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Team Members
Jean-Pierre Nordmann Andrew Croasdell Mark Briggs Kirk Granger Andy Wilson Daniel Mahon Keir Birch
Background.
Seasonality is a major disadvantage of tourism and often leads to negative economic effects on a destination. Peak season creates large revenue needs to last all year. Considering all tourist activities worldwide at a given time will produce a less seasonal pattern than looking at specific resorts. E.G. high levels of tourism in December to April (skiing) somewhere else in April to September (sun holidays). Specific resorts and the tourist provisions within them will be affected by seasonality.
APR
Causes of seasonality.
Location Weather (Sun & Snow) Holidays school / works Attractions Festive holidays Behavioural Financial Economic climate Social / fashionable Media influence
Consequences of seasonality.
Seasonal employment Boom bust economic cycle Over/under utilisation of resources Dependence on tourism. Negative effects in times of crisis, such as war, terrorism or bad weather.
Seasonality in focus.
We will now look at how seasonality effects the following tourism functions:
18%
Seasonality.
SOURCE: Keynote Market Report, Travel Agents and Overseas Tour Operators, 2002
10 5 0
Jan/Feb May August Nov/Dec Month
Fluctuation in demand effects capacity utilization, overcrowding in peak and under utilisation in low
These lead to inefficient uses of resources, as such high operating costs
Contd
Negotiating contracts with Hoteliers Segmenting the market by similarities Spread their fixed costs more evenly over the entire year Marginal costing techniques
Attractions background
Attractions are just one part of a tourism industry
Attractions can be affected by: -climate -product -location -environment -market
Seasonality effects attractions: - location and the destination in which it lies. - the attraction itself and not the surrounding area.
Demand Management
Blackpool Tower
Blackpool located on the North West Coast of England. Two biggest attractions are the pleasure beach and Blackpool Tower. Blackpool hosts over 10 million visitors annually, of which 750,000 visit Blackpool Tower. Over 700,000 of these visit the Tower during Blackpools tourism peaks.
Problems
Seasonality is a huge problem for Blackpool Tower. Suffers seasonality problems due to the location in which it lies. Blackpool has many frequent visitors. A large proportion of Blackpools visitors are UK tourists. Entertainment image. As will be seen, the extent of seasonality on the destination and ultimately the tower has meant little can be done.
Continued.
Trough Period
Peak season
Tower offers numerous different forms of entertainment: -the tower circus -jungle jims, -family party -tower ballroom. Also offers a loyalty card and a gold card.
Seasonality in Hotels.
Industry trends.
Type of accomodation. % Peak season % Off peak season 10.2 16.3 26.5 15.3 18.4 3.1 10.2 N/A 15.4 5.1 18.8 40.2 13.7 6.8 Hotel Guest house / B&B. Self catering flat / cottage Caravan / tent Home of friend / family Second Home Other
The impacts of seasonality do not affect hotels as much as the other tourist sectors we have discussed. Many hotels suffer seasonality on a weekly basis. Monday to Friday Business travellers. Weekends attract short breaks. Prices are significantly lower on a weekend to attract customers. Location determines the level of seasonality, as seaside located hotels will suffer more fluctuating demand than a city based business focussed hotel; due to weather, habit, and school holidays manipulating demand. In many cases, the use of hotels increases in the off peak season, as the figures produced by the Dorset tourist board highlight. The percentage of visitors staying in a hotel peak season is 10.2, this increases to 15.4 off peak. This again is due to lower prices and special offers.
Price discrimination.
One technique Hotels can use is price discrimination. Charging different people different amounts of money for the same service in order to manipulate demand. This can be seen in the table opposite, as it shows the prices for a Marriott hotel both midweek and weekend. As you can see weekend customers pay up to 25% less for the same service. This is a good method of demand manipulation, however this is only applicable to city centre type hotels. Resort based hotels (e.g. seasides) may need to do the opposite to this by lowering prices midweek, as there is sufficient weekend demand most of the time.
Quality Exec king King & Sofa Feb. Midweeek 109 134 144 Feb. Weekend 70 95 105 Mar. Midweek 109 134 144 Mar. Weekend 75 100 110 Jul. Midweek 109 134 144 Jul. Weekend 75 104 124 Aug. Midweek 109 134 144 Aug. Weekend 75 104 124 Nov. Midweek 109 134 144 Nov. Weekend 70 95 105 Suite 154 115 154 120 154 134 154 134 154 115
Location.
Seasonalityof TourisminD orset.
200000 150000 Vis itor 100000 num bers . 50000 0
S1
M onth.
Source: Dorset tourist board figures.
As previously mentioned, the location of a hotel can have a great bearing on its seasonality. Hotel based around resorts or attractions suffer the same peaks and troughs as the resorts themselves. In the example of a seaside resort; tourists only really visit in the summer months. This leaves a large 8 or 9 month off peak period of low demand. Seaside resorts are not synonymous with business or conferences, therefore people have very little reason to visit them in the shoulder season, causing a major trough in the economy.
This is an ideal base from which to explore local attractions such as Salt's Mill, with the David Hockney Exhibition, Bronte Country, Harewood House, York and Harrogate, Museum of Film, Photography & Television.
Demand management.
Core business.
Price discrimination. Up to 25% cheaper to stay on a weekend. Marriott reward scheme. Senior travellers discount of at least 15%. Theatre breaks. Conference facilities. Weddings.
Subsidiary activities.
Golf course. Gymnasium. Conferences. Weddings. Parties. Champagne Sunday brunch.
Conclusion.
The concept of seasonality can never be fully resolved, however there are methods that tourist functions can employ in order to reduce the negative effects. These can include: Pricing strategies price discrimination. Accurate forecasting of demand. Diversification. Flexibility of resources.
Despite these methods to help resolve negative impacts there are natural phenomenon that can not be manipulated by any management techniques. For example: Climate. Disasters. War & Weather.
Recommendations.
Generate accurate demand forecasts Further diversification needs to be undertaken: New markets, Adventure holidays is the fastest growing market in the tourist industry. Source:
www.hyron.nf.ca/tourism
New customers. E.g. 50 + winter breaks. Try to create relationships with third parties. Ie schools trips in off peak periods. Educate people, in order to reduce dependence on tourism, by promoting other industries.
Any Questions?