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VII. ATTRACTIONS

THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF ATTRACTIONS (1)

Attractions provide the single most important reason for

leisure tourism to a destination

Tourist attraction is a focus for recreational and, in part,

educational activity undertaken by both day and

stay visitors that is frequently shared with the domestic

resident population

Coliseum

–

Rome

Table mountain

–

South Africa

London Eye

–

London and UK

Attraction “icons”

THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF ATTRACTIONS (2)

GUGGENHEIM

• Bilbao

• Spain

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND

• Wellington

• New Zealand

Attractions have played a catalytic

role in the regeneration of an area or

destination

Iconic or “flagship”

attractions can be

used to:

Pull in visitors

Meet needs of local resident

Develop stronger tourism

activities

CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTRACTIONS (1)

Classification is possible along a number of different

dimensions:

OWNERSHIP

CAPACITY

MARKET OR CATCHMENT

PERMANENCY

TYPE

CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTRACTIONS (2)

NATURAL RESOURCES

•National parks

•Wildlife

•Viewpoints

•Outstanding natural phenomena

ARTIFICIAL “MAN-MADE”

FEATURES AND

PRODUCTS

•Cultural – religion, modern culture, museums...

•Traditions – folklore, animated culture, festivals

•Events – sport activities and cultural events

Early attempts at classification

CLAWSON’S CLASSIFICATION OF RECREATION RESOURCES

USER-ORIENTATED INTERMEDIATE RESOURCE-BASED

• based on whatever resources are available • often artificial developments (city parks, pools, zoos, etc.) • highly intensive developments close to users in large population centres • focus of user pressure • activities include golf, tennis, picnicking, walking, riding, etc. • often highly seasonal activities, closing in off-peak

• best resources available within accessigle distance to users • access very important • more natural resources than user-orientated facilities, but experience a hig degree of pressure and wear • activities include camping, hiking, picnicking, swimming, hunting and fishing

• outstanding resources • primary focus is resource quality with low-intensity development and artificial facilities at a minimum • often distant from users, the resource determines the activity (sightseeing, scientific and historic interest, hiking, mountain climbing, fishing and hunting)

Activity paramount Resource paramount

Artificiality Naturalness

Intensity of development

Distance from user

CLASSIFICATION OF ATTRACTIONS

CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTRACTIONS (3)

Events are used to give animation to object-oriented attractions

Hallmark events are frequently used to raise

the image of a destination

NATURAL ATTRACTIONS

•Country parks in Britain

•Lakes in Canada

•Mountains in Swizerland

•Coast in Spain

MAN-MADE ATTRACTIONS

•Commonly the results of the history and culture of a country which leaves a legacy of historic monuments and buildings

•Can be subdivided: a) attractions that were created specially for tourism and b) attractions created originally for purposes other than tourism

CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTRACTIONS (4)

GRAND CANYON

Management objectives that

focus on conservation

issues and the management of

visitors

THEME PARKS

Core objectives of entertainment

and income generation

Man-made attractions that are the legacy of history and culture also

share with natural resources the fact that they cannot be reproduced

without considerable expense and alterations to their authenticity,

unlike attractions designed principally for entertainment

Measures to resolve this have

included the construction of a

new visitor centre

NATURAL ATTRACTIONS

In the instance of natural features it is often the quality of the resource that provides the attraction, whereby location

becomes secondary

Water-based resources, either

coastlines or lakes, have

always been the most important

tourism resource

Most common

aspect of natural

resources

They are generally fixed in

supply

Able to provide only a limited

amount of services in any

given time period

1. Himalayas

(Nepal)

2. Blue Ridge

(Virginia)

3. Ring of Kerry

(Southern

Ireland)

MODEL OPTIMALNE ALOKACIJE RESURSA

• vertical axis= social

net benefits (social

benefits less social

costs) of using a given

area of land for tourism

or industrial purposes

• TT = illustrates how

these net benefits

decline as more land is

made available for

tourism

• II = applies to

industiral use

• Q1 the social net

benefit from the last

prortion of land

devoted to industry

MARKET FAILURE AND PUBLIC PROVISION (1)

Provision of outdoor areas for leisure purposes on a large scale is that they are rarely commercially viable in terms of the investment costs and operating expenditure

necessary to establish and maintain them

Reasons

•Periodic use(weekends and holidays)

•Political and administrative difficulties of establishing private markets

MARKETING FAILURE

Situations of the kind outlined above and in such circumstances it is common

for the state to make the neccessary provision

MARKET FAILURE AND PUBLIC PROVISION (2)

The principal feature of such goods or services is that it is not realistically possible to exclude individuals from consumption

once they have been made available

The point at issue is that public goods form no part of the private costs facing the tourism developer and are therefore open to abuse

through overuse

Where legislation is considered impractial, or overly restrictive, then the approach is to try to change behaviour

through educational awareness campaigns

In response the state, in addition to enforcing

collective provision out taxation, regulates

individual behaviour through legislation to

preserve environmental amenity

MANAGING THE ATTRACTION RESOURCE

Given a fixed amount of natural resources for leisure purposes, it is only possible to alter the supply by

adopting different use patterns

CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM which argues that economic growth is only acceptable if it can

maintain, at a minimum, the stock of tourist assets intact from one generation

to another

Application of capital, labour and management to the natural

environment is often necessary to render them sustainable for

tourist use

With natural attractions that draw visitors both at

the national and international level, it is

common for the authorities to implement “park and ride” schemes so as to

control the flow of cars in the area

VISITOR ACCESS FUNCTION

MAN-MADE ATTRACTIONS (1)

Museums and art

galleries

Rijksmuseum in

Amsterdam

Chicago’s Museum of Science and

Industry

Where old industrial buildings, disused market halls, railway

stations and docks are located close to urban centres, it has been quite

common to convert them into tourist zones which serve both

visitors and residents like

User-orientated attractions are capable of handling thousands of

visitors per day

MAN-MADE ATTRACTIONS (2)

COLONIAL WILIAMSBURG (Virginia, SAD)

Originated by establishing an old city within a

new one and by the staff creating a time

capsule of the colonial period of America

through role play and using the technology of

the day

Animals in captivity in the form of zoos or safari parks are no longer acceptable to many people and

there is marked decline of interest in static attractions and object-

orientated museums

Historic properties, museums and gardens change their displays and feature special exhibitions /events

to maintain interest

DEVELOPING ATTRACTIONS

All attractions measure

their performance by:

Number of visitors

Quality of the experience

they give them

Memories that hey take home

Ensure repeat

visits

Spread of word-

of-mouth

recommendation

To enhance the experience, the modern approach is to place tangible objects

Thrill ride or a collection of musemu artefacts

within the context of a specific theme or image in a particular setting or environment

Variety od “imagescapes” are possible -

“art and media”, “childhood”, “fame and notoriety”, the “human body”, “myths and

fantasy”, the “natural world” and “war and conflict”

THE ATTRACTION PRODUCT

THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

WHICH WAY?

IMAGESCAPES

LOCATION MARKET

THE ATTRACTION DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

MARKET

IMAGESCAPE

LOCATION

This demand-led sequential process is

seldom implemented, only applying to

“footloose” attractions that have flexibility

across all three aspects in order to generate

economic success

The most attraction developments are constrained more often than not by their

location, types and ownership

LOCATION IMAGESCAPE MARKET

THE MARKETING-IMAGESCAPE MIX

Market and imagescape are inextricably linked to each other vis-à-vis the development of attractions

Problem in some countries with the

overdevelopment of heritage attractions – often perceived as a

“quick win” for politicians, but

frequently short of visitors after the initial

spurt of interest

Pre-market evaluation of the concept is

difficult in that the marketing is frequently

unaware of what the concept will look like

For established attractions, meeting the needs of new and future markets may require a

much greater leap

THE ATTRACTION MARKET-IMAGESCAPE MIX

IMAGE

MARKET

CURRENT Q I

“Me too” attraction

Q II “Grand inspiration”

attraction

CURRENT NEW

NEW Q III

“New version” attraction

Q IV “Wonder” attraction

MANAGING ATTRACTIONS (1)

Upravljanje posjetiteljima

atrakcija može biti složen i

zahtjevan problem zbog:

Velike raznolikosti

atrakcija

Geografske podijeljenosti

Raznovrsnih oblika vlasništva i

financiranja

Opsega i marketinškog

mixa

Osnovni uvjeti za definiranje korisne

nacionalne strategije razvoja atrakcija za

posjetitelje trebaju uzeti u obzir

Situaciju u kojoj su mogudi učinci destabilizacije od

iznenadne masivne injekcije kapitala

Gdje su veliki, novootvoreni projekti u prednosti u odnosu na postojede

atrakcije

Primjeri vedih izdataka na drugim vedim projektima

urbanističke obnove

Situacije gdje je stalan pad godišnjih efekata od

ulaganja lokalnih vlasti u tradicionalne atrakcije

Gdje je struktura gospodarstva takva da veliku vedinu čine male

firme, s vrlo malim postotokom interesa za

atrakcije

Gdje je manjak informacija u managementu i gdje je sektor atrakcija napučen

više nekomercijalnim “javnim” institucijama

MANAGING ATTRACTIONS (2)

Seven key components that ought to be considered for action

recommendations in any national strategy for visitor atractions

The collection and dissemination of

effective research ona a comparable basis

Application of expertise to the analysis and

communication of trends

Advice, and perhaps support, on assessing

quality of visits

Collection and dissemination of good

practice examles in fisitor attraction management

and operations

Coordination and possibly funding

for/provision of traning and management

development

Influence over funding bodies

Influence and advice to public-sector bodies

ECONOMIC ASPECTS

Ownership status is in fact one of the key determinants of atraction management

Particularly the case for “managing revenue and overall yield, visitor management strategies and the

management of environmental impacts at attractions”

Attractions are owned by central government, in the case of national

collections, quasi-public bodies which are at an

“arm’s length” from the government, local government and voluntary bodies

ISSUES OF OWNERSHIP (1)

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

Public owned attractions may receive all or a substantial part

of their funds from general taxation, either directly or via grant-in-aid for quasi-public

bodies

Provided in the manner of a merit good and as a result

impose a degree of coercion on everyone, as individuals are not free to adjust the amounts that are made

available

In market-orientated economies the trend has been towards charging for national

museums in order to cut public expenditure, though there is still resistance among certain

sections of the community, including museum managers, who feel that museums

have a public obligation requirement

Most feasible method of

assessing is government

support

ISSUES OF OWNERSHIP (2)

Public provision

ISSUES OF OWNERSHIP (3)

VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS

Many museums and events have arisen out of the

collections of interests of a group of enthusiasts who

come together to provide for themselves and others

collective goods and services which are unlikely to have

any widespread commercial appeal

Not able to raise funds from taxation and so in the long run must cover their costs out of

income

CHARITABLE TRUSTS

By law, this can usually only be

for the purposes of education,

religion, relief of the poor, or the

public good

ISSUES OF OWNERSHIP (4)

COMMERCIAL SECTOR

For the commercial attractions the rules of

market economics apply

They are required to make profits so as to contribute a

return on the capital invested

Return on

capital

invested

Current cost

of raising

money for

investment

purposes

Principal economic

concerns

Cost structure

Seasonal nature of demand

Theme park owners have to add new

rides and replace old ones long before

they are physically worn out simply to

maintain attendances

COSTS

FIXED COSTS

OPERATIONAL OR VARIABLE

COSTS

Main component of the fixed costs

- CAPITAL INVESTMENT

(establish the attraction in the first place and capital additions

from new development)

The economic consequence of having a high level of fixed costs is to raise the

break-even point in terms of sales or visitor numbers

FIXED COST EFFECTS

MARKET ORIENTATION

PRICING POLICY

HIGH FIXED COSTS PRICE POLICY

Price charged for

admission to an

attraction

Variable or marginal

cost of providing the

visitor experience for

the customer

Contribution margin

per customer towards

paying the fixed costs

and meeting targets

on profitability

The difference between the admissions price and marginal costs

is the range of discretion that the organisation has

YIELD MANAGEMENT Range of different market segments

with a variety of different prices, including discounts for volume sales

and long-term contracts

MANAGING PEOPLE

The perception of attractions has changed

- Many jobs in the sector are no longer viewed as low paid and seasonal but

represent opportunities that offer real benefits and long-term development

GRADUAL IMPROVEMENT IN

GOOD MANAGEMENT

RECRUITMENT

TRAINING DEVELOPMENT OF

CAREER STRUCTURES

Attractions have to:

Contend with flatter organisational structure

Contend the empowerment of staff

Increase emphasis on quality

Increase a growth in performance-related play

for valued employees

MANAGING SEASONALITY

Seasonality becomes an issue in tourist attractions because the

product, the visitors experience, cannot be stored

Most times of the year the attraction has too much capacity

Seasonality can affect pricing policy

It is peak demand that determines capacity and user-orientated

attractions are frequently designed to a standard based on a fixed

number of days per annum when capacity is likely to be reached or

exceeded

SEASONAL DEMAND

SS = supply schedule representing the incremental cost of expanding visitor numbers

D2D2 = demand for the visitor experience in the main season D1D1 = off-season demand

MANAGING VISITORS

Price as a method of

regulating demand

Luxury resorts

(Malibu and the Maldives)

Luxury hotels (Mandarin

and Shangri La hotels in

Asia)

To be able to use price to limit the number of visitors requires that consumption

should be excludable

A number of possible actions exist to manage visitors at busy times and therby avoid congestion and improve the visitor

experience

These start with marketing and information provision and go through to techniques

that can influence the visitor’s behaviour on the site

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

Concern for the tourism

environment

Notion of sustainable

development

Going “green” can build a platform for long-term growth by offering a better tourist product, saving resources and raising the public’s perception of the

tourism industry

Key principles that should govern

environmental policy for the

implementational of any tourism

development plan are:

Recognition of a two-way relationship between tourism and the environment

Visitor management to reduce pressure

Environmental improvement for the benefit of residents and visitors

Sensitive development that respects and enhances the environment

Responsible operation through ecologically sound practice

THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINALBE DEVELOPMENT

TOURISM IN RELATION TO THE ENVIRONMENT

TOURISM TO ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT TO TOURISM

OPPORTUNITIES OPPORTUNITIES

Commercial returns for preservation of built environment and natural heritage

Fine scenery and heritage as visitor attractions

New use for redundant buildings and land

Increased awareness and support for conservation

Eco-tourism based on environmental appreciation

THREATS THREATS

Intrusive development Congestion

Disturbance and physical damage Pollution and resource consumption

Off-putting, drab environments Pollution hazards on beaches, in water,

and in rural and urban areas Intrusive developments by other

industries

REGULATION OR MARKET SOLUTIONS?

In market-orientated economies the policy preference is for solutions based on the principle that the polluter should pay

Prices should reflect not only the economic cost of

provision but also the social costs

The significant aspect of many environmental matters is that the assets involved do not pass

through the marketplace

Impossible to achieve concentrated action other that through a regulating agency that has the

force of lay, which leaves little scope for market economies

CONTROL VERSUS MARKET SOLUTIONS

ATTRACTION AUTHENTICITY

Tourists should be

given a genuine

appreciation of the

destination they are visiting

In too many cases tourist are given the impression

that the destination in some idyllic fantasy world

Some tourists do not see that real landscape and way of life of the culture of the country

The ideal situation is considered to be where both the host community and the visitor see the experience as

authentic

Historic and cultural staging presents the

visitor with the salient features of a

community’s heritage and resources that need for encroaching on the

private space of the host population

Jorvik Viking Centre