Issues Tourist Attractions Management - Case Study Example

ISSUES IN TOURIST ATTRACTIONS MANAGEMENT: EVALUATING VISITOR ATTRACTIONS AND EVENTS 1 Date: To: From: Subject: Thackray Museum, Leeds, West Yorkshire INTRODUCTION All tourism authors are in agreement that without attractions, there cannot be any viable tourism industry and with all the fierce competition coming from all tourism nations, a less than attractive attractions can probably spell the demise of any tourism industry. "Attractions, therefore, are the most important component in the tourism system. They are the main motivators for tourist trips and are the core of the tourism product" (Swarbrook 2002,p.1). Attractions, therefore are the sine qua non factors for any tourism industry. Defining attractions, however, disunite tourism authorities. In fact, it has been touted that the term attractions or visitor attractions is one that defies definition simply because it has a wide range of scope and has a variety of product offerings (Fyall et al2003,p.12). The product offerings range from the natural to human-made attractions to special events. Natural attractions feature attractions within the natural environment while human-made attractions are divided into human-made edifices, structures and sites that are designed to attract tourists and "are purpose-built to accommodate their needs, such as theme parks" and those designed not to attract visitors but ended up attracting them anyway such as churches, mosques and other religious sites (Swarbrook 2002,p2). Fennell identifies 6 categories of tourism attractions i.e. "cultural (historical and heritage sites, museums); natural (parks, flora & fauna); events (festivals, 2 religious events, sports events); recreation (golf, hiking); entertainment (theme parks, cinemas); and ecotourism" (Fennell 2003,p.2). Swarbrook added industrial tourism. Lundberg defined tourist attractions as "anything that attracts tourists" (Lundberg 1985,p.33). Middleton defined it as "a designated permanent resource which is controlled and managed for the enjoyment, amusement, entertainment and education of the visiting public" (Swarbrooke 1995,p.3). Richards, meanwhile, describes attractions as those which are essential weapons "in the arsenal of tourism destinations engaged in a competitive struggle for tourist business and thus provide focus for tourism activities" (Richards 2001,p.4). Gunn looks at attractions as "the most important reasons for travel to destinations" (Gunn 1972,p.24) while MacCannell portrays it as an "empirical relationships between a tourist, a site and a marker" (MacCannell 1989,p.41). Lew, however, counters this claiming that the definition should not be restricted to objective characteristics but also to subjective as well while alleging that "virtually anything could become an attraction, including services and facilities" (Lew 1987,p.573). Leiper grabbed the MacCannell model and crystallised a definition of a tourist attraction as "a systematic arrangement of 3 elements: a person with tourism needs, a nucleus (any feature or characteristic of a place they might visit) and at least one marker or an information about the nucleus (Leiper 1981,p79). MacCannell further reformed his model to come up with a Staged Development Model which insists that ordinary places can be developed into exciting attractions if they undergo the 5 stages of development. And these are: the naming of the site; the framing and elevating stage 3 with effective promotions; enshrinement stage where the unique features of the setting are specified; social reproduction where a social or geographic group is made to identify with the attractions; and mechanical reproduction, where artifacts or souvenirs are fabricated. Peru's Macchu Picchu, Mexico's Aztec Temples and Gracelands are shining examples of how these stage developments are utilised in order to make groups of people profit from the attractions. By framing, elevating and enshrining the attractions, visitors are able to derive a tangible meaning to their tourism experiences (Sharma 2005,p.106). Gunn responded to the MacCannell-Leiper model by coming up with a Concentric Rings Model of tourist attraction that featured 3 distinct zones, all of which must be present in order to make an attraction complete and manageable. These are: the nucleus or core of the attraction, its raison d'etre and in the case of a heritage site, it is the building or landscape that is rich in historical significance; the inviolate belt or setting, which is the space needed to set the nucleus in a context and which relies on physio-psychological conditioning or a visitor's mindset or anticipation of an attraction and; the zone of closure, which is composed mainly of one or more service centres where the business places and the community services essential to the needs of the tourists i.e. infrastructures, food, communications etc are located and the transportation linkage that connects the service centres and the attractions (Gunn 1997,p.55). All of these elements contribute to give meaning to a visitor's tourism activities and makes the experience worth his time and money. Canter also formulated his own Sense of Place Model which presented 3 elements all linking together to form a concise Venn diagram. These are the "physical attributes of a setting, 4 the activities one performs on a setting and the conceptions people bring to a setting". By fully understanding this triple linkage, the visitor forms clear notions of what the place is all about, appreciates the activities in the setting and enjoys his experience because his imagination is excited and because he discovers it to be aesthetically pleasing (Sharma 2005,p.104). Kotler also presented a Levels of Product Model that can be perfectly applied to theme parks or museums. He claimed that in order for a tourist attraction to be successfully marketed, its managers must conceptualise the attraction as having 3 levels i.e. core products consisting of human needs or services; tangible products, which are purchases to meet the psychological needs; and augmented products, which are "functional elements needed to make the other product levels work". In the marketing of museums, the visitors' needs for entertainment and education (the core products) must be translated into presentations of effective and attractive exhibits which must be buttressed by efficient functional services (tangible products). If this is done, the visitors' experiences are made monumental and unforgettable (Sharma 2005,p.105). JUSTIFICATION When asked to choose a topic for this assignment, what first comes to mind is Stonehenge and then Hadrian's Wall. But these topics had been much written about already and thus, I finally settled with Thackray Museum, which perhaps is not a popular choice. But I am convinced that what is not so popular may be the best. And to me the best is the one that is a foremost centre of learning, one that concerns about education, research and preservation of history, one that keeps history alive and allows one to view artistic, scientific, historical artifacts and collections that are rare, expensive and beautiful. 5 Originally, a museum was deemed to be an institution of learning and research, an academy or a library. But today, when we say "museum", we refer to "a building used as a repository for the preservation, exhibition of objects illustrative of antiquities, natural history, fine and industrial art" (Oxford Dictionary of the English Language). Museums also enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment (UK Museums Association). Thus, there are art museums, scientific museums, sports museums etc. I choose to deal with a medical museum specifically the Thackray Medical Museum because it is an award-winning unique, medical museum that tells the story of medicine and explains how advances in medicine are changing lives. In Thackray Medical Museum, high learning, entertainment and powerful drama are fused to make people comprehend how the evolution of medical care contributed to the quality of Victorian England life and also to today's life in modern UK. Medical history unfolds before us as we watch in horror how surgeries were crudely done, replete with pain, gore and imagined shrill, anguish-filled screams in days gone by and we travel through centuries as surgical procedures and medical discoveries take a steady advance to arrive at the 21st century with all the scientific grandeur and the wonders of modern medicine that never fail to fill us with awe. In this historical journey, we are transported through a living experience of health and medicine, past, present and future. We also stand in admiration to marvel at scientists' ingenuity, research proficiencies and medical genius, all of which fostered all these wonderful inventions and discoveries that benefited humanity. These changes emphasised abrupt, evolving technologies of health care in UK. We appreciate all the humanitarian interests and all the governmental and private sector concern and support to improve public health and 6 medicine in general and we are reminded how health is for better or for worse, inextricably interwoven with our environment. And in Thackray Medical Museum, we are made to realise how medicine and public health have greatly advanced in almost two centuries. Today, Thackray Medical Museum finds its mark as the largest medical museum in UK and one of the largest in all Europe. It stands majestically next to "Jimmy's" or the St. James Hospital, which is UK's largest hospital and which holds a sterling reputation for its surgical techniques and procedures. In fact, the Museum, which is along Beckett Street, is housed within the Grade II listed old workhouse building of St. James Hospital and was originally intended to be part and parcel of the hospital. It is spread over two floors and has full wheelchair access throughout with adjacent orange badge parking. It is but 2 miles from the renaissance city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, a commercial, educational and cultural centre in North England with a population of 761,100 (Office for National Statistics) and which has occupied a place in UK as the largest centre for business and financial services outside of London (Scott, Yorkshire Evening Post) and as the largest legal market outside London (The Law Society, Yorkshire Grit). It is highly accessible from Leeds City Centre via interminable bus services which drop visitors just outside the Museum. Tourists can access it by buses, trains, cabs and through the Leeds Bradford International Airport in Yeadon. Tourists can also access it via the seaport of Hull, which is a mere one hour ride to Leeds. There are also 16 hotels in or near the Museum, the nearest of which is the Merrion Hotel (bestwestern.co.uk) 7 The Thackray Medical Museum has humble beginnings. It started out as a Leeds Union Workhouse building where impoverished men and women from the slums sweat it out earning a living by laundry work, sewing and other odd piecework. Paul Thackray, the grandson of Charles Thackray who founded a company that manufactured replacement hips under the name Charnley Hip System, ostensibly the best selling cemented hip system in the world, was looking for a building to house the company's considerable collections of medical paraphernalia, instruments, artifacts and literature. Thackray bought the Leeds Union Workhouse, refurbished it and transformed it into a majestic Victorian-style building. Thackray then engaged Mike Cooper with an awesome task of establishing a medical museum in Leeds that would showcase the company's collections, memorabilia and company products that he felt deserving to be put on public display. The imaginative and creative Cooper went to work to establish an engaging medical museum in environs of squalid misery. The resourceful Cooper moved heaven and earth to obtain a 3 million-pound grant-in-aid fund from the Heritage Lottery Fund and from many charitable contributions from the private sector and from charitable organisations. The Heritage Lottery Fund was convinced to release funds because of the international and domestic significance and importance of the scope of the Museum collections and because the library of the Museum possesses the largest collection of trade literature in the whole world and because a medical museum was considered unique. The Fund also appreciated the fact that a Grade II listed building was renovated. At last, in March 1997, the Museum opened its doors to the public. Its size was considered gigantic and its collection vast and impressive. It has a gallery display, a conference suite with the Moynihan Auditorium which is capable of seating 120 8 people, a Baker Room with capacity of 12 and the JF Wilkinson Gallery. Its exhibits include a vast range of museum collection that numbered some 35,000 objects emanating since the 18th century, the most conspicuous of which are surgical instruments dating from as early as 19th century to the present day. It also showcased a unique collection of English pharmacy ceramics termed the John F Wilkinson Collection that dates as early as the 16th century and an impressive library collection of more than 8,000 books, those on medical trade comprising the largest collection in the whole world (Payne, familyshealth.com). In 1990, the Thackray Ltd. firm had been sold to a multinational medical company but its collections had been separated and a limited company was established for the purpose of the institution of the Thackray Museum. This company is an independent organisation supported by annual grant from a connected charity organisation. It earns revenues from its trading activities and from its admission fees, catering and retail business and conference activities. Its primary architect Mike Cooper is the force behind the management of the Museum. Cooper believed that it is not enough that the Museum had in its acquisition some of the most astonishing and enviable collection of medical artifacts in its hands. He believed that creativity must be injected into each visitor experience so that visitors will keep on streaming to the museum day after day, year after year. Cooper, without being aware of it, was applying MacCannell's Staged Development Model where attractions in order to become roaring successes must go through the 5-stage development stage. Cooper had identified his museum site, housed all the collections under the roof of that edifice; reached the framing and elevating 9 stage by making available to the public all the unique collections, memorabilia and literature; utilised the social reproduction stage by making students, workers and all cross-section of UK society identify with particular exhibits; and mechanical reproduction, where artifacts and needed paraphernalia are manufactured to enhance the identification stage and enliven the visitor museum experience. Because of the reasons emphasised hereinabove and because the museum experience fits in perfectly with the MacCannell Staged Development Model, I believe my choice of Thackray Museum is fully justified. PROFILING AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The Thackray Museum has released its own list of aims and objectives and these are: "to establish the Museum as a key partner locally, nationally and internationally; to develop and enhance our collections; to increase and diversify audiences and engage with the community; to provide a stimulating and engaging visitor experience and ; to develop financial and organisational capacity" (thackraymuseum.org). These aims and objectives had been proven to be coherent and appropriate and the targets attainable. The collections have been increased from 35,000 objects to 41,000 objects and now the collection of books has expanded to 15,000 books and catalogues (Swinburne, thackraymuseu.org). Through the years, it has consistently attracted a motley of highly diversified audience as well as tourists, local or international who have expressed enjoyment of its exhibits. It had been patronised by students who imbibed so much scientific and medical knowledge from that museum experience and in fact, since the museum opened in 1997, the numbers of educational 10 visits quickly rose to nearly 20,000 per year (317999_Market%20review%20of%2). But its success is not only limited on its exhibits and displays and its collection of literature but also on other fronts. The acclaim has spread to the now "enormously popular Saturday morning lecture series and publications and is evidenced by the presence of 3 PhD research students engaged on research projects" (Swinburne, thackraymuseum.org). The demand has been greatly intensified that "some organised visits have to be turned away". There are new projects that have caught fire on some enthusiasts especially medical students such as the history of contraception and the history of the cirrhosis of the liver. There is no doubt that the success of the Museum in all fronts has swelled by leaps and bounds and thus fulfilling all its aims and objectives and making these aims coherent and appropriate". In fact, the Museum is now the "envy of some larger London-based institutions"(Swinburne, thackraymuseum.org). That it is indubitably a success is proven by its string of awards. Since its opening in 1997, the Museum has been showered with accolades and awards. It was nominated in 1999 for the award of European Museum of the Year. It has also been conferred awards such as "UK's Museum of the Year, England's Visitor Attraction of the Year, .and received the Sandford Award for Heritage Education on two occasions (Dawson, thinkinghistory.co). The data gathered hereinabove most specifically the awards heaped upon the Thackray Medical Museum are potent proofs of its raving success. It is also a success on the basis of Swarbrooke's measure of success or what is termed as Swarbrooke's factors of success. Swarbrooke mentioned 4 factors influencing the success of visitor attractions and these are: 11 "the organisation and its resources, the product, the market and the management of the attraction (Swarbrooke 2002,p.134). In all 4 factors, Thackray Medical Museum should be considered an indubitable success. Its organisation with all its resources had led it to the path of success. The Museum has been lucky that its management was placed in the hands of a highly creative, imaginative, resourceful person with a business acumen par excellence and this we refer to Mike Cooper. Cooper, who conceptualised all means to obtain much badly needed funds, steered the Museum to what it is now. The product that the Museum offered to the public is not one of those things but is something unique and in the hands of highly creative persons had become a memorable, educational experience. Thus it is appealing to those who hunger for medical and scientific knowledge and forces those who do not, to take a second look at the world's medical history by making them travel a journey of colourful medical history from as early as the 16th century to the present. Because the Thackray Medical Museum experience is injected with high drama commingled with entertainment immersed in momentous educational experience, it drew market support from all kinds of audiences and from all walks of life, from students to tourists. Lastly, the awards conferred to the Museum and its enviable status as highly financially stable and much admired locally and internationally speak for itself as to the kind of management that has steered it to what it is today. VISITOR EXPERIENCE The swarm of students that has consistently flocked to the Museum since its opening has attested to the magic that the Museum has woven on the persona of these students, specifically secondary school students who at the outset came mainly out of curiosity via word of mouth from friends if not by the prodding of their high school mentors. The experience must have been 12 unexpectedly arresting for these students with all the displays which sometimes are shockingly gory if not educational. Students are suddenly transported to a world they never knew or imagined to have existed. A walk through the gallery brings them to the lifelike replica of 1842 Leeds with its streets reeking of squalor, putrid smells and screeching sounds; with Victorian-era hovels densely crowded with humanity and vermins, probably the kind that started the Black Plague; with butcher shops surrounded by flies and dogs; with stomach-churning action involving a chamber pot of urine dumped into gutters overflowing with manure and human refuse. In another part of the gallery, the students are treated to surgery done the old way sans anaesthesia, antiseptics and blood transfusions. The story of Hannah Dyson, an 11-year old industrial worker whose foot got caught in the machinery and mangled and thus must be amputated is vividly shown in all its gruesome, grisly grimness as she is being shown amputated the crude gory way, teaches the students that they are lucky that modern surgery has ensured that there is no way they will go through Hannah's ordeal (thackraymuseum.org). Students are further treated to the Victorian experience of women giving birth without any form of pain relief and assisted only by some women with no formal qualifications. The Thackray Medical Museum experience is also injected with wry wit and humour. The students particularly react to the interactive displays that explore everything from the "potty part" to "intestine pulling". Students have fun tugging out a rope to discover for themselves the entire length of the human body's entrails while uncontrolled amusement is registered to the "potty exhibit" wherein the digestive system of the body is illustrated starting from food ingestion down to its journey through the stomach and to the intestines and out in potty form. 13 Next to the enormous toilet can be found 3 boxes wherein when one lifts the lids, all sorts of styles of passing gas are produced, illustrating the phenomenon of farting. According to the museum's director, the students are particularly and consistently pleased by this "fart fanfare". There are also cartoons galore to titillate cartoon-loving students who never fail to focus their attention to Sherlock Bones and his dog Baskerville. To the more earnest students of science, the Museum offers the History of Medicine which course is held every Saturday and which aims to teach and widen students' knowledge of science and medicine. The Museum panders to the educational needs of students and thus has come up with innovative learning techniques wherein students are allowed to select cards which provide information "about one of the characters in the street scenes, to learn about what ails them, choose a remedy for their illness among treatments available at that time, and then to take a realistic look at their chances of survival". The budding doctors almost always enjoy the experience. EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS From the wide range of reactions elicited from visitors of the Thackray Medical Museum, reactions which run the whole gamut of emotions ranging from elation to amusement to awe and then to shock and even to disgust, all of which emotions translate to a deep understanding of the medical and health conditions in Leeds, past, present , future, we evaluate that the management of the Museum did a superb job in making the Museum an instrument of education, entertainment and conscientiousness. At the outset, we must clarify that success must not be measured on volumes of mass participation because this usually does not translate to satisfaction. Success must be measured on the effect of the museum experience on each and every visitor who participated in that museum experience and whether they all understand what 14 the exhibits signify and promote. Another measure of success is whether the aims and objectives had been accomplished. Since we have assessed that yes, indeed, these had been accomplished, we therefore conclude that the Museum and its management deserve all the kudos and the awards it has since reaped. What we have failed to assess, though, is whether there is visitor satisfaction in collateral services the Museum has been providing, which are all necessary in order for the museum to become financially viable. And this we refer to the quality of the catering services, the trading activities and the retail business, the comfort provided in the conference centres and the auditoriums etc. But these are already beside the point. Our evaluation should only be focused on visitor experience of the exhibits and displays. As to recommendations, we recommend that the Museum find ways of making it more accessible and attractive. We recommend a repainting of some parts of the Museum which we find eerily drab and that a study be conducted on non-visitors of the Museum in UK and the reasons behind the failure to visit. This is in the hope of maximising visitor attendance and in ferreting out undetected flaws so that these may be rectified. But one observation is that the Museum is too parochial and has limited itself to Leeds. The Museum has been accorded the status of an international museum by virtue of its international awards. Therefore, it should act international and include medical and health problems suffered by the world at large. We refer to viruses that had been threatening to engulf the world i.e. AH1N1, SARS, AIDS, bird flu, Ebola Virus etc. If it is the aim of the Museum to educate, then it should educate about viruses plaguing the whole world, whether or not these maladies have affected Leeds or not. 15 CONCLUSION Swarbrooke has insisted that visitor attractions are the most important component in the tourism system because they are the main motivators for tourist trips. Lundberg defines it as "anything that attracts tourists". Attractions' component parts are then analysed through conceptual models by which analysis we are able to understand what impels visitors to patronise tourism spots. The paper then justifies the choice of Thackray Medical Museum as subject of the paper and the emphasis is on its being unique not to mention its being a vehicle of deep understanding of medical conditions in UK in the past, the present and the future. After subjecting the Museum to an in-depth study and analysis, we have come to the conclusion that the Museum had attained indubitable success because of the positive reaction of satisfaction from the visitors, the demand for educational trips and because all the aims and objectives of the Museum have been successfully fulfilled not to mention the awards heaped upon it by various national and international organisations as one of the best if not the best museum in its genre. But we then insist there is still room for improvement for the Museum and thus we suggested for some recommendations after an assessment or evaluation. We recommend that the Museum must act international and delve into viruses plaguing the whole world. BIBLIOGRAPHY Dawson, I 2009, Thackray Medical Museum, http://www.thinkinghistory.co.uk/Museum/MuseumThackray.html Fennell, D 2003, Ecotourism, Routledge. 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