KOTA KINABALU: Tourism businesses must move beyond the provision of goods and services to 'experiences' in order to-thrive in the competition today, said the president of Kalahari Management (Canada) Carol Patterson.
"When we talk about experiences, it is usually not where you stay or eat (during your vacation), but how you feel that matters.
"You have to go up a level, instead of just offering goods and services. You have to sell that 'one of a lifetime' experience, to make a vacation special," she said in her paper entitled Ecotourism Experiences: The Next Generation of Travel Products at the Borneo Ecotourism Conference 2005 .in Pacific Sutera Hotel here yesterday.
Carol was providing insights to participants of the ecotourism industry on how to make their business work- by creating experimental tour for visitors to the State.
Stating changes in consumer preferences today, Carol stated that mass customization is a concept rapidly growing in the West while highlighting an interesting fact that 80 percent of consumer decisions are made through female influence.
Although older people are interested in vacation activities that are active and engaging, most people are still less interested in 'roughing it'," she added.
This is where ecotourism comes in, said Carol, where people often associate the term with suffering or, inconvenience.
Do most people find the idea of a holiday in nature appealing?
Well, according to Carol, most Malaysians would not think of taking ecotourism-based vacation as they had the assumption that they would suffer.
Therefore, a good travel experience would have to be authentic, educational, memorable, fun, convenient and planned, she stated.
Authentic features would allow the tourists to try on other peoples' lives during their travel experience, while educational feature would mean to provide, visitors a chance to learn new skill, information on natural history or culture, or maybe more about that person's inner self (their ability to do something).
"To make an experience memorable, we have to provide behind the scene opportunities ... to let them participate. There should be a chance to meet the local people, and agencies should prepare custom itineraries or activities even to a small group of two people," she said.
Allowing time/ flexibility for spontaneous addition or changes to itinerary is one of the important keys of adding 'fun' in travel, and this might also include positive element of surprise.
As for convenience, travel agents have to assist in minimizing time for visitors to organize their trip, plus provide suggestion of activities while offering value-added services like souvenirs.
A good travel experience should also be planned, meaning they should have great guides, who know how to handle overseas visitors, while adding interpretative scripts - staging of any particular experience that is worked out between the guides earlier for the visitors, Carol stressed.
Local partnerships should also be built, she added, where for instance with any craftsmen or specialty suppliers who could sell products such as Borneo handicrafts.
"To, build an Experiential Tour, one must have a theme for the tour, the Must See areas which is consistent with the theme chosen, behind the scenes opportunities, a chance to get in the act, meet the local people, evening activities when the night falls, and activities and products unique to your community," she added.
Source : The Borneo Post 13th April 2005 by Sandra Sokial
