Developing a Marketing Strategy and Marketing Plan

Every visitor attraction and tourism destination is different whether it's a museum, heritage railway, theme park, historic garden or stately home, countryside footpath, church trail,  battlefield etc and they all have issues unique to them. However certain generic marketing and business issues face all attraction owners and operators and the article available in the following link describes an approach to creating a robust marketing strategy and plan based on a real life (but anonymous!) example. Click here to download.        

Audience Development and Visitor Engagement - the research tool kit

One way of attracting visitors - good cakes in the café!

How should you set about visitor market research as part of a programme of audience development and visitor engagement? The case study on the link below sets out a method for understanding the profile and background of past and current visitors to a major multi site museum and heritage attraction that can then lead on to creating an audience development programme for attracting new visitors, encouraging repeat visitors and importantly ensuring that both are entertained and engaged during the visit. The case study covers the requirement to gather and measure the views of visitors and ‘non visitors’ on the attraction ‘offer’. Overall the approach is aimed at determining who the visitors are, where they come from, what their needs are in terms of the visit and to identify gaps in both the product offering as well as communications, pricing, on site facilities etc.

Click here to see the case study

Predicting visitor numbers

The nightmare for developers and promoters is a new theme park with the rides operating, the music playing but no visitors anywhere in sight; a new museum with the doors wide open but the galleries and halls empty of visitors. Imagine a newly opened restaurant, the staff all bright-eyed and eager but not one customer at the tables. Chilling visions for anyone who develops a visitor attraction or leisure venue in the belief that people will flock through the doors in numbers great enough to ensure success.

There are probably few if any cases where absolutely no one came to a new attraction, but one can think of any number where not enough people turned up and the attractions slowly faded away.An article written in 1999 by Rob Hall of Envirometrics in Australia addressed the issue of forecasting visitor numbers and it contained thought provoking comments and some useful principles for considering this knotty and difficult subject, even though written 12 years ago. It can be found here.

Carefully conducted surveys of the market,  rigorous profiling of the resident population within various drive times of the attraction,  combined with focus groups can give very useful indications of future market response. History has shown however that unless the sources of information are interpreted with skill, there is a high risk of expecting more visitors at the door than will actually arrive. It sometimes needs a strong minded consultant with a well argued case, to convince the client that he (or she) if not 'barking' then is at least being over optimistic!