Helping visitors to find their way

So many visitors wandering into the city and hopefully spending their time and money where the city needs it to be spent.  I'm facilitating a group of the city's stakeholders for a project titled wayfinding and storytelling.  The objective is to have visitors wander more strategically through the city and learn the stories which have woven its fabric.

In facilitating the group we've found that wayfinding and storytelling overlap at times but are essentially different.  The stories that come from a particular point of interest may not be where we need visitors to wander.  The story still needs to be told but perhaps not as part of the wayfinding system.

Sign posts tend to be the most popular method used by cities to help visitors to find their way.  But signs are simply information of what can be seen or done in a particular direction and they give the reader a choice.  This way to the art museum might be interesting, but not necessarily something the reader will choose to do.

What if people didn't really get a choice of the direction to walk?  Not fence them in and shepherd them along, but encourage them, entice them.  Two excellent examples of wayfinding by encouragement and enticement come from Geelong in Victoria, Australia and Hwaseong, South Korea.

Geelong has used several dozen pylons (100 I think) from an old wharf which burnt down.  The pylons have been carved to represent prominant characters of the city.  The pylons are also a reflection of Geelong's importance as a port city.  Each time you come to a pylon you can look ahead and see the next pylon and so on.  The pylons are creative and fun and you just have to, because you want to, walk to the next one to see what it's been shaped into.

Hwaseong has used scupltures in the same way.  If you follow the line of sight from the boy carrying the fish in the above photo, you can see a couple sitting on a bench under the white canopy; this is the next scuplture.  When you get to this scuplture you can check what they are looking at, and no surprise, it's another sculpture.


In these examples, the visitor is engaged and wants to follow the route laid out for them.  I think the Hwaseong example is more effective as it leads the visitor through parks and past museums and through shopping and restaurant areas.  Whereas the Geelong example leads the visitor along the waterfront which is where a visitor would probably walk anyway; nonetheless, the fun and enticement is there.

So the project rolls on and these examples have started the creativity flowing.  I can't wait to see what the facilitation ends up with and find myself being lead down the path.


The storytelling part of the project is, well, another story.  Might have a look at that next time.

David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

Test driving Hutt Valley's newest adventure tourism product

Hutt Valley had lost two big ticket tourism operators to be replaced by several smaller businesses operating in niche markets.  But we have also had a new larger operator start up and everyone who touches it is smiling from ear to ear.

The south coast of the eastern side of Wellington harbour is some of the most rugged coastline in the country.  New Zealand's first lighthouse at Pencarrow Head and the most intact mainland lighthouse complex at Baring Head, stand as testiment to the dangers the coast has served up to shipping over the years.  If you follow the coast road from the inner harbour around to the south coast you pass the memorial to the Wahine disaster; possibly New Zealand's most famous seafaring tragedy.

The rugged valleys and mountain ranges that stretch inland from this spectacular coastline are now open to explore on professional quad bike expeditions.  Based at Orongorongo Station at the mouth of the Orongorongo River, you are immediately introduced to a world you wouldn't believe is just 45 minutes from Hutt City, Wellington and its industry and suburbs.

This is rugged country and the quad bikes have plenty of power so safety is paramount.  After a helmet fitting and footwear if necessary, a briefing of go and stop buttons and levers, then a short practice on flat terrain and we were off on what was going to be a 90-minute ride up onto the top of a ridge and back.

The thrill of riding through scrub, across a river bed and up farm tracks heading towards the tops is immediate.  We paused for a short break to look down onto Turakirae Head.  The perspective our height gave us of the earthquake scars was unique.  We could clearly see the scars of earthquakes 600, 400 and 250 years ago; our guide points out that we are overdue for another big one!  We promise to sort out our survival kits when we get home and rev our engines in the hope that signals 'can we go now?'

Reaching the tops is special.  The views to the South Island up the Wainuiomata Valley and Orongorongo Valley and across the harbour to Wellington are simply unbeatable.  Our guide announced that this was the turn around point for the 90-minute ride.  We thought that bringing us to this magnificent view and then cutting us off was not going to work so we extended our ride time there and then.  More valleys, views and river crossings and another hour had us finally satisfied.

There are flatter ride options around the coast to the Turakirae Head seal colony and longer, tougher options of up to two days with an overnight camp.  In my head I've already signed some mates up for the two dayer - boys and toys!

I totally recommend a couple of hours out on this exceptional piece of Wellington which too few people know about. http://www.wellingtonadventures.co.nz/

David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

New tourism businesses testing the waters

Capital outlay for infrastructure plus the investment in marketing and personnel and the working capital required while being hit by low seasons leaves many opportunities for great tourism products being left unrealised.  Two large scale Hutt City tourism operations have closed their doors this year but three smaller operators have started up using niche markets to test the waters before they decide whether to take the plunge.

Cruise Ships
The growth of cruise ships coming into Wellington has created a demand for new product.  To meet this demand Hutt City recruited some experienced tourism people to operate tours throughout the cruise season with the possibility of expanding into the full tourism market.  It was easy to see the potential for garden tours, after all, Hutt City was the first garden city in New Zealand.  Jackson Street, Petone was also a given with the local and international media attention this icon is receiving.

The development of the garden and Jackson Street products has been quick and pain free for the operators.  The core products exist and there was not too much more involved other than developing the interpretations of the stories which would be told to their clients.  The cruise ship ground handlers are happy to see nothing more than an A4 summary of the itinerary, content, inclusions and price; so no need for brochure production or even a website although this would be preferable.

The Jackson Street and garden tours are moving into their second season now and their operators are pleased with the results.  This engagement with the cruise market has given them the confidence to expand their operation into the wider tourism market and grow at a rate that is comfortable for them.


Special Interest Groups
Another business set up for a school boy rugby niche is moving into its third year.  An observation that Japan sends hundreds of school boys to New Zealand each year to play and learn more about rugby prompted Rugby & Beyond to set up as a service for them.  The Japanese market has been added to with South Africa, China and more on the way.  Rugby & Beyond are now also going off shore to provide the service to players who can't afford the cost of a team's travel to New Zealand.


Using Regional & Collective Marketing
These fledgling tourism operators have made the most of regional and association marketing to get their foot in the door.  Their RTO and conference bureau want their products to succeed and are only too happy to help keep their story alive and see their products grow.


I would like nothing more than to see major tourism operations open in Hutt City and I will continue to throw positive energy at that - here's our latest new big product http://www.wellingtonadventures.co.nz/  But we will continue to push for the easy entry cruise and special interest markets which are working well to expand our product line up.



David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

Using Other Cities International Relations

Last post I mentioned how Hutt City is using its international relations to not only encourage global tolerance and all the niceties of sister cities and other global associations but to develop economic benefits for the city.  We are doing far more than that really by looking at the relationships which other cities have which we can leverage.

Neighbouring cities
On our next planned mission to Japan and Korea we have invited businesses from our neighbouring cities.  We have asked local Chambers of Commerce  to promote our April 2011 mission to their members.  These businesses can add a diversity to the group travelling and represent a market that perhaps is not catered for in our own city or complement one that is.

Another benefit is being able to explain to our Japanese and Korean hosts that we are from a geographical area that is far greater in land and population than we otherwise would represent on our own.  You know and I know that while we come from a small city in a small country we do compete at the highest level.  But being able to say that this group of businesses is from an area of 400,000 people gets less snickers than saying we're from a city of 100,000.


Other cities and their international relations
We encourage any of our city's businesses to look beyond the relationships that we have through council which currently extend to Japan, Korea, China and USA  But if you start looking at the relationships of other cities throughout New Zealand you could cover half the globe with qualified contacts at a government level.

No need to stop there.  Companies could try and capitalise on the other relationships of the cities Hutt City has relationships with and it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to work on Australian city relationships too.

Sort of a social media network arrangement; old school style.


Expat networks
This is something I think we can make greater use of and I would like to introduce this to businesses.  Kea New Zealand have an extensive network of New Zealanders who are currently working in cities around the world.  I have heard Ross McConnell, their executive director speak at an economic development conference and I was taken by what Kea are doing.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has had success in working through expat networks and I will pass on the same once we've been down that road. 




David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

Economic Benefits of Sister Cities

Sixty odd years have passed since the post WWII sister city movement formed to bring the world back together again.  The movement is still strong but it's time for the focus to change.
 
As visitor development manager for Hutt City, international relations falls with me.  When I first started I had visions of international relations being a series of councillor delegations to far flung cities with little interest in anything more than the travel and a personal cultural experience and certainly no tangible benefit to the city.  Well in reality there was a bit of that, but we have refocused what sister cities means to Hutt City and we have become much more strategic in how we manage sister city relationships.


Do you want sister city relationships?
Firstly we had to decide what we wanted to do with sister cities.  Hutt City has four sister city relationships of varying types: Tempe, AZ, USA; Minoh, Japan; Taizhou and Xi'an, China.  One of these relationships was generating tangible benefits to the city in terms of culture and paying visitors coming to Hutt City.  The decision was made that Hutt City would be proactive with the cities generating economic benefit to the city and responsive to those that weren't.

Another mind shift was to have future international relations (not sister city relations) with cities of strategic benefit rather than random darts at a globe.


Who pays?
A culture and expectation of the host city paying for everything was of little benefit to us when visiting delegations are often quite large.  Now we insist on paying our own way when travelling and they do the same when visiting.

Throughout the year we receive several delegations from one off cities.  Previously we used to buy them lunch and give them a presentation on how our city is managed.  We still buy them lunch but now we charge them for the presentation which includes lunch.


Who travels?
The Mayor should always travel even if it's just for the first day or two.  The power of the Mayor, particularly in Asian cultures, can't be overstated.  Travelling with the Mayor we might have the CEO and one manager.

Other than that it is only businesses who travel.  We invite businesses and schools to come on what we now term 'business missions'.  These businesses pay their own way.


What happens on the Business Missions?
Yes we still go and visit a temple and get a bit of cultural grounding before launching into business but ultimately our focus is to ensure our businesses get the most from their mission.

Prior to travel we coordinate with the overseas Chambers of Commerce to set up appointment streams with business contacts that will help our businesses meet the objectives of their mission.


What benefits have we seen?

• we still get the cultural experience and tolerance which are the underpinning values of sister cities
• schools are receiving fee paying foreign students
• businesses have developed export and import avenues
• one new business has been developed specifically to cater for visitors from one market
• currently sourcing an agent in Hutt City for a Chinese exporter
• lots of ideas for development in our city

Our total budget for international relations has been cut by 40% and the increased benefits are enormous.  I would really like to hear from other cities working their way through managing their international relations.  I would also be happy to talk in more detail about what we have achieved.





David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

How customers see you from the street

My last post talked about what we have done with service at our retail domestic travel outlet to generate record revenue months with a 28% downturn in customers.  It's easy to think of all the things we have done inside our retail space to present product and make customers want to stay.  But most interesting are some changes we have made to the appearance of our space for people on the outside looking in to allow us to engage with prospective customers before they step inside the door.


How we engage with customers from the outside in

• People looking from across the road do notice us
• People looking through our shop front window have several planes to look at and through
• We physically engage with customers after hours

Through the window
I once did some marketing evaluation work for an architecture firm.  A wonderfully talented young bunch of creative people, an equally creative shop front and their work space upstairs but customers just did not come through the door.  Downstairs was a selection of models of buildings they had designed and these were displayed on stylish plinths amid a sea of large pebbles; wall to wall, front to back.  Nothing else disturbed this space except for the set of stairs in the back corner which lead up to the business end of their architecture practice.


The shop window of these architects was far and away the most paused at by pedestrians along this stretch of retail but nobody new what was inside.  Interviewing everyone who stopped and looked in the window, not one person new that they had just seen the work of architects.  Guesses of art installation, vacant retail and others but nobody new it was an architecture firm.


The window which all these passers-by had stopped at had the company name on it but they weren't looking at that, they were looking inside to this wonderfully artistic space.  We quickly got a sign on the back wall and then all of a sudden everyone new what they were pausing to look at.


Of course an architecture firm is not going to get by on foot traffic but the example does demonstrate the way people engage with shop fronts.


People want to engage with you before they step in the door




From across the street
I did some work for a pub whose customers amounted pretty much to a few regulars sitting on their stools each evening and the rest of the time was next to dead.  There was nothing inherently wrong with the appearance or feel of the pub on the inside, but a quick walk outside and across the road once during the day and then again at night showed up two problems.  Day or night, passers-by could not see into the pub because of window treatments.  Worse still, at night, nobody could see the pub because almost every bulb on the outside of the building had blown.


With a week of well lit evenings on the outside and people being able to see into the establishment during the day or night, we all of a sudden had patronage.


Impressions of what's inside can start on the outside




What we've done
The main entrance to our retail outlet was cluttered by an old red phone booth.  It didn't do anything except sit there and take up space.  We moved the phone booth into the centre of the outlet and it now serves as an attention grabbing display case.  The entrance has now been opened up to make it brighter and more inviting and real product can now be displayed there.


We've removed stickers and posters from our windows so passers-by can see inside to get a feel for what we are all about.


The focus for displays had always been inward facing to the point of having a display wall blocking off a huge window.  From the outside all people could see was the back of a display wall.  We have reduced the sizes of our display panels from two or three large panels on walls to five or six displays in the middle of the floor space. Now people can look in and between our displays from the outside and visually engage with us before deciding to come in.


We've cleared the windows and created fore, mid and background displays for people on the outside to be visually engaged




After closing
After closing our displays are lit and we stand out.  We have also placed some promotional material outside in a plastic flip top box which is mounted to the wall.  At first we thought that this box would be smashed and our material scattered to the winds.  But after more than a year of having this display, we are without incident and the top ups required are testament to its use.  Now people arriving outside of our opening hours can take a brochure and be a bit more informed when they phone, email or come back when we are open.


A simple plastic brochure box lets us communicate with customers and tell them that yes we are closed but we are still thinking of you




Now I did say that customers are down 28% on last year but I believe the efforts we have made have reduced the impact of what the downturn in customers could have been.  I also believe that customers are seeing us as an ever changing business that they are interested to engage with.  The staff are also enthusiastic in this culture of change to see what effect our efforts have on business.





David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

Customers Down - Revenue Up

New Zealand is in a recession and the media continues to tell us about the receiverships, the liquidations, the redundancies and the closing doors.  I have no doubt that the effects of the recession have been catastrophic for some businesses and there was nothing that could be done to save them.  It does bother me though that some businesses sit back and cop it on the chin and say, well business is bad because we are in a recession and that's that.  This post is about some of the things we have done to try and get through this downturn; the results have really surprised us.

One of my day to day charges is a domestic retail travel outlet
The customers to this business are locals, regional and international visitors.  Over the past six months April - September, customers through the door have been down between 9-28% compared to the same months last year.

Despite this downturn in customers, revenue is the highest it has ever been for each of those months.  The increase in revenue for any of those months is between 10-40% on the previous best result.

Customers through the door are significantly down over the past six months but revenue is hitting records month after month.


How we achieve record revenue with reduced customers

• we have maintained some marketing initiatives and increased others
• we have reiterated our previously trained sales techniques to our staff
• we give an instant reward for add-ons and up-sells
• we communicate with customers in ways that might surprise them

Our sales techniques
We introduced sales training to our staff several years ago but it's only now that times appear to be tough, with up to 28% reduced customers that we can see the benefits.  I think it was one of those things that you do in faith but don't really see the benefit at the time.

Those are 'Our' sales techniques too.  There are quirky things with every business that will require sales techniques tailored to that environment.  The way people move through our space, the areas we have to engage with the customers, the way we display our product all influence the sales techniques we use.

We have banned a few things:

• Sitting down - replaced with a big standing heart felt 'Hello' or 'Kia Ora'.
• 'Can I help you?'  - replaced with 'I see you are looking at the ...' and conversation naturally flows from there.
• Letting 'I'm just looking' stop us - replaced with a reply of 'Have you been in here before' which they invariably haven't and so we can introduce them to the three distinct product areas and the conversation usually flows from there.
• Offering the cheapest price - replaced with having a conversation with the client and finding all the details and then providing the right product.

Develop sales techniques that work for your environment


Instant reward for add-ons and up-sells
We have 'the badge'!  A little Kiwiana badge that doesn't look out of place on the uniform.  Only the staff know what this badge is for and they want it.  As soon as an up-sell or add-on is achieved, word is circulated to the staff and the badge is handed over.  So far the results have varied from a stamp for the postcard through to $600 worth of accommodation for the free map they came in to pick up.

A simple but instant reward and recognition


Surprising customers with communication
Conversation with customers initiated by questions has not only gained the confidence of our customers and shown a real interest in them, it has also developed a new skill in our younger staff; conversation!

We have done the usual email newsletter and social media but the real difference in all this has come from taking the time to find out how our customers' purchases have worked out for them.  We know when a customer has completed their travel and at that time we pick up the phone and talk to them about their experience.  It is amazing how much repeat business we get from doing this and sometimes we have another booking before we've hung up the phone.  At the very least we have done something that has pleasantly surprised the customer and we can almost guarantee we'll see them in the future and if not them it will be their friends who they've told.

Have real conversations with customers and check how their purchase turned out for them


The past and the future
The training and extra communication efforts of the past have paid off for the situation we find ourselves in now.  If we were starting from scratch there would be improvements in business performance but not to the levels we are experiencing now.

We do worry how much longer we can keep getting more from less.  Eventually we will have peaked and we will be getting less from less.  At the moment we are not sitting back and letting the New Zealand and global economic downturn happen to us.  It is motivating to everyone to see what we are achieving but I can assure you our fingers are still crossed behind our backs.



David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

The Good in Commissions

Working with motels and smaller tourism operators I often have discussions with them about paying commissions.  Back in time forgotten, a now unknown sayer spread a story about the evil in paying commissions.  And now the universally accepted tourism industry distribution network is left to slowly spread the story of the good in paying commissions.


Tourism has a Distribution Network
I hate to start with tourism 101 but like every industry that exists, the tourism industry has an accepted distribution network.  This includes but is not limited to: consumer to supplier, consumer to retailer to supplier, consumer to retailer to wholesaler to supplier.  This distribution network has a marketing expense for every component, regardless of how the consumer ultimately purchases from the supplier.


Commissions are a Marketing Expense
From the resistance I have heard to commissions, it appears that the barriers go up based on how a business records the commission in their financial accounts.  Resisters will say that paying commission is a simple reduction in revenue.  However all revenue received has a cost through the marketing undertaken to achieve that revenue.  Different sectors of the tourism industry will have different benchmarks for what is an acceptable 'overall' marketing expense as a percentage of 'overall' revenue.  Some marketing efforts will cost more than others and the resulting revenue will also vary, but ultimately an accommodation provider, for instance, could be accepting of a marketing expense at 10% of 'overall' revenue.


Accept that there is a distribution network for tourism as with every industry and that distribution has a marketing expense and we are well on the way to having a cohesive distribution system for the tourism industry.


The Good in Commissions
An accommodation provider will have their product advertised and promoted through media, many and varied.  This advertising and promotion has a cost.  An advertisment in a regional publication is a good strategy and these advertisements generally have a very high cost, sometimes as much as $4,000.  Now while this is probably a good use of the marketing budget, the accommodation provider is often unaware of how much revenue has been derived from this advertisement.  Asking where you heard about us is good but it's not fool proof.


Commissions, unlike any other form of distribution and resulting marketing expense, have the beauty of no revenue - no marketing expense.


If the marketing budget was to blow out as a percentage of revenue, the accommodation provider can be guarenteed that this is not due to paying commissions.  No matter how many rooms are sold, at whatever price, the commission will always maintain an acceptable percentage of revenue as a marketing expense.


Consumers Embrace the Distribution Network
Consumers will surf the net and contact an accommodation supplier directly and make a booking.  There are still consumers that don't use the internet and want to talk to an agent who will make the booking for them.  Consumers will read about accommodation in brochures and book direct and others will want further information from an agent.  This is the tourism industry distribution network in full swing.


When the agent contacts an accommodation supplier on behalf of the consumer, this is the agent acting as an ambassador, giving a voice of acknowledgement, that the accommodation is suitable for the consumer's needs.  Every business in every industry wants and needs these ambassadorial spokespeople spreading the good word about them.


Embrace the tourism industry distribution network as the industry's consumers do.

Further discussions we could have:
Different distribution networks can have different rates and different rates within a network?
Work with your distribution networks and they will work for you?



David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington