This morning I caught up with one of my nearest and dearest who had ticked off a bucket list world tourism experience. As I’d not personally seen it and been there, I was living vicariously, as we can nowadays with the immediacy of social media, whatsapp and facetime etc.
So in conversation as we were debriefing on the photos, the road trip, the tour, the food, the scenery, the experience, the staff – his summary statement of “actually I was a bit underwhelmed” totally blew me away.
Honestly I was gobsmacked for a few reasons, because;
1. Here is a world renowned tourism experience being labelled as underwhelming by a first time visitor. What were their expectations? Where did it miss the mark?
2. He’s a younger generation of traveller, so what is it going to take? What do we need to do more of, or be better at, or do differently to engage the mix of generations of travellers that are visiting our tourism businesses and experiences?
3. What specifically was this tourism experience doing or not doing well enough that enabled the perception of ‘underwhelming’ to walk away yesterday and not be rectified or changed during the almost full day experience? Were onsite opportunities missed out in terms of guide interaction and commentary, facilities and services, touch points and interpretation and so much more?
4. Is there a mismatch between reputation and what’s actually being delivered by tourism businesses delivering their experiences? Does what the customer believe they’re going to be experiencing and then the reality have a huge gap. Is the marketing fancy and the reality a let-down?
This traveller is still on the road and so I look forward to diving deeper into conversation on their return to get some answers, however in the interim – for your tourism business, experience and service or offering.
Food for thought.
Are you ensuring no customer, tourist, passenger, guest or visitor walks away ‘feeling’ underwhelmed?
P.S Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you develop and work on your business leadership capabilities:
- Grab a free copy of Smash Indecision and Overwhelm, 4 Steps for Better Business Leadership E-book
It’s the road map to overcoming doubt and indecision, how to deal with “overwhelm” to improve your business leadership capabilities. —Click Here
- Join the Tourism Business Leader’s Facebook group and connect with like-minded leaders focused on building highly effective teams
It’s our Facebook community where smart leaders get to learn more about creativity, leadership and performance for tourism business success. —Click Here
- Join our Tourism Pro-Team Program
Helping tourism business leaders develop their skills to improve engagement, accountability and performance of the team. If you’d like to work with me so you can stop being reactive, have the difficult conversations and drive performance to get the results you want and know the business need then…message PRO to me here and I’ll get you all the details.
- Let’s get the Whole Team Together
Would you like a different perspective and someone else at the front of the room or on zoom/teams to lead regular and consistent team building, accountability, and engaging learning experiences, that drive results and outcomes for individuals, teams, and the business? If you feel a little challenged with everything going on, maybe sounding like a cracked recorded saying things repeatedly, or actually not 100% how to motivate and inspire the team, given the current nature of business, it may be useful for us to chat. Message TEAM to me here… and tell me a little about the business, your team, and what you’d like to work on together.
