3 Diagnostico Socio – Económico
3.1 Estudio Etnográfico
3.1.2 Datos Históricos de la parroquia San Antonio de Pichincha
As mentioned earlier, the adventure tourism operator has a major opportunity to expand his/her market and revenue potential by adding other services beyond that of the core experience and basic equipment. Adding other services will also enhance the appeal and value of the experience to the consumer and support acceptance of a higher price.
There are three ways for the adventure operator to accomplish this; • Programming,
• Packaging, and • Partnerships.
We will address all three methods in this section.
Programming
Programming is generally defined as the enhancement of a single tourism product or service through the introduction of some added activity or feature.
Within the tourism industry, adventure tourism is all about programming. It is the unique and appealing things to see and do on the adventure which will help differentiate your adventure product from the products of your competition. Special programming can also be particularly effective in building business in the shoulder season. It is worth the time and effort to be creative and diligent in developing programming for your adventure product.
With programming, you can broaden the experience for customers, giving them more to do. You can do this by expanding the facilities, equipment and services offered so as to earn more revenue on more features. You could hire additional people to provide these enhanced services to
customers, or contract these functions out.
It may be practical to do this yourself, such as purchasing a van for ground transfers, or, it may make more sense to make arrangements with others in the area who are already equipped with these capabilities, e.g., chartering a van from another supplier.
There are a variety of ways of making such arrangements, of course, ranging from simply contacting individual services on behalf of individual customers, through developing packages involving a whole range of additional services, and ultimately, to elaborate, joint venture approaches in partnership with other tourism operators.
Packaging
Packaging, simply put, is the presentation of a number of products and services that would normally be purchased separately, but which, in a package, are offered as a single product at a single price. The price should generally be at a lower price than the customer could obtain in
purchasing these features separately. The concept is to provide the customer a comprehensive experience, including all of the services required, at good value.
When your adventure product extends beyond the rental of equipment or a single experience such as a scheduled whale watching cruise, it will, in almost all cases, be in itself a package, since it includes a number of different products and services, offered as a single product at a single price. Successful packages are those that offer unique, appealing experiences for purchasers, and good value. Tourism today is very much an experiential business, and a well-designed package has the marketing advantage of being built around outstanding experiences. Quality adventure tourism packages exemplify this.
Packaging Tips
Here are some tips for successful packaging;
• Plan carefully and do so long enough in advance to ensure that no important aspects of the package have been overlooked and there is sufficient time to finalize arrangements. • Good packages require attention to details such as schedules, special needs, confirming
reservations, accounting for vouchers, etc. It's with the details that you can get in trouble. It's also in the details that you can impress your guests.
• It is also important that you develop a phased introduction in terms of the number of packages to be offered and the frequency of their availability. Develop one at a time. • Make sure the package is complete. Do not leave out components a customer is sure to
require.
• Schedule activities at a comfortable pace.
• Offer a benefit or a bonus. Potential purchasers expect to be offered a benefit in the package that they would not receive if each component were purchased separately, either a saving and/or a special feature.
• Price the package competitively.
• Ensure individual package components are compatible and of consistent quality. • Provide customers with maximum flexibility on optional features and services. Some
suggested guidelines on what to include and what to make optional in a package are: S Include the feature if it is essential for the customer to have it, where choice is not
possible or practical, or if there are no appealing options available. For example, a multi- day hiking tour would normally include overnight accommodations and probably most meals.
S Include the feature if there is a significant advantage to the consumer in doing so (e.g., a major saving). For example, as an adventure operator, you may be able to negotiate
Page 66 Guide to Starting and Operating an Adventure Tourism Business in Nova Scotia S If there are quality, appealing options available, and if having a choice is of benefit to the
customer, offer a choice within the package, or leave the feature out of the package and provide suggestions. For example, a multi-day, accommodation-based sea kayaking trip may offer optional evening activities, say a moonlit kayaking experience or an evening of local story telling.
S If it is a group package, include all the features the group will participate in together. For guided adventure trips, this would normally include all equipment, accommodations, meals, ground transportation, and key activities or attractions.
• Arrange packages and booking systems to ensure there is some customer compatibility. • Keep customers fully informed. As mentioned earlier, purchasers should be provided with
full information relating to the package including what extra costs might be incurred that are not included in the package price. They also need to be informed in advance if any changes are made to the package from what they originally booked or saw advertised.
• Establish a fair refund and credit policy. Many adventure operators require a deposit to secure a booking for multi-day trips, and full payment 30 to 60 days in advance. Should a customer cancel within a certain time period, they should be given a reasonable portion of their deposit or payment back. However, refunds are not usually provided for last minute cancellations when the operator has no opportunity to get another booking.
• Make sure the package is profitable!
Partnerships
The partnership approach involves setting up an arrangement with another tourism operator. In partnerships, the adventure operator and the other operator become joint sponsors of the package, each of them contributing to its planning, marketing and management. This may be an
appropriate approach where the other operator has a major stake in the package and a significant portion of the revenue. An example of this may be a resort-based adventure experience where the adventure operator partners with the resort and both operators sponsor, promote, and manage the package.
Important Considerations in Programming, Packaging, and Partnering
All of the three approaches (programming, packaging, and partnering) offer advantages to the adventure operator. While different approaches will suit different operators and different situations, there are some general things you should consider:Product Issues
• If you are using the services of other businesses, such as accommodations, restaurants and the like, you must make arrangements and negotiate these services. It is a good idea, as well, to establish contingency arrangements in the event of the non-availability of product/tour features or inclement weather.
Market Issues
• Customers will appreciate optional activities and services being made available and are prepared to pay extra for them. (Outside of the core activity and its associated services, however, many customers prefer that the optional activities that are not part of the core experience not be built into the package, but offered to them as an option with an additional charge.)
• The customer already sold on the core experience is an excellent prospect for being "upsold" on other quality activities and services while they are there.
• Customers who have a quality, comprehensive experience may come again, and will tell their friends. Customers who don't, won't, and will surely tell their friends!
Contracting Out or Do it Yourself
• In terms of risk, it is probably better for you, at least initially, to contract out rather than invest in additional facilities and staff, until such time as the volume of revenue can clearly justify such an investment. Clearly, however, this is only an option if the services are available in the area and if they are of a suitable quality, are reliable and are affordable. If the alternative services are not of sufficient standard, are too expensive, or are of
questionable reliability, it is better to have control of them yourself, since the very last thing you can afford is to have someone else ruin the experience of a customer you have worked hard to acquire.
• Where quality services are available from others, whether it is more profitable for you to provide the facility or service yourself or to contract it out will be dependent on a variety of other factors as well. Issues include questions of financial risk, the need for investment, your ability to ensure a high and reliable standard of service, controlling the service, incremental costs of providing the service, etc. All these questions have to be carefully studied.
• One issue of importance is flexibility and its connection to risk. For example, if you invest in and develop a range of facilities and services, the need to have all of these services used can force you into a mode of having to push services and ensure that they all continue to justify themselves. While this may offer the advantage of giving you several revenue sources, it also reduces the flexibility you would have to mix and match different services for different customers, and to adapt to demand changes over time. It essentially puts you into several kinds of businesses, which may not be ideal.
• Contracting out, by contrast, leaves you a lot of flexibility to change offerings over time. It has the merit of ensuring you "stick to your knitting," a slang expression for staying with what you can do best and avoiding becoming responsible for things you know less about and are less able to manage effectively.
• Your options may, in fact, be limited by the resources available to you; the availability of financing to add new facilities and services, working capital to carry the additional operating costs, the availability of qualified staff to provide specialized services, etc.
Page 68 Guide to Starting and Operating an Adventure Tourism Business in Nova Scotia Clearly, the right formula for your business is not something that can be generalized. You must carefully review the options available, in the context of the customer's satisfaction, your revenue potential, your profit potential and risk, and the availability of resources – people and money – to you.