Walsh, Heron & Stevens (1990) defines visitor attractions as a feature in an area that is a place, venue or focus of activities, which does the following,
- Sets out to attract visitors from the resident or tourist population, and is managed accordingly
- Provides a fun and pleasurable experience and an enjoyable way for customers to spend their leisure time
- Is developed to realise this potential
- Is managed as an attraction, providing satisfaction to its customers
- Provides an appropriate level of facilities and services to meet and cater to the demand, needs and interests of its visitors
- May or may not charge an admission for entry
Typically visitor attractions fall into one of four main categories. These are,
- Natural
- Human made but not originally designed primarily to attract visitors
- Human made and purpose built to attract visitors
- Special events (Swarbrooke 2002)
Below is an indication of what types of visitor attractions fall into which category of visitor attractions.
Natural
- Rivers and lakes
- Beaches
- Caves
- Rock faces
- Forests
Human made but not originally designed primarily to attract visitors
- Cathedrals and churches
- Reservoirs
- Steam railways, stately homes and historic houses and gardens
- Archaeological sites
- Ancient monuments
Human made and purpose built to attract visitors
- Amusement parks
- Theme parks
- Country parks
- Exhibition centres
- Heritage centres
- Marinas
- Garden centres
- Craft centres
- Factory tours and shops
- Working farms open to the public
- Zoos and safari parks
- Entertainment complexes
- Casinos
- Health spas
- Leisure centres
- Picnic sites
- Leisure retail complexes
- Museums and galleries
Sporting events
- Watching and participating in sporting events
- Arts festivals
- Markets and fairs
- Traditional customs and folklore events
- Historical anniversaries
- Religious events (Swarbrooke 2002)
Due to the diversity within visitor attractions it is vital that operators of these attractions recognise the service they provide, and implement processes to ensure that consumer satisfaction is achieved each time, every time.
SPECIFIC SERVICES WITHIN VISITOR ATTRACTIONS
In this section we will discuss the numerous services operators of visitor attractions aim to deliver to their customers. Due to the different attractions available certain attractions will offer any number of services, dependent on what is available to customers. For example a natural attraction such as a beach may provide users with the council service of cleaning the beach, whereas another natural attraction such as the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland offers visitors food and beverages, educational resources, and a transport service to assist visitors access the causeway.
Many visitor attractions give families the opportunity to spend an enjoyable family day out. The most popular in the UK being Alton Towers, Legoland and Blackpool Pleasure Beach. These types of attractions prove popular in providing potential consumers with the motivation to travel. They offer family entertainment and provide many food and beverage services. Shops are also incorporated within these attractions selling souvenirs and merchandise to provide customers with reminders of their visit.
Some visitor attractions will provide an educational service. This is the case with attractions such as the Timanfaya National Park in Lanzarote. On paying an entrance fee you can explore the park, and the entrance fee also includes the opportunity to take a coach tour through the moon like environment, with a tour guide giving an educational talk. Visitors are also able to see experiments to show the strength of the heat still being generated by dormant volcano, and also have the opportunity to have lunch cooked over the heat of a volcano.
Other visitor attractions can entice visitors by offering a relaxing day out, and there are many country parks such as Eglington Country Park in Ayrshire that can accommodate these types of visitors. The park provides peaceful walkways, an opportunity for fishing, or is ideal for family picnics. The park also provides an information service and a small food and beverage service that are both subject to seasonality issues. Toilet facilities are available all year round at the park.
Many visitor attractions will have ancillary operations as well. For example not only does an attraction such as Celtic Park in Glasgow receive visitors to watch football, the operators of the attraction also provide a food and beverage service, a cultural and historical service with their football museum, and the opportunity to buy club merchandise from their on site shop.
No matter what service the attraction offers to visitors it is important that procedures are put in place to deal with visitor satisfaction, health & safety, and to try and ensure repeat visits occur.
CHALLENGES IN DELIVERING SERVICE QUALITY TO CUSTOMERS
Due to the before mentioned characteristics of service such as intangibility, perishability, heterogeneity, and simultaneity, challenges in delivering a service which is acceptable to all users of visitor attractions can prove quite difficult.
MARKETING AND COMPETITION
Marketing visitor attractions can prove difficult due to the intangible characteristics of the service industry; therefore marketers are faced with the challenge of trying to encourage potential customers to buy a service product without then having tried the service product previously. Many visitor attractions are subjected to seasonality with the bulk of demand in the UK being in July and August. According to Swarbrooke (2002) marketers are therefore forced with adapting marketing strategies to try and stimulate off-peak demand to exploit the visitor attraction during these times. A way of combating this is to offer packages to groups such as schools and corporate users who are not geared to normal seasonal patterns. (Middleton 2001).
In any organisation it is important to have specific objectives against which to measure successes. Below are some of the ways operators can measure the success and monitor quality, cost and time.
- Measuring repeat visitors
- Monitoring of complaints
- Feedback from staff
- Analyse of target figures
- On site comment cards for customers
In today’s business world markets have become extremely competitive, therefore understanding consumers is no longer enough. Organisations must start paying keen attention to their competitors. (Kotler 2003) Visitor attractions nowadays have to identify key competitors and ascertain their strategic objectives, strengths and weaknesses, if they are to maintain market share and stay abreast of the competition.
Some visitor attractions will also benefit from being marketed by other people. Governments will use images of well-known attractions to promote their country overseas. Organisations such as Discover Ireland use the Giants Causeway in their television ads to promote Ireland overseas. Tour operators will also feature visitor attractions in their brochures to encourage potential customers to buy their holiday.
Visitor attractions such as art galleries and theatres may be involved in many marketing campaigns, ensuring forthcoming exhibits of art and shows are communicated to the appropriate target market. To do this, operators need to be aware who their target market is, to ensure its integrated marketing communications reaches the intended market. For example, it would be pointless to market an attraction such as Alton Towers solely to the 60+ market, as research would show this market segment not to be the main users of this type of attraction. However, it is important to note that although the 60+ market may not use the primary function of the attraction such as the thrilling rides, but could in fact be the purchasers of entry to such an attraction with their grandchildren and use any ancillary services provided such as food and beverages.
Swarbrooke (2002) notes that it is vital to collect the necessary information needed to ensure marketing campaigns are successful. The information needed includes,
- Visitor numbers and profile of existing customers, ex customers and non-users
- Visitor perception and opinions on the attraction
- Objective information on the organisation and how it operates
- Up-to-date information on competitors and their performance.
- A through appreciation of the position of the attraction in the marketplace as a whole
- An understanding of likely changes in the macro environment
(Swarbrooke 2002)
With today’s marketing being consumer focused, market research is becoming more important to the effectiveness of any marketing communications. Marketers of visitor attractions are required to comprehend the following aspects of their market,
- How visitors decide which attraction to visit
- The factors that influence customer satisfaction
- The reasons why people do not visit particular attractions
- Customer perception of attraction
(Swarbrooke 2002)
In order for an attraction to succeed it is important that the operators retain a careful focus on the customers needs and satisfactions. According to Harrinton/Lenehan (1998) to achieve the best in business performance, organisations must incorporate customer needs and wants and respond to them as part of their performance planning. To do this operators of visitor attractions must determine who their customers are and what those customer expect from them. These customers may include schools, other companies and other niche markets. Operators also need to understand that competition does not only come in the form of other visitor attraction. As more and more families have both parents out working the levels of personal disposable income within household is rising. Visiting attractions is only one way in which consumers spend their leisure time. Competition for the leisure pound also comes in the form of cars, going to the pub, building extensions and other home improvements. For example visit any B&Q store on a Bank Holiday and it will be packed with consumers looking for inspiration on improving their home and spending money.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Human resource management can also be a challenge as selection and recruitment costs will be much higher due to the high turnover of staff at visitor attractions. Competition in the service sector offering permanent employment can detract suitable applicants from applying for positions within visitor attractions. With the high staff turnover consistency will be difficult to maintain within visitor attractions, which inevitably will have a negative effect on the quality of service delivered to customers. This is due to the fact that to be able to deliver quality services to consumers requires skilled and well-trained employees. As many employees of visitor attractions are employed on short-term contracts, operators may be less willing to invest in training and development for seasonal staff. In Scotland the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions encourages its members to invest in training and development for all staff, whether full or part time, seasonal or permanent. Many operators of attractions dislike spending money on training and development for seasonal employees as there is the possibility of the employees not returning the following year. Operators are being encouraged to invest in training and development as this has proven to lead to a stronger more motivated workforce. If employees are enable and empowered to deliver a quality service, employee turnover should reduce, and employees affected by seasonality would be easier retained for the next season to come.
CUSTOMER CARE
Visitor attractions also face the challenge of delivering quality customer care and interaction. Achieving a high standard of customer care is an important part in the overall performance of visitor attractions. Many organisations would not be able to maintain a satisfactory level of sales, or be able to maintain a competitive edge in the modern business environment without effective customer care procedures and training. Profit margins can be greatly influenced by the standard of customer care organisations encourages in its staff. A high standard of customer care training within visitor attraction is important to achieve the following objectives,
- Increase sales
- Gain a competitive advantage
- Maintain customer loyalty
- Attract new customers
- Gain customer satisfaction
- Enhance the visitor attractions image
By introducing appropriate customer care training the internal customer, i.e. employees, will welcome the fact that you are willing to invest valuable time and money in them which will enhance their motivation and give operators improved co-operation between departments. To operator’s external customer, i.e. members of the general public using your services, they will feel valued at all stages of their experience visiting the attraction. Satisfied customers lead to fewer complaints for employees to deal with, freeing up valuable time they could be more industrious in. Operators should note that the word of mouth recommendation customers will voice is in effect free advertising and this will without a doubt lead to improved reputation and most importantly to increased revenue.
Ensuring that a quality service is delivered to the customer each and every time is one of the most important factors in organisational success. Many attractions are now becoming ISO 9000 certified such as the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex in Florida. As ISO awards are recognised worldwide this gives the customer an indication of the quality of service they should receive.
SEASONALITY
Seasonality is a challenge for service operations within some visitor attractions. During the off-peak months many visitor attractions close down, as economically these could not survive. This is turn can create instabilities in the local labour market which can create a negative impact on the quality of service. Historic Scotland operator of over 300 visitor attractions has tried to combat the problem of seasonality by taking measures to keep the majority of their visitor attractions opened all year. ()
SUSTAINABILITY
Many visitor attractions like museums for example face the challenge of sustainability. With the large number of museums available to the consumer ranging from small local volunteer run to large independent museums, local authority to international museums, many of them face issues of sustainability of one kind or another as they find themselves in an increasingly competitive environment fighting for visitors, resources, volunteers and funding.
Natural attractions too suffer from issues of sustainability. Visitors to Snowdonia National Park in North Wales have changed dramatically over the last five years, with the area now a favourite haunt for rock climbers. With rock climbing being one of the most rapidly growing sports in the UK, areas such as Snowdonia are suffering from the impacts of such visitors. Rare and important habitats and ecosystems are being damaged or destroyed by the ever-increasing number of visitors. More visitors lead to erosion of the mountains, traffic congestion and access problems, which all need to be addressed by those in charge of operations. ()
An attraction such as Stonehenge is facing the threat of erosion and environmental damage due to a busy road, which runs parallel with the site. Conservationist have now asked that the road be converted into a tunnel for traffic, as it is thought that the vibrations coming from the traffic passing by is causing damage to the ancient site.
INTERNAL CHALLENGES
Other challenges may be with the visitor attraction itself. The operators needs to ensure it is well signposted so customers know how to manoeuvre around the attraction as not to cause overcrowding issues at certain points. Information points, toilets, ancillary services such as food courts and merchandise shops need to accessible to all customers, including the disabled. Other attractions such as Disneyland have combated challenges such as queuing simply by enabling customers to queue in a snake like fashion, which allow customers to see the queue shortening, which in turn gives customers the illusion that the queue is not so bad.
EXTERNAL CHALLENGES
External factors out with the control of operators of visitor attractions can also represent a challenge to operators. According to an Annual Survey on Visitor Attractions (2002) in Northern Ireland, many operators were asked to identify the most negative factors that they believed had affected their visitor numbers. The five most cited negative factors were,
- Bad Weather
- Political image
- Foot and mouth disease
- September 11
- Fewer international passengers
As we can see the negative factors were external and out of the control of operators of visitor attractions.
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CONCLUSION
Operators in today’s business environment face many challenges as we have seen in delivering quality services to visitors of their attractions. By putting in place appropriate procedures and processes, and ensuring their employees are equipped with the knowledge, efficient customer care training, confidence and motivations in which to perform at their best, operators can gain an competitive edge in their market, and deliver customer satisfaction each and every time.
REFERENCES
Hope C, Muhleman A, Service Operations Management, Strategy, Design and Delivery, Prentice Hall 1997
MacLellan R, Smith R, Tourism in Scotland, International Business Press, 1998
Swarbrooke J, The Development and Management of Visitor Attractions, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2002
Nevan Wright J, The Management of Service Operations, Cassell, 1999
Fyall A, Garrod B, Leask A, Managing Visitor Attractions – New Direction, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003
Middleton VTC, Clarke J, Marketing in Travel and Tourism, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001
Baum T, Managing Human Resources in European Tourism and Hospitality Industry – A Strategic Approach, International Business Press, 1996
Harrington D, Lenehan T, Managing Quality in Tourism – Theory and Practice, Oak Tree Press, 1998
DETAILED BREAKDOWN OF GROUP MEMBERS PARTICIPATION
Janine Wodzynska
Research, preparation, and presentations of the definitions of service operations and visitor attractions.
Amanda Robinson
Research, preparation and presentation of the services provided by visitor attractions and the challenges faced by them. Editing of report.
The group did not meet specifically to prepare report as with only two members communications were by email and telephone.
