Rethinking Welcome (Visitor Information) Centers - New Guidelines

© MyTravelResearch.com® 2014

Client:

Prepared by:

Date:

Best practice in Visitor Information Centres (VICs)

TTRA International Conference

Carolyn Childs

June 2016

Outline

1 The challenge

2 The process

3 The building blocks: critical success factors for VICs overall

4 Critical success factors for Mobiles and Pop Ups

5 The solution and learnings

The challenge

• Based on projects we did for 2 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Australia (similar to counties)

Source: Eurobodalla VIC Service Review Report

Challenge 1:Between 5-14% of

Eurobodalla’s visitors use the VIC

A poor ROI on the two thirds of council budget required to

service themOpportunity cost of investing

in digital which is growing

Challenge 2:An LGA facing cost pressures

and under-utilised assets wishes to co-locate its

Entertainment Centre box office and main VIC

Currently only 5% of visitors use any of the VICs

Set against the background of a major state government

funding review

The process

Project 1 Project 2

Desk Research ✔ ✔Customer/stakeholder survey ✔Expert consultation ✔Staff workshops ✔Immersion ✔Industry workshops ✔

Some key facts• 1,200+ pages of evidence reviewed from around the

world – including both qualitative and quantitative• Looked beyond VICs to Retail, Financial Services,

Government, Aviation • Input from TTRA LISTSERV – Thank you!!

Everyone was encouraged to participate – with flexibility

on how

5 critical success factors for a VIC

Location

Stakeholder Mix

ExperienceBranding

Integration

More on the success factors

Location

Fish where the fish are

A destination in its own

right

Strong retail offer

Absence of digital

alternatives

Don’t think this means you

shouldn’t do wifi


Stakeholder Mix

Supportive locals

Supportive industry

Visitor Profile

Match of opening hours to

visitor mix

Quoted in the WA Haeberlin study


Quality of experience

“Stories you can’t get

anywhere else”

The Bestpertise

Multi-modal and flexible

Get the basics right

Somewhere you want to

be (destination)

Getting the basics right

Source: Roger Brooks International

“We got so fed up of people only popping in to use the toilet that we

put the information we wanted them to see in the restrooms. It works”

Tracey Overgard, Calgary in conversation on VICs


Branding & Integration

Know what it is

What i am i?

Warm and welcoming language

Consistent branding at

all touchpoints

The touchpoints

work together

Beyond jurisdictions

Key takeouts on overall success factors

• Users of VICs continue to spend more• Know correlation, but no evidence of causation

means risk to close• Evidence you can reach new audiences

Evidence of value, no evidence to support losing

• No one size fits all and the precise solution you adopt is particular to your circumstances

• Need to take time to consider all the details – be granular

Although the principles are

common, you’re unique

• We used the model developed by Haeberlin Consulting for Western Australia

Identified the very specific one which met clients needs

East of England did an examination of different models.

Is it the case that “All

happy VICs are happy in

the same way, but unhappy

ones are unhappy in

different ways”?

Need to follow the rules but reflect them through our own

circumstances

Service diversification e.g. Co-locate with disability services

Opening up more of a VICs historic house location to visitors

increased footfall, created new product opportunities and enabled better staff utilisation on fun stuff

(ghost tours)

Downsizing within property and subletting reduced overheads and created a revenue stream to use

the small space more innovatively

Close existing visitor centre and relocating to an iconic attraction (a

racing circuit) improved the efficiency of its asset utilisation

and provided visitors a reason to detour

Outsourcing to another tourism body to run the service reduces

overheads and creates an incentive to drive up revenues – but only

over time

Most people continue to do a mix of offline and online – North Carolina, US is well recognised and has an imaginative mix

http://partners.visitnc.com/partner-opportunities/visitor-services.html

Warm and friendly wording

Work with other agencies for greater benefit

Tell storiesBuild

commitment to the Visitor

Economy

Case studies of new models in action

Wollongong’s Mobile Visitor Centre reaches out to a new

audience

Melton reoriented its visitor strategy to co-location and pop

ups – saving money and reaching more people

Sources: Wollongong TourismTenille Bradley, Visitor Servicing presentation, ARTN 2014

Case studies of new models in actionMinstead, Hampshire (UK) enables a small

village to have a VIC by outsourcing to a combined post office and tea rooms

Footfall is further driven by participation in the Community Toilet scheme and a water top up point – in our view a genius idea for driving

footfall

We looked at experiments in bold new ways to engage and inform customers – the bar is lifting all the time.

http://www.futuretravelexperience.com/passenger-services-and-wayfinding/page/3/




We looked carefully at the specifics

We looked at what sort of model we should be moving to

Source : Future of Visitor Centres in WA – Full Report, Haeberlin Consulting 2014Destination NSW

Our proposed solution – an ecosystem to attract, engage and inform visitors

Council provides Council enables

Visitor Contact Centre

1800 Phone numberLive Chat

Ideally these would operate after 5pm at least Thu-Sat perhaps via use of volunteer staff

Training & accreditation

support

Product racking, wifi and digital

access at Moruya Library

Outsourced Visitor Engagement Centre New

Batemans Bay site

Outsourced Visitor Engagement Centre Current Narooma

Digital Engagement and contact

centre

Mobile web

Main website

Social media

White label booking service

Performance metrics to amend and improve

Mobile or pop up VIC

Note dotted lines denote options

If budgets do not permit council to do both can opt for EITHER mobile option OR the outsourced centres.

But it MUST offer one of them

The ideal co-located centre – the staff perspective

Should evoke a sense of place Appeal to ALL the senses

Instant acknowledgement and clear wayfinding (both

before and inside)

Supports staff in being EXPERTS: facilities, systems

and other services

Extra facilities like ATMS, phone chargers to encourage footfall

Mix of materials both paper and digital including

WIFI

Somewhere I feel proud and happy to work

Clear and uncluttered/easy to find things when I need

them

Things to sell – bookable content, tours

Link front office and back All the basics taken care of – toilets, parking etc

Ability to grow the experience over time (not necessarily physical space)

There is a strong overlap between these and the success factors noted earlier

We also looked at other evidence for good co-location practices – to build a checklist of success factors for VICs (1) Key takeouts:

• Needs: – Have we understood the needs of our different target audiences

(VIC and Box Office)? Do we have a plan to satisfy these?• Branding and Recognition:

– How will our two separate audiences recognise the new service?

– What cues like uniforms/titles will there be?• Roles and responsibilities?

– Is it clear who is leading what elements?– Who is the lead agency for set up?– Who is the lead agency for on-going management? Who will

staff report to?– Will roles and responsibilities be managed jointly? Do we have

clear job descriptions for this?– Whose job is it to promote?– Do staff work together or alongside one another?– Who is responsible for engagement and promotion?– Who owns success or failure?

We found this guide had lots of great tips – despite being

about co-location of local services

We also looked at other evidence for good co-location practices – to build a checklist of success factors for VICs (2) Key takeouts:

• Engagement and Promotion:– What steps are being taken to engage key stakeholders and local

customers (VFR Hosts and Entertainment Centre visitors)?– What is being done to drive footfall (e.g. Signposting, promotion of the

centre)? • Funding and financing:

– Who owns this?– How are costs and revenues allocated between the parties?– What are start up costs? [Not to be underestimated]

• Operations, Logistics and Practicalities:– Have we managed transport access? (in our case parking)– Have we planned for the different opening hours services may need?– How have we managed OH&S issues?– Are we confident are changes meet planning regulations?– What are legal arrangements e.g. Tenancies, ownership etc.,?

• Future-proofing– What flexibility is built into the design to change or adapt?– What flexibility is built into staff roles and responsibilities?– What flexibility is built into management structures?

• Other– How will success be monitored?– Are we managing the set up and operational phases separately?

We found this guide had lots of great tips – despite being

about co-location of local services

Critical success factors for Mobiles and Pop Ups

Great design

• Shouldn’t just be a mobile brochure rack – should catch the eye/be different

• Ensure the design is ‘on brand’

Give reasons to visit

• Must provide new news (again not just a brochure rack)

• Perception may be that people at events already know – so tell them hidden secrets

• Co-locate it with something like a coffee stand or merchandising

Staff engagement

• Management need to believe in the concept to provide leadership

• Staff must also believe in it – be motivated to make it a success. Change management may be important

• Staff can’t just stand there – need to engage. Think abut which staff to use

Location

• As with any VIC choice of location is vital.

• Events and markets are popular

• But also places people naturally go. Often visitors may just go to the beach – so a mobile or pop up close to lunch or ice creams could be an opportunity to upsell them

• Don’t just think about being part of it – think where in the venue is best

My other learning

Start by asking the right question...Not

‘Do we need a visitor centre or not?’ BUT

What is the best way to maximise the benefits to our community AND visitors from tourism with the

resources we have?

Disclaimer: Please note that the information and data contained in this proposal has been prepared for the specific purpose of addressing the items for the proposed research between MyTravelResearch.com Pty Ltd and Participants in the TTRA International Conference 2016.

It may not be suitable for other applications. The use of this data for any other purpose should be discussed with the lead author. MyTravelResearch.com accepts no responsibility for unauthorised use of this data by a third party.

© MyTravelResearch.com® 2016

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+Carolyn Childs

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.mytravelresearch.com/

Rethinking Welcome (Visitor Information) Centers - New Guidelines

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