Value-For-MoneyNB Student Spotlight: Meet the Students Supporting Tourism through Website Analysis
Author: Martina Berko, Shayna Cloutier, Chloe York
Posted on Dec 4, 2023
Category: Pathways to Professions , Student Spotlights
In 2023, NB-IRDT welcomed Value-For-MoneyNB to its Pathways to Professions experiential learning program for the first time as a Future GNB research stream. It is also part of a larger initiative undertaken by the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture to understand how well it is promoting New Brunswick businesses and if it could be better allocating its resources.
For 13 weeks this past summer, the Value-For-MoneyNB students worked towards two goals:
- Collect data from a sample group of the 1500+ businesses who promote their goods and services on the Tourism New Brunswick website designed to attract tourists and grow the province's economy.
- Analyze these data to provide insight into the current and perceived value generated by the website.
At the start of Summer 2023, the Value-For-MoneyNB team evaluated a sample size of the top 500 performing affiliate links from the Tourism NB website. Through their analysis, they learned that 23.6% of these links were ecommerce-enabled businesses, 41.8% were not ecommerce-enabled, 4.6% were broken links, and 30% were repeated business links.
The analysis allowed the student team to collaborate with ecommerce-enabled businesses to review their website analytics and administer a perception survey to all affiliates from the sample group. Thanks to these efforts, the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture can calculate the dollar value of the website as further data emerge.
To learn more about the Tourism NB website and how much value it brings to NB businesses, check out the Value-For-MoneyNB infographic.
Meet the 2023 Value-For-MoneyNB Student Team
Martina Berko is in her fourth year of a bachelor of arts in religious studies at Mount Allison University. Her work background includes little jobs in restaurants, teaching hockey and various civil service roles, all of which have encouraged her to consider a future in a variety of career options. Martina's professional and educational experiences have reinvigorated her passion for always harbouring a safe and inclusive environment.
Shayna Cloutier is pursuing a bachelor of arts in political science at the University of New Brunswick. She has a passion for building a better future for New Brunswickers and believes that quality education is vital to achieving this goal. She hopes to work in education, whether as a teacher or in a related field. In her spare time, Shayna finds joy in singing, dancing and spending time with her family and friends.
Chloe York is in her final year at St. Thomas University completing a bachelor of arts in international relations. She is eager to explore various professional pathways as she aspires to build a career centered around making positive social change and improving her community. In her spare time, Chloe enjoys being actively involved with Enactus St. Thomas University, reading and spending time in nature.
What is Pathways to Professions?
Each summer, NB-IRDT hosts student research teams as part of its Pathways to Professions (P2P) experiential learning program. For 13 weeks, these students work on projects relevant to New Brunswick while attending a full curriculum of professional skills workshops.
In 2023, NB-IRDT embarked on its second year of partnership with the Government of New Brunswick's Future GNB / Avenir GNB program and launched a new partnership with Ignite to host students working on government and industry research projects. Now that the 2023 program has ended, we are excited to share our students’ projects and their findings in the newest student spotlight series.