Visitor Behaviour And Management Assignment: Tourist Attractions In Sydney

Question

Task: You are contracted to provide an assessment and recommendation for a new attraction or event for the City of Sydney with the aim to increase visitors to the city during the winter months. Typically, visitor numbers are at their lowest during this time resulting in lower revenue for hotels, restaurants and city retailers and businesses.
Your task is to write a report that:
• Critically appraises the effectiveness of established theories and strategies in creating an appropriate solution to the problem of lower visitation during winter months.
• Proposes a new event or attraction that would be suitable for increasing visitor numbers over the winter months and is aligned with the strategies already in place for this destination. You will need to include details of the actual event or attraction such as proposed dates, venue/s and a rough outline of the schedule for events, or an overview of the attraction, what it would be what services it would offer and a proposed location.
• Identifies the specific target market/s, who they are, how you selected them and why you think they would be interested in your event/attraction.
• Identifies what additional infrastructure, services and expert knowledge would be required to support this new event/attraction and where this will come from (e.g. specific government agencies).
• Specifies how you would measure the success of your event/attraction in achieving the objective of increasing visitor numbers over winter.
The report must be well researched (based on relevant and reliable sources), and incorporate theories, management principles and the published strategies of tourism agencies that promote tourism and visitation to Sydney. It should be written in an academic style, approx. 3000 words in length (not including executive summary, reference list or any appendices).
Be particularly careful to avoid plagiarism that is, passing other people’s work off as your own (academic theft). Penalties for plagiarism are heavy and may include failure in the course. The main criteria for success:
1.Insight – The report should demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the destination/attraction experiential services and qualities, and tourist/visitor motivation theory
2. Substantiation - The report should be underpinned by course material and additional readings around the topic.
3.Clarity and structure – The report should be well structured and clearly presented

Answer

Executive Summary
As per the investigation on visitor behaviour and management assignment, Sydney has experienced low visitors in the winter season. There are several magnificent places that are undiscovered in the regions. The beautification of places and regions attract many individuals. This impacts the economy of the regions therefore; the government and travel agents create strategies for attracting travelers from the world. The tourist behavior can be defined through the four dimensions that include education, entertainment, educational, escapists, and esthetical factors. Additionally, the pull and push factors encourage individuals to travel and visit many places in the world. In recent times, an event in Sydney has been analyzed through the Swarbrook's Typology of Attractions that includes Natural, Events and festivals and Man-Made attractions of the region. It was found in this visitor behaviour and management assignment that the food festival is missing which can uplift the visitor count in Sydney. Thus, the Food Festival will be organized during the night show at the Sydney Opera house. It can be concluded that promotions and advertisements can help in promoting the existing tourist spots and new food festival in Sydney.

Introduction
Tourism accounts for a major source of revenue for countries. The City of Sydney experiences tourist’s influx throughout the year. As per the reports considered to prepare this visitor behaviour and management assignment, in peak seasons like summer, spring, and autumn, individuals plan holiday destinations to different parts of Australia. The city of Sydney has been the major source of attraction for many tourists around the globe. However, it has been noticed during the winter seasons, the tourist attractions areas have fewer visitors due to which the income of the region is impacted. Tourists do not prefer visiting in winter due to uncertain weather conditions and extreme chilled weather. In this view, the income of the hoteliers and other small businesses are impacted due to low visitors in Sydney during the winter seasons (Beattie, 2013). Thus, the governments and business units need to plan strategies for increasing visitors' count during the nonpeak seasons of especially in the months starting June and ending in August. This becomes an issue for the tourists who reside in the east as June as it is the end of the summer vacations in those regions (Tourism Australia, 2020). A food festival can be organized in Sydney during the winter seasons that will attract many visitors around the world. This report on visitor behaviour and management assignment will analyze the tourist attractions in Sydney discussing aspects of a food festival also proposing a new event for attracting visitors in low peak seasons. The report on visitor behaviour and management assignment will also examine tourist behavior and concepts while also evaluating Sydney’s attraction through theoretical concepts.

Findings and Analysis
Visitor/Tourists Behaviour: It is often noticed that the majority of individual travelers wish to explore new places. The tourist behavior can be defined through realms of experience by Pine and Gilmore. There are four types of experiences mentioned herein visitor behaviour and management assignment that include entertainment, educational, escapists, and esthetical which motivates the individuals to travel and explore new places. The words of Güzel (2014) in regards to the visitor behaviour and management assignment opined that in the entertainment aspect possess positive feelings and emotions so they explore new destinations for being happy. However, Kastenholz et al, (2018) also said that curiosity for gaining knowledge about new things/ skills and learning about the habitations and livelihood of the different regions motivates travelers. In the work of Mehmetoglu and Engen (2011), it was also discussed that customers love to travel for changing their physical surroundings. Additionally, it is also stated herein visitor behaviour and management assignment that the last realm of experience pertains to escapism where the individuals escape their daily routine and travel to new places. Thus, it can be said that four realms of experiences help to understand the encouragement behind the traveling experience of the individuals. These four aspects are connected to emotional arousal that defines the memory tracks.

Güzel (2014) stated that emotions have a direct impact on human behavior. Thus, it can be said that travelers chose holiday destinations based on their pre- and post-experience. The author examined relationship dimensions by conducting primary research by distributing questionnaires that were based on the realms of experience. The primary research was conducted on the tourists that visited the ancient city of Turkey. After examining the results, the authors explained that only three aspects like escapism, entertainment, and education are positively related to the emotional arousal of travelers.

Antara and Prameswari (2018) argued on this visitor behaviour and management assignment that the satisfaction level cannot be examined through the four realms of experiences. The author argues that realms of experiences are unstructured thus, the boundaries within the experiences cannot be defined. It is suggested that marketing agents and tourism agencies should understand the activities that surround these four dimensions which will enable higher satisfaction for the travellers. Mehmetoglu and Engen (2011) argue that activities and places impact the satisfaction levels of the individuals. The author conducted a study on the traveller’s experiences in contexts of the Ice Music Festival and the Maihaugen Museum. The data collected revealed that different dimensions of the Realm of Experience influence the satisfaction of the travellers. Thus, the dimension of escapism influenced the visitor’s satisfaction of the Ice Music Festival while visiting the Maihaugen Museum satisfied the educational aspect of the travellers.

Visitors Motivation Theory
According to Kim (2010) as mentioned in the visitor behaviour and management assignment experiences from traveling impact the autobiographical memory of the individual. Thus, the author depicts those factors like hedonic activity, participation, and local culture impact the memory positively. In this view, the individuals recollect memories and past -experiences that impact his mental health. It is said that vivid past experiences refresh human minds that further helps in recollecting and retrieving the travel experiences of the individuals. In this view, Antara and Prameswari (2018) argued that the push and pull framework helps travellers to decide their vacations and holiday destinations. Thus, push is the motivational factors while the pull is the perception aspect behind the planning of travel experience. Thus, it is said that traveling helps individuals in reducing their psychological differences while also gaining social status.

Said and Maryono (2018) opined that while choosing ecotourism, the destination is the pull factor while self-motivation forms the push factor. Additionally, time and budget form the situational constraints behind the traveling experiences of tourists. The visitor behaviour and management assignment also considers the words of Çetin, K?z?l?rmak, and Bal?k (2017) that tourist experiences are based on superior and inferior holiday destinations. The author researched 50 travellers, requesting them to rate their best and worst travel experiences.

It was revealed in the present context of visitor behaviour and management assignment that the majority of travelers rated high for superior or powerful destinations. Thus, it could be said that the nature of the destination (powerful or inferior) helps in describing the travel experience. Antara and Prameswari (2018) opined that pull and push factors of the travellers impact the tour and travel industry of many regions. The author conducted a study on 127 individuals that have travelled in different regions of Bali. The research revealed that escapism and engagement with local culture was one of the significant push factors. The attraction of natural resources can be referred to as the pull factors of travelers. Another study by Kim (2010) considered in the present context of visitor behaviour and management assignment revealed that pull factors like personal development and culture formed major push factors while the aspects like atmosphere, climate, security are pulled factors due to which travelers visit Bali (Indonesia).

Successful Destinations Strategies
The winters in Australia are very cold and the temperatures fall below 7 degrees. However, snowfall is not witnessed in Sydney and other regions of Australia which lowers the visitor count in these regions. Thus, it is stated in this visitor behaviour and management assignment that the National Tourism Agencies (NTA) or National Tourism Organizations (NTO) undertakes several promotional strategies for attracting their tourist. The agencies design discounted rates and packages for the customers that are frequent visitors. The cost of traveling is lowered heavily for encouraging tourism in winter seasons. In this view, the customers can be attracted through low travel packages that include reduced airfare, accommodations, meals, entertainment, and other travel experiences.

The reduced airfares attract business travellers, who travel 365 days. In this view, the hotel, banquets, and conference halls can be rented at a low price for attracting business meetings in the regions. The information provided in this visitor behaviour and management assignment signifies that sometimes the government publishes advertisements and promotional campaigns across all promotional channels for attracting visitors from the world. In winters, Australian Cruise is cheaper that forms a convenient travel destination for many families and newly wedded couples. One can avail of the cost-efficient cruise at $100 per individual; the cost includes accommodation, meals, and transportation (Nomad Asaurus, 2019). The government of Australia has partnered with iVenture through which customers can avail of free passes and discounted rates while visiting Melbourne and Sydney.

Many countries like Australia hire ambassadors for promoting their tourism in off-seasons. The main places of tourist attractions such as Art Gallery in Sydney and the Botanical Garden in Brisbane that free entry in off-seasons. Additionally, it is clear on this visitor behaviour and management assignment that customer relationship is also helpful in boosting sales in off-seasons. The customers can be contacted through mails and social media informing them about discounted and offers at which beautiful places can be visited. The travel agents provide discounted rates to commercial units (Tourism Australia, 2018). In many corporate organizations, travel plans and packages are provided to employees as a reward for good work. Travel companies also partner with commercial units that organize competitions, quizzes, lucky draw through which customers are offered travel packages.

Sydney Winter Marketing Campaigns
Many campaigns are organized in the winter season for tourists’ attractions. As mentioned above, the cost of the cruise is reduced that might increase visitors to its coastlines. Additionally their events for the sports lovers who can attend Holden State of Origin and NRL Premiership Grand finale. Some of the other festivals and campaigns include Sydney Comedy Festival, Parramatta Heritage Festival, photography workshops, and many others. As per the investigation on visitor behaviour and management assignment, in the year 2012 campaigns were launched named "Make the Most of Every Second Just like a Local" and “Love Every Second of Sydney” (Hicks, 2012). The campaigns featured many regions like Surry Hills, Kings cross, China town, and others to provide local travel experience to the tourists. The campaigns were launched to promote some of the rare tourist spots in Australia. 

Evaluation of Sydney's attraction
It is evident in this context of visitor behaviour and management assignment that there are many attractions in Sydney that should be promoted for increasing the visitor's count. In the winter season, Southern Australia is extremely cold thus; the visitors can visit Darwin which has dry weather and attractions like Mindil Beach Sunset Market and cage swimming (Nomad Asaurus, 2019).

The attractions of Sydney can be analyzed through the model of Swarbrook’s Typology of Attractions. Swarbrooke’s model comprises of natural aspects, man-made and events and festivals. In this visitor behaviour and management assignment, the man-made attractions are of two types one which was deliberately built for tourist attraction while the other which has become tourist attracted places.

Natural Attractions
The coastlines of Sydney offer opportunities to spot 20, 000 migrants’ creatures that come from Antarctica. Amongst which the whales are the popular creatures that attract wildlife lovers. Sydney Harbour Bridge is the perfect destination for adventure-loving tourists. The bridge is approximately 134 meters above sea level which provides an aerial view (Sydney.com, 2020b). The winter skies, chilly winters, and the spectacular view offer it, tourists, esthetical experience. The tourist attractions in Sydney range from coastlines, sports, musical, dramatical, ice skating, and many more. Thus, realms of experience can be satisfied by visiting Sydney in the winter off-seasons.

What are the events and festivals mentioned in the context of visitor behaviour and management assignment?
One of the biggest and captivating festivals is the Vivid Sydney Festivals through which one can experience beautiful lighting and music at the outdoor galleries. The musicals program has a good reputation amongst other musical festivals as it has won multiple awards in the world. There are special events that are organized only in the winter season which includes musical shows like Charlie and the chocolate factory and Muriel's wedding (Sydney.com, 2020a). As mentioned in the visitor behaviour and management assignment, one of the iconic music and light show is organized at night in the Sydney Opera House.

Man-Made attractions
Luna Park was built in 1930 below the Harbour Bridge. A park is a magnificent place for all age groups with thrilling rides and Coney Island Mirror Maze. After visiting the Harbour Bridge, families should visit this park which is a paradise for small children. Sydney’s rich culture is portrayed in the museums and art galleries that re frequently updated with new collections. Museums have traces and realms of lethal animals, treasures, corpses, and precious stones or rocks that are a paradise for scholarly or curious travelers (Sydney.com, 2020b). These attractions were a man-made that was constructed only for tourists. However, some of the spots are man-made but these not constructed for promoting tourism.

 These attractions mentioned in the visitor behaviour and management assignment include surfboards, riding, and ice skating. The Bondi Ice Bergs are one of the international attractions due to its winter swimming. The individuals that can’t swim can dine beside the pool that has been constructed lately (Sydney.com, 2020b). Water surfing and riding are some of the popular sports in the icy water of Sydney. Through the model, one can analyze different visiting attractions of the city or regions.

Figure 1: Swarbrooke's typoly of attractions
Source: (Kastenholz et al, 2018)

Critical evaluation of Tourists Spots (Pine and Gilmore 4 Realms of Experience)
One of the advantages of winter attractions depicted in the visitor behaviour and management assignment is that Sydney has numerous activities and events that can suffice to the travel needs of almost all tourists. There are water attractions, aerial view, dance, and music festivals, and many more. Any tourist that reaches Australia will be satisfied through the travel experience. Thus, it can be said that winter attractions can satisfy entertainment, esthetical, and escapism dimensions of Realm of experience. It is evident herein visitor behaviour and management assignment that the aerial view and the watching whales at the coastline are esthetical dimensions while sports like ice skating form escapism aspects. The light and sound festivals satisfy the entertainment dimensions of the Realm of experience model. In the winter seasons visiting Sydney is cost-effective thus situational constraints are removed. 

The tourism is not promoted adequately due to which many of the tourist’s attraction in the region remains undiscovered. Travel and tour activities should be designed to attract high- and middle-income groups. The government should partner with multinational corporations for the distribution of low-cost packages and catalogues specially designed for promoting winter attractions. These multinational companies purchase these packages for their business meetings or gifting their employees as reward and recognition. The tourism of Sydney is not educative thus, the travellers that have keen interests in learning new skills and gain knowledge will hesitate in visiting Australia. The government should organize campaigns that are educative and reveal the history, culture of the regions. Several workshops can be organized only for the tourists that are interested in learning and polishing new skills.

The current tourist attractions can provide pleasant experiences to travellers. The chilly winter breeze and clear sky can be experienced while standing on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The aerial view can provide mesmerizing experience to the travellers. Furthermore, watching whales and other unique creatures from the coastline can emotionally arouse the individuals. The light and music festivals in Sydney helps in creating long-term travel experience in the minds of the individuals (Tourism Australia, 2018). Therefore, the wonderful travel experience of the individual helps in promoting tourism through word of mouth.

In the current scenario of visitor behaviour and management assignment, the food festival is missing in the winter attraction of Sydney. In Australia, one of the biggest food festivals is organized in the peak season. On the contrary, the food festival is missing in the off-seasons. The organizations and promotion of local food and culture can attract many continental food lovers from all over the world. Therefore, with the light and sound festival food carnivals should be organized so that the customers can enjoy local and continental food after the musical show has ended. The music and light shows are often long and captivating, thus the travellers and tourist munch on light snacks and food during the show. A huge food festival can be organized outside the grounds of the Sydney Opera house that will enhance the experience of travellers while benefiting the economy in off-seasons.

Recommendations
As mentioned above within this visitor behaviour and management assignment, there is a lack of food festival in Sydney. The food festival will invite all the chefs and food artists to present their food culture in one festival. Thus, travellers can taste worldwide dishes in one physical place. The food festival will be organized for three-four days during the night shows at the Sydney Opera house. This food festival will grab the visitors that have come to watch light and sound show. The food festival will be hosted in the month of July from the 20^th and will be operational for the next five days. Passes for the event will be available online and one can pick up the passes and get good discounts. The event will be hosted on the ground just beside the Opera house. Through this festival, many foodies will visit the light and music show at the Sydney Opera house. The food festival will include all the savouries like deserts, main course, bakeries, and other local famous foods of Australia. This will help the curious traveller to learn about different food habits that are prevalent across the world. The variety of food at one place will be a pull factor while time, money, and self-motivation will be push factors through which the customers will attract to the food light and sound festival.

The young travellers that are foodies will be targeted. The visitors coming to Sydney Opera house will be handed pamphlets and catalogues of the dishes that will be sold in the festivals. These pamphlets will also include discount coupons that will boost the sales of the festivals. The audiences will be targeted through social media campaigns and TV advertisements.

• Benefits: The food event presented in the visitor behaviour and management assignment will have chefs from different parts of the world. It will host several types of drinks and foods from varied corners of the world. It will also have various gaming activities such that families can come and participate with their children in the activity and enjoy it. There will be also various live shows hosted to attract varied types of customers including people with family as well as young people. Visitors hence will have several associated benefits from the event. They can try out several different cuisines from around the world also take part in gaming activities. The ‘wow’ factor for this new attraction/ event includes making available different cuisines from around the world. The USP will also be targeted at catering to foods and drinks in the event from around the globe. Also, customers will be provided with discounted vouchers for entering the event which will allow these customers to taste varied foods from different world cuisines made by some well-known chefs. The event will also aim at hoisting master chef competition and also take participants from the crowd.
• Driving the visitor count: The target market for the event depicted in the visitor behaviour and management assignment will mainly include young people who are studying at Universities, family members, couples and retired people as well. The age group that the event will attract will consists of 18 years till 68 years. Both male and female participants will be aimed to be attracted to the event. Mostly people from middle income to higher income class who have interests in trying different cuisines from around the world will be asked to participate in this current event. The event will aim at attracting almost 5,000 people regularly at the site and raise up to a total of 100,000 additional enquiries regarding the event. The footfall during the event however is expected to be much higher as it will be open and available for longer time periods.
• Strategies for increasing visitor counts during Winters: The primary aim of the event mentioned in the visitor behaviour and management assignment is to attract visitor to the city of Sydney during the winter months. This visitor attraction will have multiple spill-over effects and capability to generate revenues for other businesses in operation in Australia, especially Sydney. This vibrant event is expected to be conducted over a period of 5 days in a week especially focussing on Saturday and Sundays, when tourists wants to engage themselves in some activities. The expected event is supposed to attract visitors in a repeated manner. The most probable time for visitors to visit the event will be day time from 11 am till 4 or 5 pm. Post which it might be too cold to be outside. The event will increase the existing appeal of Sydney during the winter months for new customers as well as for existing customers as there are no events taking place in the city during the winter months.
• Visitors spend: In order to attend the new event, it is noted in this piece of visitor behaviour and management assignment that visitors, food critics, food bloggers and many tourists will be visiting the city of Sydney during winter months. While there are visiting the city, they will be staying at hotels/ home stays, eating at restaurants, travelling by means of taxis trains, buses and also engaging themselves in other attractions. This will lead to increase in spending in especially driving revenue in the Sydney area. This spill-over effect will also bring about spending of tourists in other commodities and services located in the city as well as the country.

Conclusion
In conclusion section of visitor behaviour and management assignment, it can be stated that the four aspects of entertainment, esthetical and escapism, and education dimensions of Realm of experience discussed. Then the visitor tourist behaviours (push and pull factors) have been analysed by evaluating through Swarbrooke’s model that comprises of natural aspects, man-made and events and festivals. Major tourist attractions Sydney Opera house (light and sound), harbor bridge, ice skating and other. The food festival is missing in winter seasons of Sydney and there are several advantages and prospects of food festivals that can increase visitors in the city. The proposed new event/ attraction will increase consumer spending and also attract tourists to the designation of Sydney. This will lead to significant improvement in the revenue generation in the city as well as for the country. This event examined in the visitor behaviour and management assignment planned to be hosted in Sydney is of a new kind and is expected to create vibrance at the location that is filled with immigrants and people from different communities. It is expected to not only attract visitors but also deliver certain key value addition to the travel destination in Sydney. 

References
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