Just visiting…Tapping into the Tourist Market
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Speakers - Susanna Mann, Business Development Manager, Royal Collection and Chaired by Penny Mills, Director of Client Services, Audiences London - Buckingham Palace was voted Best UK Attraction 2010 by readers of both Group Travel Organiser and Group Leisure Magazines. Susanna Mann, Business Development Manager, explains the Royal Collection’s approach to the group visitor market. What does cultural tourism mean for your organisation, and how can you successfully tap into this potentially lucrative market? We’ll be putting things into context with information from Visit Britain, Visit London and other sector leaders.
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Just visiting…Tapping into the Tourist Market
- 1. Just visiting… Tapping into the Tourist MarketPenny Mills Audiences LondonSusanna Mann Royal Collection Museums and Heritage Show 2011 © Audiences London 2011
- 2. The context © Audiences London 2011
- 3. Why invest in tourism? Tourism was worth £115.4bn to the UK economy in 2009 equivalent to 8.9% of UK GDP. 29.6 million visitors come from overseas spending £16.7 billion (2010). 2010 UK residents took: 56.6 million holidays of one night or more spending £12.1 billion 16.6 million overnight business trips spending £3.9 billion 42.8 million overnight trips to friends and relatives spending £4.4 billion Visitor economy set to grow by 35% by 2020. Will support 2.9 million jobs by 2020 (c) Audiences London 2011
- 4. Current Trends The UK is the 6th most visited destination by international tourists but is losing market share. Tourists are increasingly demanding authentic experiences and are going the extra mile to find value for money; user generated web content underpins this trend. …international travel is primarily intra-regional rather than inter-regional, so Western European markets continue to offer growth potential for Britain’s inbound visitor economy. Spotlight is currently on the UK. Royal Wedding, 2012 Olympics, Queen’s Diamond Jubilee 2012 Exchange rate currently benefits many visitors. Staycation boom (c) Audiences London 2011
- 5. Why cultural tourism? Built heritage, cultural heritage and contemporary culture are core to Britain’s offer. Culture and heritage motivates 28% of £16 billion spend by overseas visitors. Attracts £4.5 billion worth of spending by inbound visitors. Underpins more than 100,000 jobs across Britain Britain was ranked 4th out of 50 nations for our built heritage, vibrant city life and contemporary culture in the 2009 Nations Brand Index Survey, ranked 7th for our cultural heritage. Culture and heritage…single most important motivation for city trips. © Audiences London 2011
- 6. Who are cultural tourists?…who to target Different motivations Purposeful, sightseeing, serendipitous, casual, incidental Educational, holiday, business Visiting friends and relatives Different socio-demographics Ageing like the global population… 55+ and over 80s Inter-generational, mother/daughter, grandparents/grandchildren Family Different behaviours Groups around shared interests Independent, back-packers Repeat visitors business or city breakers (c) Audiences London 2011
- 7. What do they want?…developing your offer Authenticity Life-long learning/self improvement Interactivity Immersive Experiences Personalised service Special interests catered for (c) Audiences London 2011
- 8. How can you reach them?…promoting your offer Identify you key messages Value, experience, customer service, special interest etc. Give people a good time and they’ll tell their friends Keep your offer fresh, changing, evolving User generated content… make it work for you PR opportunities Tourism agencies – tell your stories Collaborate and partner Travel Trade and Group Tour Operators (c) Audiences London 2011
- 9. Resources www.visitbritain.org/insightsandstatistics Overseas Visitors to Britain - Understanding Trends, Attitudes and Characteristics, September 2010, Visit Britain Culture and Heritage Topic Profile, February 2010, Visit Britain http://www.visitbritain.org/insightsandstatistics/segmentssectorsandissues/cultureheritage.aspx Overseas Visitors to Britain - Understanding Trends, Attitudes and Characteristics, September 2010, Visit Britain http://www.visitengland.org/insight-statistics/index.aspx http://www.londonandpartners.com/media-centre/facts-and-figures/ www.trendwatching.com Cultural Tourism, How you can benefit, A VisitBritain advisory guide http://www.tourismknowhow.com/culturaltourism.pdf ArkLeisure™ http://www.arkenford.co.uk/arkenford_tourism_arkleisure.php (c) Audiences London 2011
- 10. The Royal Collection… © Audiences London 2011
- 11. (c) Audiences London 2011
- 12. Working with the Groups Market Susanna Mann Business Development Manager The Royal Collection
- 13. Group Travel Organisers UK based; c11k organisers Market valued £142m Influenced by WoM and personal experience Print still more useful than online Day trips increasing at expense of short breaks 64% interested in historic buildings and 41% interested in museums and galleries Spring and autumn most popular seasons Hygiene factors more important even than price when considering a visit (source QA 2009 research for Group Travel Organiser)
- 14. Tour Operators UK and overseas operators Little market data, Visit Britain 2003 latest on overseas: 11% in-bound holiday market is tour groups Most likely to visit between April and June (37%) Most likely to be either children/students or over 65 Offer day trips/groups series/sightseeing excursions Commercially driven, influenced by price More complex supply chain, but professionally organised Like add –on exclusive extras Initial barriers to entry for new offers
- 16. Often travel in shoulder months/use less popular slots
- 20. Combination tickets within your range
- 24. Communicate as early as possible
- 25. Need to have strong, simple message
- 26. Promote to UK groups
Editor's Notes
- Great potential….Over the next decade the UK tourism economy has the potential to grow. Recent analysis by Deloitte and Oxford Economics has indicated that the worth of the wider visitor economy could grow by 35% in real terms by 2020 given the right support, accounting for 8.8% of all economic activity in the UK. This would mean tourism either directly or indirectly supporting 2.9 million jobs in 2020, that’s 250,000 more than is the case today.
- It seems that overall for visitors to Britain – statistics are slightly down (having recovered from a 28% downturn in 2008), but rallying as we go through 2011… but there are some overall trends – stays are shorter, VFR is down, business and holidays now on way up after low patch…. From Inbound Passenger Survey by the ONS – can find on VB site.London is doing particularly well… for reasons just stated…e.Domestically – VFR and business up, but pure holiday down…UK benefiting from exchange rate currently – so using this to buck trend London and UK is expensive
- What is cultural tourism… VB divide into…???Cultural Heritage (eg Shakespeare), Built or Historical Heritage (eg Tower ofLondon) and Contemporary Culture (eg modern art, theatre)Whilst most wouldn't classify themselves as cultural tourists, 57% of respondents from 20 countries agreed that history and culture are strong influences on their choice of holiday destination.How and where does your offer fit into this…?For Museums7.4m overseas visitors (23%)4th best activity, 3rd on to-do listSlightly more appealing to older visitorsGalleries rated as 8th
- Have you got an offer that can appeal to one or more of these groups?Think creatively and target accordinglyAs with all marketing individuals have multiple personalities – so might be business one time and family another… but can just market within those two different contexts…‘cycling singles’Can also use segmentation models such as ArkLeisureCulture visitors can be classified into the following categories:•The purposeful cultural tourist /culture vulture - cultural tourism is the primary motive for visiting a destination and the tourist has a deep cultural experience.•The sightseeing cultural tourist - cultural tourism is a primary reason for experiencing a destination, but the experience is less deep.•The serendipitous cultural tourist - A tourist, who does not travel for cultural reasons but who, after participating, ends up having a deep cultural experience.•The casual cultural tourist - cultural tourism is a weak motive for travel and the resulting experience is shallow.• The incidental cultural tourist - the tourist does not travel for cultural reasons, but nonetheless participates in some activities and has shallow experiences.
- Consumers have moved away from wanting a service to wanting an experience and will choose their holiday on the basis of how ‘real’ or how authentic it feels. Does this holiday allow them to experience the ‘real’ Britain or are they being offered a packaged tourist experience that they may view as less authentic. For a holiday experience to feel authentic it also has to avoid high tourist density, so it is important that consumers are offered enough choice away from the mainstream activities and experiences to avoid these quickly becoming tourist hotspots in themselves.VisitBritain research shows that a desire for ‘immersing themselves in the culture of the country they are visiting’ is a key requirement for holiday makers, however we know there is still a strong ‘tick-off’ mentality in some markets – notably China where the desire to show off is greater than the desire to go deep.
- All new developments in marketing and reaching people apply in tourist market and are in fact very well adapted… ie. word of mouth/recommendation is the largest and most trusted driver.The ‘Welcome’ is the one area that UK scores badly on… so VB have a resource for this!User Generated Content is here to stay and will likely seep into other dimensions of the holiday experience, moving beyond posting comments about accommodation to uploading videos of attractions, restaurants, etc. Increasingly it is possibly to download tourism related ‘apps’ to mobile phones, enabling visitors to track down local services that are of interest to them.Living of life through a screen will increasingly be a term that can be applied not only to ‘youth’ cohorts but to all age groups. More and more consumers owning multi-functional hand-held devices through which they communicate, plan leisure activities, make purchases, take photographs, view websites and even check-in for flights – once again though we need to recognise that not all inbound markets will be at the same point along the tech-savvy curve in terms of adoption, trust in, and usage of devices.Take advantage of other city/region-wide events… eg. Olympics, wedding etc.Refine your stories and tell 3rd parties to let them do the work for you – lots of pictures, videos etc. Many tourism agencies use culture as a driverBusiness to business – develop long-term relationships… eg. from Royal Collection…Partner with like-minded organisations, regionally or locally