Tourist Attraction: London Eye - Case Study Example

Tourist Attraction – London Eye Executive Summary Tourist attractions form the core of the tourism industry. These attractions can be of wide variety and largely depends on how effectively the demands of the visitors are met. The economy of UK has largely been contributed through tourism industry. Amongst the various options of attractions the most popular paid attraction is that of London Eye. The visitors have a splendid experience at this attraction and it has been able to operate successfully base on its innovative technologies. London Eye though has been able to create valuable experience for its visitors but still needs to develop on its relationship marketing, pricing strategies, and better customer service so as to sustain in the highly competitive tourist attraction industry. Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 4 Evaluation of Visitor Experience 4 Support of arguments through relevant literature 7 Recommendations 8 Conclusion 9 References 11 Introduction An attraction in tourism industry is regarded as the place where the tourists prefer to visit. The place forms a tourist attraction for many reasons such as for its historical significance, cultural or natural beauty, built beauty, adventure, leisure, special facilities such as medical services for those travellers who are aged, and for amusement. The main factor that enforces people travel at all is these visitor attractions may that be for a weekend, a day or for annual holiday. Attractions form the pillar of the entire tourism industry. The primary motivation behind the tourist to plan for trips is attractions whereas the other factors such as restaurants, hotel, etc., form the secondary issues. Visitor attractions can be broadly classified into four different elements such as man-made attractions such as theme parks, natural attractions such as lakes, beaches, forests and mountains, man-made attractions originally not seen as a visitor attraction but now forms a very integral part of tourist attraction such as cathedrals, and festivals or events that are not any physical or permanent element but forms an important attraction for visitors. A very important part of the UK society is visitor attractions as it helps in developing their economy in a number of ways. It helps in providing employment to many people, acts as a catalyst for tourism development; it even serves as a tool for public policy by stimulating rural development and urban regeneration, and they even encourage people to spend more at these attractions and provide some form of leisure activities for the entire population which ultimately helps to fuel up the entire population. Evaluation of Visitor Experience The London Eye is located on the River Thames in London at the South Bank. It is a giant Ferris wheel which is also sometimes known as the Millennium wheel. However since 2011 it has been completely modified to EDF Energy London Eye. The entire structure has a height of 135 metres and the total diameter of the wheel is 120 metres. London Eye is the most popular and currently the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe. The attraction has almost 3.5 million visitors every year and amongst the various attractions in United Kingdom it is one of the most popular paid visitor attractions. The wheel was constructed in the year 1999 and from then till now it has been able to provide its tourists with a memorable and pleasant experience. The wheel has 32 air conditioned and sealed ovoidal capsules for its passengers that is originally supplied and designed by Poma, and all of the capsules are attached to the wheel on its external circumference and is rotated by means of electric motors. The London Eye provides its passengers with a clear view of London and the speed of rotation of the wheel is very slow which enables the passengers to move over the capsules freely but however do not allow any elderly or disabled passengers to take a ride on the wheel. The attraction had a unique selling point in its initial years when there was no such construction in any such tourist destinations (Kotler, 2010, pp. 167-168). It was the tallest Ferris wheel that has been constructed till date but this factor was surpassed in the year 2006 by Star of Nanchang and in later year by Singapore flyer and High Roller. Though this attraction was very popular when it was constructed but it slowly lost its profit margins and the company which built that is British Airways was later acquired by Tussauds. The goal behind construction of this wheel by Marks Barfield was to provide the passengers with a unique bird eye view which has now turned up to be one of the most popular paid tourist attraction based in London. (Pringle, 2008, p.56) The main focus of any visitor attraction is to provide the tourist with the best of facilities so that they are satisfied and has an experience to cherish forever. The process of gaining satisfaction by tourists at London Eye is through the unique experience that the attraction provides by giving a splendid view of London to all passengers and even encompassing some specific facilities such as café, gift shop and even special arrangements for disabled by making wheelchairs and special ticket counters available to such passengers (Proctor, 2014, pp. 213-214). The socio cultural trends that affects the visitor experience at London Eye is the different segments of prices for capsules as per the requirement of the passengers such as combination tickets comprising of some additional tourist spots, special tickets combined with some drinks, general tickets, river cruiser tickets, private capsules, and south bank packages which includes some free meals at restaurants along with the view from the wheel. This segmentation has been able to create a unique visitor experience and enjoy their time spend with friends and family at London Eye (Swarbrooke, 2001, pp. 205-210). However the wheel consumes a lot of energy which is not an environmental friendly measure and even some economic downturn may affect this tourist attraction in terms of profit generation as the prices of the tickets are high and not that easily affordable by middle class segment tourists. Apart from all these factors the visitor experience is greatly affected by the staff working at these tourist attractions and the ‘wow’ factor present in these attractions that differentiates it from the rest of competitors. London Eye needs to develop some innovative practices in its services so that it can be way ahead of competition and sustain its position as most popular visitor attraction in London (Reisinger and Turner, 2003, pp. 145-146). The visitors who takes a ride at London Eye has a splendid experience but certain section of tourists find it very costly to afford such a ride which keeps it away from capturing maximum revenue from the market. On the contrary in order to support its high cost London Eye offers some additional facilities such as a certain amount of discounts on group visits and travel plan so that the tourists can book their transport tickets in advance so as to reach to London Eye. It has been able to create a valuable experience for all its visitors through the strategy of relationship marketing where it encourages its staff to be connected to all the travellers. The visitors on the other hand have a great experience at London Eye where they not only get some added facilities but also can experience the exotic view of London. As per certain suggestion given by many visitors London Eye has not been able to innovate something new which forms the only dissatisfaction for certain tourist base and they require more value for money. Apart from all these criticisms London Eye is still the most popular attraction and has millions of tourists every year. Support of arguments through relevant literature The attraction business in UK has become very much competitive in the recent years, due to which the major concern area of all the businesses in this sector is to offer the best of services to the tourists and enhance the level of customer satisfaction so as to secure future revenue growth for the company. The major challenges that is faced by the tourist attractions is to be competitive in the industry, offer quality customer service, retaining good staff and imparting the necessary skills so that they provide good service to the customers, incorporating modern form of promotional techniques, embracing strong media relations, encouraging those tourist who requires some special facilities, and developing a unique selling proposition in all its product or service feature (Neil, 2010, pp. 193-195). The main form of competition that results for these kinds of tourist attractions is in other leisure options available to people such as gardens, movie, supermarkets, etc. The major competition that rises from its tourist attractions is amongst them who charge similar prices and there are various factors that affect the decision making of visitors while selecting from a wide array of attractions. Visitors not only take into account the entry charges at these attractions but also some additional charges such as those spend at food and drinks, gifts, car parking, etc. The visitors often focus on value for money at these attractions (Swarbrook and Horner, 2011, pp. 78-79). The tourist attraction that is able to give back such value is the most desirable ones and helps to create a splendid experience for the visitors. The competition in such tourist attractions is a very complex factor and there exist an issue as to whether competition in all attractions has grown in the present. In order to achieve competitive advantage in the market place the attraction managers has laid emphasis on special offers, brochures, discounts, and advertisements. The other of achieving competitive advantage in this industry is through product attraction where the attraction is given a unique selling proposition so that the visitors cannot compare it with any form of attractions in terms of price and incorporating other technological innovations in these attractions, majorly focus on delivering quality service along with other product features being offered to the customers, and utilizing the concept of relationship marketing and even the Internet based platform so as to provide more convenience to its visitors (Swarbrooke, 2002, pp. 139-140). The other challenge for this industry is to attract and retained skilled labour majorly because such attraction is dull and some of these attractions are dependent on weather conditions and offer low pay to such skilled but part time workers. These attractions are based on certain factors such as being environmentally friendly, to offer their visitors and staff more of a secured environment, to incorporate optimal utilization of resources so as to meet the needs of customers, to reduce the operating costs, and to encourage all the visitors for secondary spending such as in souvenirs, foods, beverages, etc. The major factors that enhances the satisfaction level of visitor’s are in the form of offering more of perceived value for money to all its visitors, implementing transparent pricing policy, reliability, offering the best quality of support services such as catering outlets, toilets, and car parking, effective queue management so to reduce the delays that are faced by visitors at the most popular attraction spots in UK, and having an efficient staff base so that the problems are quickly resolved. The attractions at UK or any other region needs to create and deliver the promised experience to its visitors and this can be achieved through the right propositions of marketing mix which enhances the level of visitor’s experience at these attractions. London Eye was constructed by a group of talented architects with an aim to provide its visitors with a splendid view across London and it even later incorporated 4D theatre so as to give its visitors some additional experience along with the attraction (Mintel, 2010, pp. 199-201). The major challenges for these attractions still lies in areas of consumer development, marketing development, and product development. Hence the factor of concern for tourist attraction is in the fields of marketing by adopting appropriate marketing channels for promotions, meeting the special needs of some visitors, and incorporating advanced technologies in the business operations so as to be at par with the entire competitors in the same sector (Porter, 2008, pp. 105-106). The other factors that affect the visitor experience at these tourist attractions comprise of economic factors, socio cultural trends, political instability and risk, and some technological issues that affects these attractions to generate profit margins and sustain its operations in the UK market. Recommendations The visitor experience by far at London Eye has been observed to be a memorable one with a large base of visitors annually visiting this popular attraction at UK. However there are certain factor that needs to be considered by the attraction so that it can has a sustainable growth in comparison to other tourist attractions in London. UK market has been saturated by a large number of tourist attractions that generates high profits very year. The main factor that can bring in a competitive advantage for these attractions is through developing some unique selling propositions or creating a ‘wow’ factor in these attractions. Tussauds Group which currently owns London Eye can incorporate the strategy of relationship marketing in it system through which it can be constantly in touch with its entire visitor’s and even give them a warm welcome when they visit this attraction in the future. This marketing strategy can be implemented through sending bulk emails on special occasions such as Christmas and New Year and even offering some discounts and gifts to those customers who has visited London Eye earlier. The other factor that needs to be restructured by the company so as to sustain in the competitive industry is through setting competitive prices for its rides so that all the income level people can afford to visit this attraction. The company can also enter into some form of agreements with any other visitor’s attraction spot so that they can offer more reasonable prices to the tourists for such combined services. London Eye apart from its exotic view that it provides to all its visitors also needs to deliver some additional services to the visitors so as to enhance their level of experience and this can be achieved through some well trained staff who needs to escort the guests to their capsules and even offer them some complimentary gifts and drinks so that the visitor’s feel that they are getting value for money. Conclusion Tourism industry has gained its importance in the recent years which is majorly because of the tourist attractions. These attractions can be of many types either man made or natural but helps to generate revenue for the entire tourism industry of a particular country. London Eye has been able to provide a renowned experience to its visitor’s. The attraction has been able to generate sufficient profits in its initial years of operations but later when the competition in this tourist attraction segment became high in London the company that owned it suffered significant amount of loss. London Eye offers different pricing segments for its services may that be general, private capsules, combined services or any other additional facilities. However the prices that are offered by these tourist attraction is relatively high in comparison to other attractions in London which offers an affordable price range for all income level tourists and would not be much affected by any form of economic turmoil. London Eye should focus not only offering competitive prices to its visitors but also indulge in making strong relationships with its tourists so that they come back to this attraction over and over again. Apart from providing exotic view over London as an eagle eye it should also retain some well trained staff so that they are able to deliver a friendly and warm service to the visitors. References Kotler, P. 2010. Marketing for hospitality and tourism. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. Mintel. 2010. Historic and Cultural Visitor Attractions. London: Mintel. Neil, B. O. 2010. Acting as a Business: Strategies for Success. New York: Random House LLC. Porter, M. E. 2008. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. New York: Simon and Schuster. Pringle, H. 2008. Brand Immortality: How Brands Can Live Long and Prosper. Great Britain: Kogan Page Publishers. Proctor, T. 2014. Strategic Marketing: An Introduction. New York: Routledge. Reisinger, Y. and Turner, L. W. 2003. Cross-cultural behaviour in tourism: Concepts and analysis, Butterworth-Heinemann: Oxford Swarbrooke, J. 2001. ‘Key challenges for visitor attraction managers in the UK’, Journal of Leisure Property. Vol. 1(4), pp. 205-210. Swarbrooke, J. 2002. The development and management of visitor attractions. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. Swarbrooke, J. and Horner, S. 2011. Consumer behaviour in tourism. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More