Posts Tagged ‘visitor experiences’
NZx January 27th: Northland / Te Tai Tokerau
Naumai
Northland /Te Tai Tokerau is a fantastic place. There are many icons to visit here; Tane Mahuta, Russell, Waitangi, Cape Reinga or any beach with golden sands, pohutakawa and sparking blue sea.
A recent visit to Northland enabled us to spend some time exploring both the icons and the back roads.
The icons are all there, service was mostly good but some of the infrastructure was looking decidedly tired and away from the icons – empty. Most of the tourism entities were either staffed by Caucasian or international transients. While hyped up with great marketing the cultural interaction was limited, oversold and didn’t address many of the basics of great visitor experiences.
Beyond the icons it wasn’t to hard to find another story. Hints of elitism, exclusion and then poverty and well… another world one which most New Zealanders aren’t aware of..
It’s sometimes useful to look beyond our initial impressions, and to reflect on how tourism could provide a positive contribution to all in it’s community.
Ka kite ano
Tane Mahuta – a Northland / Te Tai Tokerau icon
NZx November 15th : Underdone
Naumai
The West Coast relies heavily on tourism to sustain and develop it’s future. Recently we visited the West Coast Tree Top and cafe walkway, not far from the picturesque Lake Mahinapua – and about twenty minutes from Hokitika.
First appearances were far from bright. It was simply pouring and there surprisingly no option to drop anybody alongside or in a sheltered canopy. Our mood wasn’t helped when we had to wait for the staff to actually greet us – they were too busy talking to each other.
The walkway itself had lots of potential to be improved. The structural components of the walkway were fine but the visitor experience could have been greatly enhanced. The panels were simple but okay but so much more opportunity to enhance the experience through some immersive experiences. Wildlife is great when its there, but when its not….
Our visitor experience was further downgraded on the way out. The walk through the compulsory gift shop came to a sudden halt when we struck the main exit door – it was locked. Still 30 minutes before closing and while most people would have been trying to get in we were simply trying to get out! Staff, looking suitably embarrassed, eventually came to allow us out…
The visit was in November. I hate to think what sort of visitor experience this would be in the peak of summer, and the visitor season.
Ka kite ano
NZx September 19th: Authentic
Naumai
One of the challenges for attractions is to keep the visitor experience fresh and alive. Regular change and emotional connection is a necessity of designing successful visitor experiences.
While Tilden’s https://prezi.com/s1qrbgvpu7ik/tildens-principles-of-interpretation/ principles of interpretation were written in the late 1950’s they still apply today.
Without provocation the visitor experience risks being compromised and becoming purely a source of information – after all interpretation (the art of sharing stories and experiences) is not information!
Visiting the indigenous Tjapukai Cultural Centre in Cairns recently was case in point. There has been some attempt to use Tildens principles, particularly in the areas of reveal and age related experiences. Unfortunately the low point came when we were served “authentic” bush tucker – at a table complete with porcelain plates and in cups made in China. The damper was more like commercial bread. This was probably an attempt to placate potential food safety concerns, but it may also be an attempt to cater to the large wholesale group demands.
Whichever it was definitely not an authentic experience, and did little to provocate our thinking on indigenous foods!
Visiting Tjapukai ten years ago was a highlight of the Queensland experience. We were emotionally moved but this time the sanitized experience left us cold.
Ka kite ano
indigenous food at Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park
NZx March 9th: guiding 101
Naumai
It has been great to get out and spend the last month travelling the country on the Oceanic Discoverer.
As well as getting the opportunity to lecture, guide, interpret and spend time with people from all around the world, you also get to experience NZ Inc from a visitors viewpoint.
We have previously posted on the need for interpreters to do the basics well. Essentially that is to have: well themed, entertaining, engaging and correct interpretation delivered in a passionate way to their visitors.
Over the last four weeks we have accompanied our visitors on some experiences offered by some of NZ’s leading tourism businesses. They do a great job of essentials such as: marketing, providing good equipment, and partially delivering on the promise.
Some don’t do a great job in the essential areas of visitor experiences. particularly guiding/interpretation. Specifically we endured: our guide continually standing at the front of the group and not being heard, our driver twice leaving us in a small van to carry out some personal business, a monotone lecture from another driver on bees which had nothing to do with the experience on offer and our guide (while knowing her material) being less than engaging.
Visitor’s on the Oceanic Discover come from all around the world, travel a long way and spend a lot of money to experience NZ. They have a great experience on the ship but some of our smaller land-based operators are delivering a less than 100% visitor experience.
Ka kite ano
Malcolm
NZx 3rd January: Luged
Naumai
So lets put one of New Zealand’s top soft adventure activities to the test……..
Hot summers day, fifteen of us on Skyline Rotorua’s luge.
Nice ride up in the gondola and great views over the city and lake. Pretty basic instruction but soon we were off…downhill – fast.
Sadly that was about as fast as it got……Once we hit the bottom we ran into a “luge-jam”. Essentially there was one staff person on duty; lots of people getting off luge’s and leaving them in the wrong place, luges weren’t going up the chairlift, and all in all utter confusion.
It was all capped off when the staff person yelled at an international visitor to drag their luge over to a certain area. The guest looked utterly bewildered….considering how many non-English speaking people visit this was not a good look.
We all calculated that by the time we accounted for the luge down time we probably lost the equivalent of two extra rides.
Skyline may have been trying to save money by not having a second person at the bottom of the luge, but they certainly ended up with lots of frustrated customers. Waiting, when you have paid a lot of money, is not a good thing…..
This is definitely not a good example of customer service or a visitor experience.
Ka kite ano
when not waiting in line this is what you get…………….
Malcolm
NZx 23rd October – life revisited…
Naumai
Since my last post I have moved to the North Island to take on a role as General Manager at www.maungatrust.org
I am still available to talk to you about your visitor experience opportunities – in whatever capacity.
My blogs on visitor experiences and tourism start again this week…so if you’re interested watch this space there’s plenty to blog about!
Ka kite ano
Four week old “Pounamu” a taonga from the South Island but born and bred on Maungatautari
NZx 27th October:Integrated
Naumai.
One of the advantages of living in a relatively small country is the opportunity to integrate our delivery of visitor experiences and opportunities.
This opportunity was seized upon by various tourism initiatives over the years, including the development of Green Globe 21, Qualmark and the gradual upgrading of i-site services.
While some of these various integrated initiatives are now in place, the same cannot be said of the development of visitor experiences throughout the country.
Travelling around with a group of savvy international visitors, one soon (re) discovers that many of our visitor experiences are essentially copies of other experiences, in other parts of the country. Just how many bungy jumps, jet boat rides, marae visits, small ship cruising and conservation experiences do we need?
All the research suggests that integrated, themed experiences are what visitors seek, remember and recommend.
What we seem to have lost is the ability to develop or re-develop new visitor experiences that are different to anything else on offer. Good attractions do just this, re-developing their core business every 2/3 years. They know the importance of attracting new and repeat business, and standing out from the crowd.
All too often small businesses pour scarce resources into marketing instead of the product development phase. If they don’t get the theme, the visitor experience and the “offer” right early on they typically struggle to survive.
Many of our smaller visitor experiences then struggle financially, partly because they can’t make an impact in a crowded marketplace. A trend emerging is the conglomeration of many of the smaller entities into one overall business unit, while perhaps retaining the smaller brands for a “point of difference”.
Perhaps visitor experience operators should look integrating their key themes and visitor “offer”. The key focus should be on developing a visitor experience “offer” that no one else can.
Ka kite ano
Malcolm