Attractions

Destination or Attraction???
Destination or Attraction???
Destination or Attraction???
Destination or Attraction???
Destination or Attraction???
Destination or Attraction???
Destination or Attraction???
Destination or Attraction???
Attractions
How can you define or explain Tourist
attractions?
What is the importance of Attractions
to the tourism industry?
Give an example of tourist attraction
that you’ve been to and share your
experience.
The definition of attractions adopted by the National
Tourism Organizations in the UK, states that an
attraction is:

“where the main purpose is sightseeing. The

attraction must be a permanent established excursion
destination, a primary purpose of which is to allow
access for entertainment, interest or education; rather
than being primarily a retail outlet or a venue for
sporting, theatrical or film performances. It must be
open to the public, without prior booking, for published
periods each year, and should be capable of attracting
day visitors or tourists as well as local residents. In
additional, the attraction must be single business, under
a single management, so that it is capable of answering
the economic questions on revenue, employment.”
“a tourist attraction is a named site with a specific human
or natural feature which is the focus of visitor and
management attention.”

“attractions are generally single units, individual sites or

very small, easily delimited geographical areas based on a
single key feature. Destinations are larger areas that
include number of individual attractions together with
the support services required by tourists.”
 By Type
 By Physical Environment
 By Ownership
 By Perception
 By Admission Policy
 By Appeal
 By Size and Capacity
 By Composition
 By Degree of Performance
 By Visitor Numbers
 By Organizational Complexity and Risk
Classifications of Attractions by type
 Historical house
 Museums and galleries
 Wildlife attractions
 Castles
 Gardens
 Steam railways
 Visitor centers
 Country parks
 Leisure parks
Historical Houses
– can be a stately
home, the
birthplace of a
famous person,
or a house with
an interesting
history or
architecture.

Ancestral House of
Emilio Aguinaldo
in Cavite
 Museums and
Galleries – an
institution that
conserves a collection
of artifacts and other
objects of scientific,
artistic, cultural or
historical importance
and makes them
available for public
viewing.

Trivia: The Smithsonian

Institution in Washington,
D.C. is the world’s largest
research and museum
complex with 19 museums
and galleries, the National
Zoological Park and various
research station. Main
attractions: the original Star-
Spangled Banner, Dorothy’s
Ruby Slipper fron The Wizard
of Oz, the 45-and-a-half carat
jewel known as the Hope
Diamond, the original Wright
1903 Flyer and the Apollo 11
command Module.
Wildlife
Attractions – can
be an eco and
animal friendly
tourist attraction,
usually showing
animals in their
natural habitats

Masai Mara
National Reserve
in Kenya
Castles – a type of
fortified structure
built in Europe and
Middle East during
the Middle Ages by
nobility that has
become a tourist
attractions today

Trivia: Mont Saint Michel,

France. Popularly
nicknamed “St. Michael in
Peril of the Sea”. The
strong tides in the area
change quickly and connect
and disconnects the island
from the mainland on a
daily basis.
Gardens –
botanical gardens
and places which
are significant in
history of
gardening that
attracts tourists

Chateau De
Versailles Garden
in France
Steam Railways –
railways kept to carry
living history rail traffic to
recreate or preserve
railway scenes of the past.
Often they are old
railway lines preserved in
a state which depicts a
certain period, or periods,
in the history of railway
systems

Trivia: Semmering Railway,

Austria.The UNESCO
World Heritage
Committee inscribed it as
the world’s first railway
on the heritage list. It is
the first mountain railway
which crossed a high-
mountains area and
counts as the prototype
of railway lines mastering
very difficult terrain and
considerable altitude
difference.
Visitor Centers
– a physical
location that
provides tourist
information to the
visitors who tour
the place or area
locally.

Singapore Visitors
Centre at
Orchard Road,
Singapore
Country Park –
an area
designated for
people to visit
and recreation in
a countryside
environment.

Kam Shan
Country Park in
Hongkong
Leisure Parks – a
group of
entertainment
attractions, rides
and other events in
a location for the
enjoyment of large
numbers of people.

Disneyland in
California
Physical environment
 Natural environment
 Pagsanjan Falls
 Chocolate Hills
 Banaue Rice Terraces
 Mt. Mayon
Physical environment
 Build made adapted, but not originally
designed for, visitor purposes
 Liberty Tower
 Great Wall of China
 Eiffel Tower
 Tower of Pisa
Physical environment
 Built environment and designed for visitor
purpose
 Ocean Park
 Disneyland
 Europa Park
 Underwater World
Ownership
 Attraction are owned and managed by a
range of organizations, trusts and
individuals, working in public, private and
not-for-profit sectors.
 A high level of state involvement in
attraction funding is evident across
Europe and in other parts of the world
like Canada and Singapore.
Perception
 Some visitors may perceive an attraction
as an attraction but others may not.
 What undeniably ‘turns a tract of land,
monument, park, historic house or
coastline into a heritage attraction is
often the attitude of the public’
Admission policy
 Attractions operated by membership
subscription organizations allow members
in for no charge.
 Other attractions operate friends’
schemes, which allow subscribers free
entry.Voluntary donations are requested
in other attractions.
Appeal
 The market appeal of attractions can be
viewed at a geographic level, where
attractions might appeal: just to a local
market, regionally, nationally, or
internationally.
 Certain attractions may only appeal to
niche markets, or particular market
segments.
Size and Capacity
 Attractions vary in land coverage, with
some housed in tiny buildings and others
covering several hectares.
 Understanding the capacity of sites is
important in terms of management and
marketing, as well as protection of the
resource base, which may be damaged as
a result of poor visitor management.
Visitor numbers
The most significant factor that affects
visitor numbers both positively and
negatively is one that attraction operators
have little control over-the weather.
Themes and Issues in the Management
of Visitor Attractions
 Attractions face a number of threats from
the external and internal environment
that pose risk to both product quality,
operational viability and the visitor
experience.
Management planning
 Higher visitor numbers
 More gross revenue
 Larger asset value
 Greater total profit
 Higher admission prices
 Longer length of stay
 Better growth
 Greater confidence
Environmental impacts
 The environmental impacts caused by visitors raise a
number of issues for managers of natural, built and
event attractions
 The construction of visitor attractions alone inevitably
causes environmental impact, although some attractions
positively aim to assist environmental conservation.
 Natural attractions built attractions are prone to visitor
impacts, and religious or sacred sites are vulnerable too.
Seasonality
 In many parts of the world, seasonality is a significant
issue affecting demand for tourism, and the attractions
sector is particularly susceptible.
 Historic properties and monuments, stream railways,
industrial/craft attractions and those that charge for
admission show the highest seasonal peaks and troughs
in visitor numbers.
 Attractions in cities suffer less from seasonality than
those located in peripheral areas.
Two main operational effects of
seasonality for visitor attractions include:
1.Staffing Issues
- recruitment costs and difficulties
- cost of training and development
-commitment of seasonal staff
-loss of trained staff at the end of the season
2.Capacity utilization
-peak season overutilization and the consequent impacts
- opportunity costs of under-utilization
- peaks and troughs in cash flow and revenue generation,
and potential to deter capital investment due to risks of
long-term payback.
Attractions and Destinations
Planning
 Many areas have adopted a strategy of
clustering attractions and events, to
provide a critical mass of activity with
appeal to visitor markets.
 The development of industry
coordination mechanisms is a useful tool
in boosting the profile of attractions as a
key segment of the tourism product
offering within a geographic area.
Diversification
Renewal and Innovation
 Innovation is particularly important in the
attractions industry and initiatives to
extend the attraction product lifecycle
must be built in to long-term planning.
 A decline in visitor numbers is often a
reflection of a failure to innovate, refresh
or expand the components of the
attraction.
Harnessing economic impacts
 Attractions, and in particular events, often
stimulate huge economic benefits for the
areas in which they are located and it is
important for tourism organizations to
gauge economic impacts in order to justify
spending and publicize the effects to the
local community.
 Local tourism economies can benefit from
hosting peripatetic events, i.e. those that are
held in different locations each year, or
rolling events, which run on an annual basis
in the same location.
The Future of Visitor Attractions
a. Management: Revenue Generation
 Big-name attractions like Disney have
witnessed a slump in visitor numbers and
some, like Universal studios Japan and
Disneyland Paris, have experienced severe
financial pressures
 For many attractions, creating diverse
income streams is a prerequisite for
achieving financial viability and success.
b. Marketing
 Marketing is a central to the success of
attractions.
 Marketing is not simply concerned with
promotion and advertising, both of which
are important to visitor attractions, but also
with pricing, products and distribution
channels
 The most successful attractions in the world
have produced professional media kits for
use in public relations work, which include
photographs, a brochure, maps, posters and
information for different markets.
c. Product Development
 In the dynamic attraction sector, product
development is a crucial aspect of economic
sustainability, and is a process in which managers of
attraction must constantly engage.
 A key feature of new developments is striking
architecture that creates a ‘wow factor’ for visitors
on arrival and becomes part of the experience.
 The key feature in creating a world-class destination
is creating a product that is equal or superior to any
similar product internationally, firmly centered on a
clear understanding of the experience, the principles
of human resource management and a commitment
to product development.
Interpretation and Communication
 In relation to interpretation and
communication, two broad themes are of
significance:
◦ the role of technology
◦ the role of personal interactions