Tourism in Melbourne City - Case Study Example

Tourism in Melbourne city a) A detailed comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of both products, service levels and the overall experiences from the tourist’s viewpoint. The plan to include tourism services in Melbourne has resulted in increase in the market share, improved product, and revitalization of Melbourne, especially at tourists’ destination and more cohesiveness and co-operation. It has also both direct and indirect jobs in the city. The City Circle tram provides a free and convenient transport service around the center of the Melbourne business district. They operate in a circular route that passes through the main tourists’ attractions centers, as well as providing a connection to other routes for trams, buses and trains in and around the city. They run in both directions in an interval of approximately 12 minutes during the day. This provides an opportunity for the visitors to visit major attraction centers, events and shops (Mylne et al., 2011). The provision of audio commentary gives details of the attractions and landmarks like Parliament Building, City Museum, Federal Square and others, which are very important to visitors. In addition, visitors can spend the whole day here, while reading easy to understand maps of the city. The service can also provide an opportunity for visitors to hop off in order to visit attraction canters, and hop in any time to enjoy the free transportation (Melbourne, 2007). Melbourne City Tourist Shuttle bus also provides transport service around the city of Melbourne at a low rate. It stops at 13 stations at key destinations along the route. They passengers are provided with information on board commentary. The entire trip can take 90 minutes. It operates during the day for every 30 minutes. Each of the services has got its own weakness. The first is that they are prone to traffic jam, which can cause delay in transport. Due to this problem, sometimes, the buses do not arrive in the schedule time, which keeps the passengers waiting. Flights are also expensive. In addition, the services do not extend to attraction centers outside the city (Mylne et al., 2011). b) An evaluation of how both products are currently integrated in to Melbourne’s transport and tourism systems. The public transport network in Melbourne extends from Melbourne city center in all directions. Buses, trams and trains provide a comprehensive transport services. Myki smartcard ticket, used to travel in these services, is a reusable card which the value you pay in transport fare. City circle tram provide free services within docklands and CBD for Melbourne. However, if someone wants to travel outside the city, you need to have myki to use it in travelling. Travelling by train or buses with the free tram zone will also require an official myki (Mylne et al., 2011). Shuttle bus and City Circle tram in Melbourne provides a free transport service around the center of the Melbourne business district only. They provide connection to other routes for trams, buses and trains in and around the city. The difference is that the services only stop at attractions centers. The visitors can also board the bus service any time (Mylne et al., 2011). The shuttle bus also provides transport service around the city of Melbourne, stopping at 13 points tourist attraction points. It operates during the day for every 30 minutes. Each of the services has got its own weakness (Mylne et al., 2011). c) Recommendations to improve the existing products, service levels and the overall visitor experience and to better integrate them in to Melbourne’s transport and tourism systems. There are various recommendations to improve the current products and services in Melbourne. To begin with, the transport industry should expend to meet the increasing demand of services in the city. The feedback from the visitors indicated that the transport system should develop a seamless travel planning for the visitors by integrating tourism Victoria with Melbourne city communication and visitors’ information and services. Melbourne city can also be promoted as the best destination by improving industry representation in major national and international travel shows (Melbourne (Vic.), 2007). Recent forecasts show that India and China are growing to become the major international market to Melbourne. The forecast shows that china will contribute to 19% tourism market by 2016, with Korea, India, Brazil and Russian growing as the key markets. Thus, Melbourne city and other metropolitan councils should improve on information and service delivery, such that the required information is available in the major languages. In addition, service providers need to receive proper training, for example learning Chinese with the objective of aiding visitors (Melbourne (Vic.)., 2007). Another issue that needs to be addressed is lack direct flights to Melbourne and seat capacity to satisfy the increasing demand. Consequently, there is a need to invest in the workforce, accommodation and infrastructure (Melbourne (Vic.), 2007; Mylne et al., 2011). There is also a need to develop not only infrastructure to accommodate the increasing number of visitors, but also to improve on the development of product and services. Studies have shown that tourists assess the destination basing on all areas of services in the industry, not just visitor services and accommodation (Richards, 2013). Shopping for leisure, as one of the services, has been shown to be a popular activity for leisure by tourists in Australia. Therefore, excellent customer services and professionalism should strengthen in Melbourne. Businesses should understand the significance of tourism in their performance. More work should be done to help local businesses to develop variety of products and strategies to improve on their contribution to the tourism market (Melbourne (Vic.), 2007). The increase in the number of tourists has increased the need for investing in the current network, as well as to identify opportunities in new visitors’ services strategy. This strategy will identify the new areas for growth, and determine the best strategies. In addition, the consumer preferences, availability, accessibility and innovations of technologies should be considered. This will assist in quick delivery of the required information. The increasing role of technology in services delivery to the visitors should be put into more consideration in market development (Richards, 2013). d) Evidence of the application of a diverse range of relevant tourism and transport management theories and concepts to the case study Destinations management is the key features of tourism industry. They form building blocks for development of tourism, at the domestic and international level, by providing a focus on visitors and investment in activities related to tourism. The model covers transport issues in the destination development and show how transport systems may stimulate tourism. The model shows the role of transport in development of destination. The new transport technologies have significant impact on the shape, economics and structure of travel and tourism. This management strategy has been shown through the focus of Melbourne on transport management around the city. This will imply that there will be an increased focus on providing quality services to the tourist at the destination. In the current case, there is more investment at the attractions sites on top of free transport services to the points. Services such as providing commentary or audio information inside the bus is very significant (Lumsdon, & Page, 2007). The quality of management of tourism depends on various factors. One of them involves accommodation and transportation of tourists. The nature of transport function is very crucial part of tourism services that contribute to the nature of the entire tourism enterprises. It is an important point because it involves the transaction transfer of rights in tourism operation sequence. Therefore, its management requires sensitivity and skills. In addition, it provides an opportunity for international arbitrage and the use of price transfer systems which can affect the revenue. Although, this function can be subcontracted to an independent operator such as City Circle Tram and the Melbourne Visitor Shuttle, there should be close integration with other facilities (Mylne et al., 2011). This will imply that the cost will be minimized by offsetting the operation and management functions, and to ensure that there is efficiency in utilization of transport and accommodation capacity. This means that the responsibility to balance transport with cost efficient utilization of resources lies on the subcontractor (Witt et al., 2013). References References Melbourne (Vic.). (2007). City of Melbourne Tourism Plan (2007-2012). Melbourne: Corp. of the City of Melbourne. Mylne, L., Llewellyn, M., & Crittall, R. (2010). Frommer's Australia 2011. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Lumsdon L. M. and Page S. J., (2007). Tourism and Transport, Routledge Richards G., (2013). Cultural Tourism: Global and Local Perspectives, Routledge Witt S. F., Brooke M. Z., & Buckley P. J., (2013). The Management of International Tourism (RLE Tourism), Routledge Library Editions: Tourism, Routledge Melbourne at http://www.visitvictoria.com http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/AboutCouncil/PlansandPublications/strategies/Pages/transportstrategy.aspx Read More