COMPARACIÓN DE PRECIOS DE ENERGÍAS RENOVABLES

The three visitor attractions have developed operational approaches tailored to the motivations of family visitors, which were identified by their own marketing research. Having a family day out that is stimulating for the family by seeing or interacting with animals was especially emphasised by the Orana and Willowbank Marketing Managers as primary motivations for family visitors:

“The main general reason for families to come to Willowbank is to have a family outing, but when it get down to why they specifically choose Willowbank: Parents come to Willowbank for their children. The park offers great opportunities for free interaction with the animals, that‟s always exciting for the kids.” (Marketing Manager, Willowbank) “The main reasons for people to come here is for a great family day out, somewhere to bring the children, family or friends. They also come to see the animals, because that is entertaining for the whole family.” (Marketing Manager, Orana)

61 Another interesting comment was made by the Marketing Manager of Willowbank in relation to “own time” as a motivation for adult family members to visit the attraction:

“The benefits for the parents are having a break and relax a little while the children partly entertain themselves by looking around and interacting with the animals. That‟s one of the reasons why families visit us.” (Willowbank)

Personal development and education was highlighted as a major visiting motivation for families by the management of the Antarctic Attraction. Additionally, the reputation of the park as a tourist attraction was also thought by the management to motivate families to visit:

“Families for sure come to this attraction because they want to learn about and experience the Antarctic. We also have a reputation of being one of the best tourist attractions in Christchurch, this makes many people curious.” (CEO, Antarctic Attraction)

Although the major motivations for families to visit the three attractions vary according to the declarations of the managers, family time, seeing animals, and learning/education were felt to be important issues of family visiting motivations by the managers of all three attractions. These motivations influence the attractions‟ operational approaches in terms of providing appropriate catering, education, entertainment, and unique experiences. The provision of food and drinks at the attractions was aimed at offering a good selection appropriate for children as well as adults, which included special children meals or lunchboxes. Orana and Willowbank further serve the needs of families to keep expenditure as low as possible by providing the self-catering facilities in terms of picnic tables and barbeques:

“We also have two picnic areas with free gas operated barbeques so people can bring and cook their own barbeque if they like. Many families appreciate this opportunity, because they can‟t afford to buy food from the restaurant.” (Marketing Manager, Orana)

As discussed earlier, the Antarctic Attraction is not as prepared for family visitors as Orana and Willowbank are and thus only provides the relatively pricy opportunity to eat and drink in the restaurant.

With regard to education/learning it was emphasised that the management at each attraction aims at achieving a balanced combination of learning opportunities for children and adults in order to educate all family members. Especially the presentations held by keepers at

62 Orana and Willowbank are thought to be family friendly, because they appeal to young and old:

“Education possibilities probably more appealing for families are the animal feeds where keepers hold presentations about the animals themselves as well as the conservation and breeding work done at the park. That‟s really something for the whole family, because children can watch and adults can listen.” (Marketing Manager, Willowbank)

The learning opportunities were identified to be oriented towards different age categories of children at each of the three attractions. Willowbank orientates its learning opportunities for primarily pre-school children. The park is constructed for children to learn respectful interaction with animals and perhaps basic informational facts about them like their typical behaviour in nature. Orana arranges learning opportunities for pre-school children, who are interested in only basic information, and school age children, who are able to understand more advanced information about the animals. The Antarctic Attraction is well equipped with educational opportunities for school age children, but management identified the learning opportunities for pre-school children as a weakness.

Similar to the management approach towards learning opportunities, from managerial responses it became clear that each attraction tries to provide entertainment for children as well as adults. This entails the need to offer a variety of activities and opportunities appropriate for families, which was recognised by the management of the attractions:

“Orana offers entertainment for the whole family by providing a huge variety of activities. Most activities in the park can be enjoyed by the whole family together; however, there are some parts specifically designed for children or adults. Cultural aspects such as national animals generate more interest amongst adults. Although many adults enjoy it just as much as the young visitors giraffe feeds and the farm yard are especially created for young children. Different ages can do different activities.” (Marketing Manager, Orana)

“Entertainment is specifically designed for the children as Willowbank offers birthday parties for children, donkey rides, face painting, etc., but the Lemur encounter for example is made for adults and children likewise.” (Marketing Manager, Willowbank) “I think it is a pretty good mix of activities we got. We have the snow room and the dress- up characters which the kids love, everybody seems to like penguins, the Antarctic storm, and the Hagglund, and the „Behind the Scene Tour‟ is probably a bit more adult focused. There is something for everybody, we are very conscious about mix.” (CEO, Antarctic Attraction)

63 Offering a variety of activities facilitates the time together as a family in terms of joint family experiences thought of as one of the primary family visiting motivations. Besides supplying a variety of activities, the interviews further revealed the importance of providing visitors different/unique experiences during their attraction visit as prompted by the Marketing Manager of Orana:

“Orana strives to provide points of difference. We recognise we must compete in the entertainment industry and so provide an entertaining visitor experience. Within the animal feeds there are some genuine unique experiences such as hand feeding giraffes, meeting rhinos in a „face-to-face‟ encounter, and seeing the cheetah sprint down a paddock.”

Since weather can affect all three attractions in a positive and negative way, it was indicated by the four managers in the interviews as an unpredictable risk that is difficult to influence. Good weather generates high visitor numbers at the outdoor attractions Orana and Willowbank, while it decreases visitor numbers at the indoor Antarctic Attraction; bad weather has the opposite effect. The Antarctic Attractions is less affected by the weather conditions than Orana and Willowbank though, because international visitors (the main market of the Antarctic Attraction) are usually not very flexible in their time of visitation which makes them more likely to visit the attraction independent of weather conditions. By contrast, local and domestic customers generally visit Orana and Willowbank on days where the weather is good, because they have the possibility to choose which days most suit them. A bad weather period may thus generate low visitor numbers for the outdoor attractions. It was emphasised by the manager at Orana that in order to minimise bad weather impacts, the park has established new indoor viewing areas at the latest exhibits in order to improve the visitor experience in these conditions:

“A weakness Orana has to cope with is the New Zealand weather, unpredictable and not influenceable. Local and domestic families generally visit on days where the weather is good, because they have the possibility to choose which days most suit them. To minimise bad weather impacts, the park established new indoor viewing areas at the latest exhibits.” (Marketing Manager, Orana)

In sum, the three visitor attractions try to specifically cater to family visitors by offering a variety of food and drinks as well as educational and entertainment opportunities customised to the interests of children and adults facilitating time together in terms of joint family experiences. After the marketing and operational approaches of the three visitor attractions

64 have been discussed, the following section classifies the attractions according to the classification model of Leask (2008) presented earlier (section 1.2.1).