Destination Management Strategy: Transformative Experience - Assignment Example

Destination Management Strategy: Transformative Experience Part I: Transformative experience A transformative experience is an experience that leads to a person expanding their understanding in their world view, either generally or in particular to a certain issue (Brown, 2009). In essence, transformative experience leads to transformative learning which involves psychological changes that lead to a person changing the way he knows himself (Westen, 2011). This then means that when a person goes through a transformative experience, they discover a part of themselves that they did not know exists. Because of this new understanding of self, the person does not and cannot remain the way they were before the experience (Wallace, 2014). Their psychological faculties are changed and the person has a new understanding that could not have been done through any other means apart from going through the experience (Burkeman, 2013). As Westen (2011) says, the experience becomes the teacher as well as the lesson itself and in this case it cannot be replaced by something else. Transformative experience or transformative learning then depends a lot on the experience as an embedded learning as comparison to the other learning aspects where the lesson can be delivered in almost any set of settings or parameters (Sedgley, 2011). As Wallace (2014) argues, a transformative experience also leads to the person revisiting their belief systems about something. When an individual goes through a transformative experience, they are able to revise their understanding about a certain phenomenal. They will use the experience as a way to understand the outside world better and in this regard, even as the transformative experience help them to have a new internal understanding of themselves, they also start understanding the external word better. A transformative experience also leads to the individual having it to change their behavior (Stamboulisa, 2013). Once the transformative experience changes the internal psychological understanding of a person as well as their understanding of the outside world, they are left with no choice but to alter their behavior and actions. One thing to note about transformative experiences is the fact that the transformative learning that emanates from it can only be achieved through an experience (Stamboulisa, 2013). A person cannot have this transformative learning unless and until they go through the experience (Westen, 2011). In this regard, the knowledge and understanding that comes from the experience are special and have a memorable impact on the individual. As Sedgley (2011) argues the person cannot acquire the knowledge by for instance being told about the experience. For instance, as Stamboulisa (2013) says, in the context of tourism, a transformative experience would be one that will lead to a person getting to discover something about themselves as well as about a destination or a service in a way that the person could never have done in any other way apart from experiencing the product or service. A tourist destination can for instance have the transformative experience effect if the kind of transformative knowledge the tourist gets from visiting the destination cannot be learnt in any other way such as by being told about the experience or by seeing pictures of the destination. In the context of tourism, a transformative experience should also be the kind of experience that cannot be copied (Frost, 2010). This concept of transformative experience works very well in an experience economy that is the current economy in the world. As Pine and Gilmore (1998) say, an experience economy is an economy where consumers are constantly seeking for experience rather than just the product or service that a business offers. Experience in this case refers to the way in which the customer enjoys the way and means in which the business delivers the product or service (Joseph & Gilmore, 1998). For instance, comparing two hotels that offer accommodation for tourists. While both hotels in the example can offer rooms and other amenities that are traditionally offered in a hotel, one of the hotels can decide to improve the way they deliver this service and thus give the service to the customer in a way that the customer best experiences their service. The need to give the customer a transformative experience is necessary in a modern economy where the customers are constantly seeking for a good experience of using a service or a good. Tourism providers who are able to give the customer a transformative experience are much able to gain a strategic advantage over those that only offer the traditional tourism services to the tourist. Tourists are likely to return to a destination where they had a transformative experience as opposed to where they did not get this. At the same time, they are likely to recommend to their friends and family such destinations. In this regard, the ability to give the tourist a transformative experience gives a provider a stronghold in the market. Gold Coast must be able to have tourism providers who are able to give the tourist the experience they need. Operators like SeaWorld must be able to know how to make sure that their customers have an experience they cannot compare with anywhere in the world. Part B: Case study, Seaworld Gold Cost is one of the unique tourist destinations not only in Australia but also in the world. It has many attractions both natural and manmade that attract the over ten million tourists every year (Famous For Fun, 2014). The natural attractions include the waterline that the over sixty miles of coastline has offered the city. The natural wildlife also offers Gold Cost a unique attraction. The manmade attraction includes the Skypoint, the theme parks such as Warner Bros Movie World, Dreamland, Wet n Wild Gold Cost White Water World and Seaworld Gold Coast. Seaworld is one of the main theme parks and seems to be unique to Gold Coast. The park is mainly a marine park and some of the experiences that an individual is likely to be able to enjoy here include but not limited to sea life. Seaworld is a close demonstration on how transformative experience can be used to give tourists a transformative experience. It is a combination of both natural tourist attraction which is achieved through marine life, as well as the manmade tourist attraction based on the theme parks that have been built around this natural attraction. However, this still does not give the place a unique sense of experience because most of the experiences that the customers can get at Seaworld they can get the same from other tourist destination. For Gold Cost to be able to offer a transformative experience to its visitors, it has to go beyond the generic tourist attractions and offer the visitors something that is different and unique to the local area. This is where the problem is because the current tourist attractions such as Seaworld Gold Coast do not have a unique touch to them. It is mostly based on the generic model of a theme park and this makes it harder to be made unique in such a way it can be used to deliver a unique transformative experience to the tourist. Seaworld Gold Coast also fails to offer the transformative experience that may be necessary in order to give the destination a competitive advantage gained from the ability to engage the visitors in a way that they will forever remember the experience as well as change their perspective. However, Seaworld Gold Coast has done a better job than the rest of the attraction in the region with regard to trying to create a transformative experience to the visitors. The many activities that the visitors do when they visit the place can be made to be a unique experience that will make them to have a transformative experience once they visit the region. However, more caution may need to be taken with regard to Seaworld Gold Coast because it is not a hundred percent able to give the right transformative experience to visitors. Part C: Facilitating the creation of transformative experiences in Gold Cost The DMO has to understand two things with regard to the ability to deliver transformative experiences to the customer. First, that there must be something special with regard to the service the customer gets (Sedgley, 2011). The DMO has a role to play in making Gold Coast a favorite destination both in the Australia and in the world (Johansson, 2011). The DMO must be able to create an operating environment that is conducive for operators to be able to offer a transformative experience in the world (Wallace, 2014). The DMOs can lobby for policy development by the government to help in making the burden of these extra costs to be less on the tour operators and other providers of tourism service. As already indicated, the ability to give transformative experiences to customers especially with regard to tourism is the ability to give the services to the customer but in a unique way (Brown, 2009). What the DMO can do in order to help in creating an environment which supports delivery of transformative experiences to visitors is to develop standards and guidelines for operators and tour providers on ways in which the delivery of service is done in a unique way. The DMO ca work closely with these organizations and help them to develop standards and guidelines that will support the delivery of transformative experience to the customers. This will mean that apart from just having unique services, the services themselves must be delivered in a unique way so that to give the customer the ability to enjoy the service in a manner that it will deliver the three aspects of a transformative experience (Morgan, 2011). These three aspects of the transformative experiences as already discussed include the psychological, convictional and the behavioral aspects of a person. References Brown, B. (2009). The Transformative Power of The International Sojourn: An Ethnographic Study of the International Student Experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 36, 3 , PP. 502–521. Burkeman, O. (2013, April 06). This column will change your life: transformative experiences. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/apr/06/this-column-change-life-transformative-experiences Famous For Fun. (2014). Famous For Fun. Retrieved October 02, 2014, from http://www.visitgoldcoast.com/places-to-see/ Frost, W. (2010). Life changing experiences: Film and Tourists in the Australian Outback. Annals of Tourism Research , PP. 707–726. Johansson, M. (2011). City festivals: creativity and control in staged urban experiences. European Urban and Regional Studies October, 18, 4, , PP. 392-405 . Pine, J.B. & Gilmore, J.H. (1998). Welcome to the Experience Economy. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from Harvard Business Review: http://hbr.org/1998/07/welcome-to-the-experience-economy/ Morgan, N. (2011). Destination Brands: Managing Place Reputation. London, UK: Routledge. Sedgley, D. (2011). Tourism and ageing: A transformative research agenda. Annals of Tourism Research, 38, 2, , PP. 422–436. Stamboulisa, Y. (2013). Innovation strategies and technology for experience-based tourism. Tourism Management, 24, 1, , PP. 35–43. Wallace, R. (2014). Transformative Experience. Journal of Modern Psychology and Practice, 3,4 , PP 89-95. Westen, P. (2011). Understanding Transformative Learning. Sydney, AU: Pullman Books. Read More