Where is the best location for a visitor centre?

The question has been raised as to whether the Martinborough i-SITE Visitor Centre is in the best town given that visitors entering Martinborough had already driven through one or more other Wairarapa towns.

An additional observation suggests that visitors to Martinborough will have already made up their minds of what they will do while in the Wairarapa.

This signals an excellent time to have a look at why we have our i-SITE Visitor Centres where they are. In assessing where a visitor centre should be located I have had a look at:

• Other i-SITE locations in New Zealand
• Wairarapa product
• Consumer motivators
• Capacity to accommodate

As the Regional Tourism Organisation (RTO) for the Wairarapa, Destination Wairarapa is charged with bringing more visitors to the region and getting them to spend more during their stay. One of the mechanisms used by Destination Wairarapa to get visitors to stay longer and spend more is the two i-SITE Visitor Centres located in Masterton and Martinborough. These i-SITE Visitor Centres are operated these in a professional manner with paid staff and targets for increased revenue through the visitors and locals which enter them.

The i-SITE Visitor Centres are effectively operating as agents for the tourism operators located in the Wairarapa and throughout New Zealand. Through sales questioning techniques the staff are able to ascertain the current and future needs of visitors and sell them products which will meet their needs and enhance their overall New Zealand experience.

Apart from the obvious service provided to international and domestic travelers, the i-SITE Visitor Centres are also there for locals needing to make travel bookings elsewhere in New Zealand. Several corporate organisations also use the services of the i-SITE Visitor Centre for the personal service they receive and their understanding that a booking through a Wairarapa i-SITE Visitor Centre helps keep some revenue in the region through the commissions derived from each sale.

DESTINATION WAIRARAPA MARKETING

Through the many media and the many messages Destination Wairarapa uses to try and attract leisure visitors, there are considerably fewer themes. Hanmer Springs, for example, uses Hot Springs in its messaging, even though there are many more things to do there.

Destination Wairarapa’s key themes are:

•      Wine and Food
•      The Coast
•      The Outdoors – Rimutaka Cycle Trail
•      Towns and Villages
•      Events

Destination Wairarapa believes that these are the main things which will attract visitors to the region. We all know there are many artists, shopping, museums, war memorabilia, vintage aircraft, gardens, Stonehenge Aotearoa, golf, surfing, fishing… The i-SITE Visitor Centres help direct people to these additional things to see and do.

NEW ZEALAND i-SITE VISITOR CENTRES

i-SITE is a product of Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) and each outlet must operate in accordance with the TNZ prescribed standards. There are currently more than 80 i-SITE Visitor Centres located throughout New Zealand.

This number of outlets adds value to each individual site knowing that there are locals all over New Zealand who can assist with questions asked by their clients. It would not be unusual, for instance, for an i-SITE staff member in Wellington to contact the Martinborough i-SITE Visitor Centre to answer a question or get advice on behalf of a client they have in front of them.

All of these i-SITE Visitor Centres are located in destinations which attract the greatest volume of visitors. Martinborough is unusual, but not alone, in being a destination which is pretty much at a terminus. That is Martinborough is not on SH2 and you must choose to go there.

Other i-SITE Visitor Centres in a similar geographical cul-de-sac include: 

• Waiheke Island
• Motueka
• Akaroa
• Te Anau
• Hanmer Springs
• Methven

VISITOR MOTIVATORS

i-SITEs are located where they are because they can capture the most possible visitors and assist them to spend more money and stay longer. Visitors do go to a place because they have seen something which attracts them. But they do not necessarily know of everything to do in that place and this is where the i-SITE Visitor Centres can assist.

Hanmer Springs for instance would have the vast majority of people going there because they have seen the wonderful photos of the hot springs. However you can be sure that the Hanmer i-SITE Visitor Centre books many people on the rafting, jet boating, bungy jump, whale watching and cycling tours and points them to the golf course, vineyards at Amberley or the other lesser known hot springs closer to Lewis Pass.

The majority of people going to Martinborough are there because they have heard about the vineyards, seen the beautiful pictures of the village and/or read about the events. Like Hanmer Springs, these visitors are also helped to enjoy the other lesser known experiences like a cycle hire, a horse ride, a walk, a trip to the south coast or a spa treatment. They will also be assisted to get further into the Wairarapa to Featherston, Greytown, Carterton, Masterton and then beyond that to their next destination.

A town that a visitor passes through en-route to their destination is of less attraction to stop for information as the visitor isn’t yet to their destination and therefore hasn’t yet satisfied the thing that motivated them on this travel in the first place. En-route to their destination they still have that beautiful picture which they saw in a magazine and more importantly they have a corresponding image in their minds of how they will fit into that picture. Until they arrive at their destination, that picture and corresponding image is the sole emotionally motivating driver.

After the visitor has satisfied that emotional motivator, the i-SITE Visitor Centre is the place to find that next emotional motivator which will keep the visitor in the region longer and help them to spend more money.

WAIRARAPA VISITOR CAPACITY

It is clear that i-SITE Visitor Centres are located in destinations that attract visitors so as to maximise their experience in the destination. The status of a place as a destination is important when considering whether to have an i-SITE Visitor Centre located there. But consideration for the destination’s capacity to accommodate visitors there is just as important. In considering the best locations for Wairarapa i-SITE Visitor Centres, the capacity to accommodate visitors must be assessed.

The main options for visitor centre locations in the Wairarapa are:

• Featherston
• Martinborough
• Greytown
• Carterton
• Masterton

These towns have the following guest room volumes:

• Featherston - 61
• Martinborough - 261
• Greytown - 75
• Carterton/Gladstone - 57
• Masterton - 344

Featherston

A wonderful town full of potential as the Rimutaka Cycle Trail grows. But at the moment the town is not a destination and does not have the capacity to hold visitors and create opportunities for them to do other activities and make that additional spend.

Greytown

A destination in itself, Greytown would be a strong candidate for an i-SITE Visitor Centre. But once again the capacity to hold visitors just isn’t there. Many visitors go to Greytown but they are day visitors or are staying in other Wairarapa locations.

Carterton

Again a town with great potential for more visitors given that they have one of the top attractions in Paua World and Stonehenge is a strong visitor attraction too. The Carterton Events Centre is the best in the region but again, the capacity to hold visitors in town is not there.

So to answer the question and observations...

Is Martinborough the best town for an i-SITE Visitor Centre?

Yes Martinborough is the most suitable town because:

• It is a destination
• It has the capacity to accommodate visitors

And therefore has the best opportunity to capture visitors in the i-SITE Visitor Centre to assist them with doing something else and staying longer in the Wairarapa.

Visitors to Martinborough will have already made up their minds of what they will do while in the Wairarapa.

It is true for all visitors that they will know of at least one thing that is motivating them to go to Martinborough. That image of vineyards and the beautiful town is in their minds and they can see themselves doing that. But most visitors will not know about many of the other things to do around Martinborough. And the vast majority will not know about the other towns and activities in the Wairarapa.

Until the visitor has satisfied that motivating factor of vineyards, village or event, it is pointless to try and give them a new motivator. But it is vital that the i-SITE Visitor Centre is there and able to give that new motivator when the visitor is ready.

Visitors have driven through one or more other Wairarapa towns on their way to Martinborough.

It is true that visitors will have driven through one or more towns on their way to Martinborough. Visitors drive through those towns en-route to Martinborough because those towns are not the destination and these visitors need to:

• satisfy their emotional motivator to go to that destination, and
• have the opportunity to satisfy that emotion, then
• have the opportunity to stay in the destination, then
• have the opportunity to find that next emotional motivator, through an
• i-SITE Visitor Centre

David Hancock is general manager of Destination Wairarapa, the regional tourism organisation for Wairarapa, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.wairarapanz.com

A Street Full of Windows of Opportunity

I've always believed that if you're going to do something then you might as well be as good at that something as you possibly can be.  At one end of the achievement spectrum is being the best in town and at the other end is being the best in the world.  It frustrates me to see sections of retailers in a street settling for a space behind a glass wall and then sitting back watching the business walk on by.  I think this frustrates me mostly because of the opportunity lost for the rest of the street and the rest of the town.

We've recently appointed two Team Leaders at our Masterton and Martinborough i-SITE Visitor Centres.  These are retail outlets selling any travel product in New Zealand to visitors and locals.  To get our Team Leaders thinking about their own retail displays, I took them for a walk down Masterton's main retail shopping street.

During our walk we looked at:

• what we liked and didn't like
• what worked and didn't work
• our reactions in different types of shops
• how front window displays flowed and connected into the rest of the shop

No matter which retailer we looked at the experience all started with the shop window.  This was:

• the opportunity to capture our attention
• the opportunity to encourage us to stop and look
• the opportunity to capture our imaginations
• the opportunity to say come on in

These retail windows truly are windows of opportunity.  What's more there's a whole street full of windows of opportunity.

What we liked:

• clean, crisp, bright displays of something topical or seasonal
• displays with a bit of story behind them
• posters or backing colours set back from the window and a small relevant display in front

What we didn't like:

• windows used as a store room
• windows that tried to display everything the store sells
• posters on windows that stopped us looking in
• irrelevant displays with no meaning or support for the rest of the display
• handmade signs

Connecting the window to the in-store experience:

• the product in the window then has a display of the product right in front of you as you walk into the store.  'This is where you buy what you've just seen'.

Could a small town strip of retailers set themselves a goal of being the best retail window displays in the country?

• none of what we saw was rocket science
• none of what we saw cost a great deal of money
• it would just take the energy and willingness to change from key retailers
• there would be a critical mass and eventual tipping point at some stage

The benefits would be enormous in just trying to achieve the goal:

• renewed time, effort and energy put into the business
• better window displays would encourage more traffic into the store
• more traffic, more sales - although that's a whole session on its own
• if you're mildly successful the public will get behind the campaign
• if you're moderately successful there will be media opportunities
• media stories will bring visitors to see for themselves
• better displays as retailers challenge themselves with continuous improvement
• and so it goes...

Suddenly that street is no longer a collection of retailers but a whole experience.

I made another observation while I was walking down the street with our two Team Leaders.  We'd stopped out the front of a store discussing the merits of the display before us.  We stood there for some time looking deeper and deeper into the store.  I'm not sure if it was the extended time we spent in front of the store (extended from what they were used to from passers-by) or that we were obviously pointing and talking about the store, but we captured the employees' attention.  Standing at the secure back of the store and the reassuring glass wall between us, the employees started talking and looking back at us.  I can only imagine the relief on their face when we finally moved on.  What a different story this would have been if they'd just come out onto the street to talk to us.


David Hancock is general manager of Destination Wairarapa, the regional tourism organisation for Wairarapa, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.wairarapanz.com

How did the RWC 2011 Crystal Ball perform?

As the dust from hundreds of campervans heading north and triple the normal passengers at Wellington airport settles on Hutt Valley, it's time to evaluate how reality tackled my expectations of the RWC.


When my crystal ball came out of its box it was still stained with faint images of the 2005 Lions Tour.  The Top 10 Holiday Park over flowing with campervans for days and local bars filled with an army of British supporters doing their absolute best to drink the place dry.  But realigning the all seeing orb with the 2011 stars we could immediately see a different event was coming our way with the RWC.  RWC has more than four times the matches and 10 times the teams competing with the same multiples of visitors but it is simultaneously spread to the four corners of New Zealand.


So crystal ball, tell me, what should our little corner of New Zealand expect?

• busiest September and October to date but not to the levels of summer
• revenue up but not to the levels of summer
• accommodation full over game dates
• no need for long term campervan over flow

We can past post these RWC expectations but it's too early to put the crystal ball away just yet.


Busiest September & October
Well there's no doubt about it, September was the busiest on record.  International visitors through the Hutt City i-SITE Visitor Centre were 110% up on September last year and overall visitors were up 26%.  All great news but as expected these visitor numbers are still short of what we will see between the summer months of January and March.


October is still to fully deliver all its visitors but 1/3 into the month and the i-SITE is half way to last October's visitor volumes.  The rescheduling of school holidays should now fill in where the departing rugby crowds left off.


Revenue will be up
We didn't get carried away with forecasting September and October revenue too far up on normal levels for these months.  We expected September to be an extra month on the shoulder of Spring and again not to the levels of summer.  This sounded like a reasonable argument given the expected increase in visitors and having just achieved 17 straight months of record revenue through the i-SITE.


However these visitors had all pre-booked.  Months and years ago they had booked their accommodation, buses, trains and even activities.  The i-SITE team over the last three years had become a sales force and now, despite their best efforts, they were returning to be an information service.  September ended up being our third best and down 13% on the same month last year.


Now the crowds have left us we are already seeing a return to a likely record revenue October with school holiday traffic.


Accommodation will be full on game days
As expected, the game days did bring in the demand for accommodation.  However it was really only the double header quarter final weekend which totally filled the Hutt Valley.  On every other game day there were some rooms which could be found with a bit of digging.  But nobody is complaining.


No need for long term campervan overflow
There were three nights where the local campervan park over flowed into the streets but this was largely taken up by the Petone Rugby Club, Trentham Racecourse and foreshore car parks.


If there was one thing which did surprise me a bit, it was the volume of campervans.  Quarter final weekend in particular was busier with vans than expected.  Still the consultation with the Top 10 more than a year ago determined that we shouldn't bother with any overflow and given that it would only have been needed on a handful of nights, this appears to have been a good decision.


Don't put the crystal ball away just yet
What's going to happen next?

• has the RWC soaked up all the domestic travel for this year.  Those tickets were expensive and is that the money New Zealand families would have normally used on their annual summer holiday?
• will the excellent media coverage the Hutt Valley, Wellington and New Zealand received bring in more visitors this summer?
• the RWC was able to gain priority from visitors over the global financial crisis, unemployment and recessions but will our New Zealand summer be able to do the same?
• a busy September and October! Is this a story to leverage and extend the shoulder season for next year?
• who's going to win the RWC and is this a story to leverage for particular markets?

RWC has been brilliant but the impacts, positive and otherwise, have not yet fully played out on our tourism industry.  Yes it's definitely too early to put the crystal ball away just yet.



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