”Memory Tourism”
Part 1: - Presentation of Södertörn University - The phenomenon visitor attractions
by
Göran Andersson
Presentation
* Göran Andersson
* Head of the tourism studies department * Contact info: [email protected]
The history of the tourism academy
* At Södertörn University - As a program since 1999 - As a discipline since 2004 - Master program since 2008 * International - Tourism Studies - England at the 1950s * In Sweden - As a program since 1978 - As a discipline since 2003-2004
The education
* The bachelor´s program * The master`s program
* Courses on the undergraduate level * Courses on the advanced level
* 8 international courses
* One semester internship course
Research at Södertörn university
* Overall theme: ”Big city region” • Sub themes:
- Hospitality management - Sustainable destinations
- Experiences and visitor attractions - Tourism communication
Community engagement
* Business education
* Cooperation with business and interested parties * Investigations och applied research
* The industry council * Trainee semester
The phenomena
”Visitor attractions”
- Can we really define visitor attractions?
-A tourism product based on a permanent or temporary
object related to a destination, which the tourism industry or other interested parties can develop and market, and which motivate groups of people to travel for different purposes such as experiences and meetings (Andersson 2009)
Definitions of visitor attractions
A visitors attraction can be defined as an element in an arena,
which is an area, a meeting place or a focused activity, which give impact to the following: a place from attracting the visitor, gives a wonderful experiences, gives satisfaction to its customers, offers enough in terms of facilities and has a strategy to have either free entrance or payment (Walsh-Heron & Stevens)
Visitor attractions are at the heart of the tourism industry, they are motivators that make people want to take a trip in the first place (Swarbrooke 2000)
Why do people travel? - motivators
What helps people to travel? – influencing factors
Types of attractions
Two dimensions for all attractions:
* a) Cognitive and/or perceptual categories such as education
* b) Adventure which creates human experiences (Lew 2000)
Dicothomy:
a) Natural – built b) Private – public ownership c) Free – paid d) in cluster – isolated
e) On a travel route or situated in a rural/urban environment (Fyall, Garrod & Leask 2003)
(The ice hotel at Jukkasjärvi, Sweden)
Focused classification criteria
- temporary or permanent
- nature and culture
- build as an attraction / not build as an attraction
Kaali field of meteorite craters, Saaremaa islands, Estonia
Graham & Lennon, 2002 – Scottish visitor attractions
RANKED ATTRACTIONS IN STOCKHOLM
Number of visitors (in thousands 2012)
1 Kulturhuset (incl. Stadsteatern) 2,910
2 Stockholm Globe Arenas (incl. SkyView) 1,662 3 Skansen 1,415
4 Gröna Lund 1,408
5 Archiepelago tours, Strömma Group 1,245 6 Vasamuseét 1,218
7 Eriksdalsbadet swimming center 1,066 8 Stockholmsmässan 976
9 Swedish Museum of Natural History 511 10 Moderna museét 493 11 Casino Cosmopol 457 12 Fotografiska 427 13 Junibacken 392 14 City Hall 365 15 National Museum 352
16 Kungl. Slottet, Visningsvåningarna 328 17 The Kaknäs tower 310
18 Friends Arena 300
19 Museum of Science and technology 276 20 The Stockholm Concert Hall 272
Attractions -
activities and
revenues
Garrod, Leask and Fyall, 2007
Attraction prerequisites -> ”Part Attraction context”
* Direct factors
- e.g. Culture heritage and natural scenery •Indirect factors
The visitor
*
Market segmentation
:
• Geographical: close area, region, nationally och internationally
• Demographical: income, age och travel partners
• Psykografical: eco tourism och urban turism
• Behavioural: first time visitor and many times visitors
Litvin, 2007
A study of Charleston, South Caroliona
Human experiences
• The interaction between human being and object
• Consumer behaviour and decision making
Pine & Gilmores model
Expericence landscape experience dimension
- in relation to the life cycle
Kick Comfort Contact Competence Escapism Rest Risk
Tourist service General travel
”The human visitor experience”
and the tourism product
Core- attractions
The attraction product
Product levels:
1) The core product is the imagescape
The attraction itself: consists of an image. The purpose is to mediate the visitors potential
experience to the market.
2) Commodities and services to add value or support the imagescape
3) Supporting facilities such as a) general service and b) augmented imagescape
* Define and analyse the core attraction
* e.g. What is the core attraction when going to the Viking town Birka in Sweden
The core attraction
The A-criteria experience model (Andersson, 2012) Attraction object related criteria:
1) Activities – Did you yourself participate when visiting the attraction? 2) Authentic - Did the artefacts and events feel real?
3) Accessible – Is the attraction´s espericence easy to reach from a logistical point of view?
Experience quality related criteria:
4) Affection – Did the attraction move you emotionally?
5) Aha-experience – Did you get a strong experience from the visit?
6) Absorption – Did you escape from your normal life into the experience? 7) Adaption – Is the attraction info/message easy to understand?
Visit purpose related criteria:
8) Adventure – Was the experience exciting?
General travel experience
Product package gives experiences
- travel to/from the place - different accommodation - simple meal/ exclusive meal
Experiences of tourist services
* Frequent and time coordinated transports * Displayed and personal information
Attraction economy
SH - Tourism Studies
Demand analysis and pricing strategy
* Central Florida theme park pricing behavour (Fyall, Garrod & Leask 2003)
* The elasticity model: an increase/decrease of the price factor (independent variable) will result in an increase/decrease of the demand (dependant variable), where 1.0 means to the same level and 0 means no effect at all
* Disney´s own pricing: Disney´s pricing compared with Disney´s attendance had an elasticity coefficient -0.03. This means that if Disney increase the price with 10 % the attendeance decreased with 0.3 %.
* Competitors pricing: Universal price compared with Disney´s attendance had an elasticity coefficient -0.68.
* Macro factors: a) Per capita disposable income (elasticity coefficient 1.0) and b) Population (elasticity coefficient 2.89)
* The tourism industry in general:
Attraction development
Triangle elements of the development process:
(Fyall, Garrod & Leask 2003)
Imagescape
Thank you for your participation
- With a hope of future developed and
marketed destinations and visitor attractions
from a sustainable perspective
The Viking town Birka at Youtube (3 minutes):
