The first day of the Maori Tourism Conference was devoted to the subject of creating quality tourism experiences. Craig Wilson from Quality Tourism Development presented, with breaks for groups to apply the ideas to their own businesses.

What do our visitors want?

Research shows that around 70% of a visitor’s overall satisfaction comes from what they do - not where they stay and how they get around (although a bad accommodation or transport experience can undermine their satisfaction).

So what is quality, and what is a quality experience? ‘Quality’ is in the eyes of the customer or - as Fiona Luhrs of TIANZ says - ‘quality is a race without a finish line’ as customers’ expectations continually increase.

Research identifies these components as integral to the delivery of a quality experience:

• safety
• friendly and knowledgeable operator or guide
• interactivity and the involvement of participants
• elements of uniqueness and authenticity
• opportunity to learn.

Craig identified three levels of ‘quality’:

• must be right (safe, clean, easy to fine, accurate information)
• more is better (more options, more space, more luxury)
• delighters (something distinctive, beyond expectation, memorable)

Craig says that we need to do more than satisfy visitors - visitors want to be blown away. The ‘more is better’ approach is not good enough either - ‘gold plating the taps’ will cost money but not necessarily make a connection with the visitor. Rather, experiences that ‘delight’ visitors will inspire word-of-mouth recommendations to other visitors and loyalty from these customers. 

Designing your customer experience 

Understanding the key interfaces with your customer - and designing robust processes around these ‘moments of truth’ - will result in a quality experience. These key interfaces may occur when the customer makes a reservation, when they arrive at the destination, when they are greeted, and so on. (Craig got us to analyse our own businesses to identify these ‘moments of truth’).

Craig stressed that you can add a lot of value without necessarily spending a lot of money by ensuring, for example, that signage is clean and illuminated, a map is included on your brochure, counters are kept tidy. Prioritise work on facilities and equipment that your customers come into contact with most often. First impressions are important - what do your customers hear, see and touch when they first arrive? 

Another important piece of advice from Craig is that we need to promote the benefits of our experiences, not just the features. He notes that descriptions of our experiences and services in our marketing collateral tend to be product centric, rather than customer centric. According to the research, customers are looking for emotional fulfilment, replenishment, escape and relaxation, learning, adventure and engagement rom their activities. We need to promote the emotive benefits of our offerings, rather than just the features.

Building your brand

Great brands are built using free publicity and word of mouth, and then maintained through advertising. Craig’s advice is to push the limits in terms of how you position your experience (the oldest, smallest, largest of its kind etc) but don’t be incredible.

If your marketing budget is more than $10,000, Craig recommended reading ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding’ by Al Reis - great examples of how major brands get it right (and not so right).

What struck me most about Craig’s presentation is that if there is a recipe for what visitors are seeking, it’s not specific types of experiences or activities or even destinations, but something much more intangible. These intangibles are the values, attitudes and emotive benefits that provide customers with engagement, learning, escape, relaxation etc. Promoting the intangible benefits of our cultural experiences will motivate customers to participate. 

Read my first post on the Maori Tourism Conference: What do international visitors want?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 2:38 pm and is filed under Building audiences, Cultural tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.