimelinePhase 1 - Planning Gain an understanding of the features and design that our target market will expect in our new online store. You will have access to the founder of the Toronto Garlic Festival for direction, clarification, and customer and industry insights. Planning phase includes research in the following areas:SWOT analysisBreak-even analysis, 6 month cash flowRevenue models Value proposition for vendors and end usersE-commerce site interface designReview off-the-shelf e-commerce solutions vs custom build Customer surveysAdmin including research shipping costs, shipping policy, return policy, vendor contracts and liability, and create template documents for eachResearch SEO and other online promotions, and traditional promotion. Create SEO strategyAdherence to tight budget, as the festival is a not-for-profitInput on the creation of a plan (the project described herein is not complete)Phase 2 - Implementation Set up online store according to plan described in Phase 1Phase 3 - Launch Manage store and refine based on customer feedback. Possibiity to work past August.DetailsStudent will work remotely directly with the Festival founder, Peter McClusky. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermcclusky) Daily communication or as required via phone, email etc. Student will be given detailed written and verbal instruction. The project is starting immediately. Student end date to be discussed. Flexible work hours. Access to skype or other means required for calls to businesses in the Toronto area. Hours and Compensation: To be discussed.

Toronto Garlic Festival Business Model Revamp and Event Planning

The goal of this project is to transition the festival to a new model in which the festival is hosted and run by a partner. will ensure its long-term financial stability. This will involve several different steps for the students, including: Understand the current business model of the Toronto Garlic Festival. Identifying potential partners who can take on the running and management of the festival. Participate in creation of a revised business model that will benefit both the festival and the partner. Identifying potential sponsorship and merchandise opportunities. Engage in several event planning tasks, described below

Agri-Tourism Food Event - Strategy & Planning

Tasks include all or part of the following, depending on career goals of the candidate. Candidates are not required to have experience or skills in the tasks.DIGITAL MARKETING - social media, google adwords & google analytics. MARKETING –planning & implementation.CLIENT & CUSTOMER RELATIONS - chefs, food producers, artisans & farmers & visitors to Toronto Garlic Festival or Ontario Garlic Week. BASIC ACCOUNTING – includes accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash flow.DATA ANALYTICS - sales and marketing analysis.WEBSITE FRONT END – duties include updating & editing information.GRAPHIC DESIGN – conceive & /or create graphic materials including marketing collateral, images for social media and to edit images for the website.RISK MANAGEMENT- public & vendor safety.RESEARCH – find vendor prospects, media contacts, & other searches.