There is little doubt that December is all about merchandising. Due to the economic meltdown in many parts of the world, how we market may determine the difference between a successful year and a failure.
"TOURISM TIDBITS" FROM TOURISM & MORE, INC.
The goal of "Tourism Tidbits" is to provide travel professionals with a monthly, easy-to-read overview of creative ideas. With proper referencing, we invite you to quote or reproduce "Tourism Tidbits" and to pass it along to a friend.
"Tourism Tidbits" is published monthly in English and Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish. Mtra. Patricia Koalska of Mexico does the Spanish translation, Marcus Vinicius Campos of Brazil provides the Portuguese translation, and Dr. Turgut Var provides the Turkish translation.
________________________________________________________________________________
Wishing you and you're a very happy December Holiday season
TOURISM & MORE'S "TOURISM TIDBITS" for December 2008
Tips on Merchandising
There is little doubt that December is all about merchandising. Due to the economic meltdown in many parts of the world, how we market may determine the difference between a successful year and a failure. More than ever for many businesses this December may be a make or break month. This year with gas and transportation prices at near record highs, the stock market reaching new lows and unemployment up, tourism has an ever more important role to play in helping a community's economy. Merchandising is often confused with marketing but it is not marketing. Marketing is all about getting the customer or client to come into a store or place of business while merchandising is what happens once the person has decided to enter the premises. Because shopping plays such an important role in tourism, it is essential that all tourism professionals also know something about merchandising and work with local store owners and merchants. Often tourism professionals spend a great amount of money on research, creativity and money on marketing and very little on how they present their product or what happens after the visitor arrives on the scene. To help you with your Merchandising g needs here are some basic principles and ideas:
_Design displays with the consumer's needs in mind. Incorporate into your displays articles and information that is useful rather than simply pretty. For example if you are merchandizing a brochure the rule is that In tourism, simple is better. Too many tourism items are so filled with information that in the end no one reads anything.
_Take the time to critique your place of business. For example analyze how you
have arranged your store, visitor bureau, attraction or even school. What is the first thing that your customer or visitor sees? What type of ambiance have you created and does it match the product that you are selling? Is your entrance cluttered or too emotionally cold? How does your locale smell? Are there flowers in abundance or is the locale dirty?
_No matter what your product may be, put something out that attracts the eye. Often large and colorful items will attract customers allowing them to look at the surrounding merchandise. The key to good merchandising is creativity. If your merchandise or product is not presented in a positive light, the customer will ignore it. Detail and care are essential. Remember that this principle holds true not only for tangible products such as store goods but also intangible products, events and even education.
_Avoid clutter and develop themes. Too much is no good! If there is too much displayed or too many offerings the mind often gets confused. Pick a theme, make it clear, and allow people to see what you have without cluttering up their mind. Most people can focus on one thing without distractions but too many themes in one place create states of mental cacophony.
_Lighting should compliment your goal/theme rather than working against it. There is a time for every form of lighting. Think through what it is that you are trying to accomplish. Is your goal to make your merchandise easily seeable or are you seeking a romantic mood? Will the lighting impact the way your customers see themselves or you? Do your customers want to see what they're buying or would they prefer a softer approach? Think through how you can use lighting to guide people to different places within a store, hotel or attraction.
_Make your holiday displays universal. In today's multi-cultural world be wise enough to recognize different religions and holidays. Tourism is all about the celebration of the other, and seeks inclusively rather than exclusivity. Use the holiday displays to include as many groups of people as possible and as teaching and educational tools. Create displays with several holidays in mind. For example, you might use an ecology theme to promote holidays that often are not associated with that theme. Decorations that show the buyer a creative approach in displaying your product may also get the visitor not only to think about return trips, but also tell fiends and family about your locale.
_Design your displays so as to incorporate something or your or community's personality. Unique displays become attractions in and of themselves and often add to the customer's overall experience and sense that you care about him or her. Try to show in your displays that your customers/visitors are important to you. Design your displays carefully. Large items with rich colors seem to attract a lot of attention. Inspire the customer. If they see something they that appeals to them, there is a chance that they may want to duplicate it or they may bring a spouse into your place of business to view it.
_When designing displays chose your colors wisely and then use colors and more colors! Vibrant colors can save a display or create a memory. Even brochure racks or bookshelves can be turned into creative experiences with the use of a vibrant color. Use colors to liven up any scene. Choose colors that re-enforce your message. Thus school children learn best when the colors bring them to a sense of creativity, while hotel bedrooms may seek to use quieter colors that promote sleep. Adding colors does not need to be expensive. For example wrapping paper used behind a shelf can change the entire look of a display case.
_Remember that you can merchandise not only things, but also ideas, and concepts. Tourism is about ideas and the creation of memories. These products should also be merchandised with care. No matter what the tourism product, promote it in a variety of places, so that the idea seeks into the subconscious and the visitor remains in your locale for a longer period of time.
_Do not just sell something but also give something away. People love to receive something for nothing. Create open houses, have give-aways and turn being in your place of business not merely a shopping experience but an event. Souvenirs also act as free advertisements creating not only a word-of-mouth buzz but also act to encourage repeat business.
Our prayers go forth to the victims of the Mumbai massacre. An article on it will soon be forthcoming
____________________________________________________________________
What topics would you like to see discussed in Tourism Tidbits?
Please send us a list of topics of interest to you and we will do our best to dedicate future issues of Tourism Tidbits to your needs/desires.
____________________________________________________________________________
Announcing Our New Subscription Service! The Tourism & Security Control Panel
Tourism & More, working with our technology partners at Mnemotrix Systems, Inc., is now offering subscribers a really enhanced and indispensable online service. You've all been asking me to give you more, so here is the "More" in Tourism & More.
Tourism & More Subscribers have access to the full text of 18+ years of our Tidbits Newsletter archives, our News and Newsgroup realtime feed, and our Global Security Research Database for Tourism. We provide much more than the usual keyword search, with our Strategic Data Fusion research capability, and a simple manual for how to make use of it. All this is available for a modest annual subscriber fee of only $99.99 per year. Corporate memberships are also available.
Our aim is to give you best-of-class in strategic data fusion research tools. It's not enough anymore to list a hierarchy of subjects we once wrote about. You have to be able to get into the content directly by idea or concept. We didn't think it was enough to set up a research archives where you have to know the title or the date to find the issue.
The TourismTidbits Newsletter has been published since 1990. That's a lot of writing and a lot of issues. If you just want a listing by subject and date you can already find it on our "Archived Tidbits" page. But now we want to give you a subscription service, where for a nominal fee, you can access something that goes much further.
You can search Tourism & More's whole archives of the Tidbits Newsletter going all the way back to 1990, using lots more than the usual search tools. We are using state-of-the-art in Strategic Data Fusion. You can also research the daily news and current events with our real-time news feed, and sift through newsgroup message traffic content of Tourism & Security related newsgroups in the same way. And, best of all, we have a focused global Research Database of timely information relevant to Tourism & Security and more.
____________________________________________________________________
TOURISM AND MORE'S WIDE RANGE OF SPEECHES AND TRAINING SEMINARS
For a complete listing of topics and information, please check our web page http://www.tourismandmore.com/contact or e-mail us at mailto:tourism@bihs.net.
Please note our all-new special course: Tourism Confronts Terrorism: What You Need to Know to Maintain a Viable Industry in the Face of Terrorism.
Here is a partial list of some of our other most popular topics. All seminars and speeches can be presented in English or Spanish.
Three Brand New Lectures concerning the World's Economic Crisis:
1) Smoothing out rocky economic roads: What tourism needs to do stay in front of these economically challenging times!
2) Surviving Economically Challenging Times: Best Practice from Far and Wide.
3) Are Your Employees and You Feeling Anxious about the Economy? Perhaps our newest course is just what the psychologist ordered for your community and you: "Cooping with Anxiety during Economically Troubled Times."
Additionally:
3) Our trained staff of professionals are ready to meet with your board and you to discuss specific strategic planning in this most difficult of times.
Please contact us at tourism@bihs.net for more information regarding costs and available dates.
Also New!!!! How to tourism communities need to work to prevent and recover from natural disasters.
Other lectures include:
-Tourism Confronts Terrorism: What You Need to Know to Maintain a Viable Industry in the Face of Terrorism.
-Training Your Police: Tourism Oriented Policing (TOPs), how it works and why it is essential for a viable tourism industry.
-Getting On Board: Helping Your Police and Other City Employees to be Part of the Tourism Industry.
-Marketing to the Baby-boom Generation, Generation X and beyond.
-New Trends in Tourism Marketing and International Tourism.
-When the Market is Tight and the Economy Is Slow: New Ideas in Marketing.
-Developing a Successful Agricultural and Rural Tourism Industry.
-Something from Nothing: The Art of Creating New Attractions.
-Tourism Ethics: Linking the Wisdom of Moses to Your Tourism Product.
-Understanding Tourism Statistics: When is a fact a fact and when is it not? How to present data to the media.
_____________________________________________________________________________
TOURISM ON-LINE/EDUCATION
TOURISM SECURITY. The George Washington University's Tourism Destination Management and Marketing Certificate Program announces the launch of "Safety and Security for Tourism Destinations: Achieving a Safe and Secure Tourism Environment". This is a course designed to help tourism professionals understand the importance of safety and security within a destination, as well as provide them with the "tools" needed to create a secure environment for both visitors and residents.
World-renowned travel safety and security expert, Dr. Peter E. Tarlow, has developed this course by drawing on his wealth of experience and the growing number of publications in this area. The course is available worldwide via Internet-based distance learning. For more information please email mailto:dmpdl@gwu.edu.
________________________________________________________________________________
Tourism for Tomorrow Awards' Ceremony Location
WTTC is delighted to announce that the 2009 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards ceremony will be held on 15 May 2009 in Florianopolis, capital of Santa Catarina, Brazil. The ceremony, traditionally part of the Global Travel & Tourism Summit, will take place after the inauguration of the Summit. The Global Travel & Tourism Summit, a high-profile gathering of leaders of the tourism industry, governments and top media, will be held from 15-16 May 2009 in Florianopolis.
Winners and finalists of the 2009 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards will receive complimentary registrations to the event and will be hosted in one of the official Summit hotels. WTTC will additionally reimburse winning entries for their travel costs.
For more information, visit <http://tourismfortomorrow.cmail2.com/l/584078/6id6ft1j/r>www.globaltraveltourism.com
____________________________________________________________________
Faculty Position open
The George Washington University School of Business, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, is accepting application packets for the position of Assistant/Associate Professor of Tourism Studies and Director of the Accelerated Master of Tourism Administration Program (distance learning). For a complete recruitment listing and application instructions, please e-mail lassiter@gwu.edu.
________________________________________________________________________________
BOOKS ON TOURISM
1) Event Risk Management and Safety (ISBN 0-471-40168-4) by Peter E. Tarlow, published by John Wiley & Sons. Presenting theory and practical applications. To purchase this book, visit http://www.wiley.com/ or http://www.amazon.com/. If you would like Dr. Tarlow to speak or train people in this area, please contact him at mailto:tourism@bihs.net.
2) Restoring Tourism Destinations in Crisis by Dr David Beirman: Published By Allen & Unwin (Australia & SE Asia) and CABI Publishing North America/ Europe 2003. For more information contact the author at mailto:david@aicc.org.au.
3) Leisure Travel: A Marketing Handbook, by Stanley Plog, Pearson Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2004. It's available through the website of Pearson Prentice-Hall for $25.
4) Tourism in Turbulent Times. Toward Safe Experiences for Visitors. Edited by Jeff Wilks, Donna Pendergast, and Peter Leggart. Published by Elsevier.
5) Tourism Security & Safety, from Theory to Practice. Edited by Yoel Mansfeld and Abraham Pizam, published by Elsevier.
6) The Economics of Tourism Destinations, by Norbert Vanhove, Published by Elsevier
7) Beach Safety and the Law, Edited by Jeff Wilks published by Queensland
(Australia) Law Society
8) Media Strategies for Marketing Places in Crisis, by Eli Avraham and Eran ketter Published by Elsevier
9) Tourism Development: Growth, Myths and Inequalities. Burns, P. and Novelli M. eds. (2008). Wallingford: CABI
10) Tourism Management: Analysis, Behavior and Strategy, edited by Woodside and Martin, published by Cabi, London, England
11) Tourism and Mobility, Burns, P. and Novelli M. eds. (2008). Wallingford: CABI.
____________________________________________________________________
"Readiness Resource Group" (RRG)
We offer executes programs in Emergency Command Center operations/design, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning under natural disasters, life safety, terrorism and health challenges. Have you thought about food safety? Pandemic planning? How to protect employees and the business model from internal and external threats? Consider RRG for gap analysis reviews and training on existing plans. www.readinessresource.net or shepherd@readinessresource.net "
__________________________________________________________________
Some Upcoming Tourism Conferences
We invite you to submit your conferences to Tourism Tidbits. Please submit request in the form found below. Please note, Tourism Tidbits has received a number of complaints asking why '"My conference" was not listed.
If you do not tells us, then, we cannot list the conference. We are happy to list all conferences about which we are informed. Please follow the format below when sending us a conference announcement. Thank you!
Unless otherwise stated, English is the conference language.
Jan 12-13
Charleston, SC
Southern States Tourism Security Conference
For more information please contact Sgt. Dale Wilson of Charleston Police Dept at WILSOND@ci.charleston.sc.us or Dr. Peter Tarlow at tourism@bihs.net
February 18-21, 2009
New Orleans, LA
23rd Annual Educational Travel Conference
For more information please contact conference@travelearning.com or go to the ETC community
\website www.travelearning.com
April 4-5, 2009
Rhodes Hall Plantation Resort, Green Island, Hanover, Jamaica, W.I..
Caribbean VeggieFest and Wellness Conference
(Wellness Tourism: A Global phenomenon with a Caribbean Flavor)
For more information please contact
Sharon Parris-Chambers
President, Positive Tourism Network
876-381-1591 ~876-957-9243
svpc58@yahoo.com or www.positivetourism.com
June 1-3, 2009
Vienna, Austria
Psychological, Marketing, Socio-Economic, and Sociological Drivers of Cultural Experiences in Leisure and Tourism
Details at http://cpthl2009.modul.ac.at/index.php/2008/cpthl2009.
June 20-23, 2009
Kos Island, Greece
Tourism in a Changing World: Prospects and Challenges
For more information please go to: Internet site: http://www.angelfire.com/ks/andriotis or contact Andriotis, Konstantinos at: kostas.andriotis@ntu.ac.uk
May 13-15, 2009
Eastbourne, United Kingdon
CHME (Council for Hospitality Management Education) 18th Annual Research Conference
For further details please contact Laura Harris at telephone number: 01332 224503 or email her at chme@kc-jones.co.uk or visit the webste at www.kc-jones.co.uk/chme09
May 13-15
Bahrain
Bahrain International Travel Expo
For more information Contact Natasha Ridley @ natasha@bitebahrain.com
June 21-23, 2009
Honolulul, Hawaii
TTRA's Annual Conference
More information at http://ttra.com/hawaii2009.html
July 6-8, 2009
GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA
THE INTERNATIONAL EVENT MANAGEMENT SUMMIT
For more information: "Australian Centre for Event Management" acem@uts.edu.au
____________________________________________________________________
About the Author:
Dr. Peter E. Tarlow is the President of T&M, a founder of the Texas chapter of TTRA and a popular author and speaker on tourism. Tarlow is a specialist in the areas of sociology of tourism, economic development, tourism safety and security. Tarlow speaks at governors' and state conferences on tourism and conducts seminars throughout the world and for numerous agencies and universities.
If you know of anyone else who might enjoy "Tourism Tidbits," please send his/her email address to mailto:tourism@bihs.net. Please let us know of any topic that you would like to see covered by "Tourism Tidbits." We invite others to submit articles for consideration for publication.
You are welcome to reproduce "Tourism Tidbits" or any part of "Tourism Tidbits" with proper citing. We hope that you will see "Tourism Tidbits" as a place where tourism, visitor, and travel professionals exchange ideas and information. "Tourism Tidbits" does not offer or provide specific legal or financial advice. Our goal is to provide a "review" for industry personnel and discuss provocative issues. We remind all readers that every specific business decision should be made only after you have done the proper research. The author(s) accept(s) no responsibility for any loss due to any information published in "Tourism Tidbits."
All articles sent to "Tourism Tidbits" and accepted for publication are owned by "Tourism Tidbits" and may be subjected to editorial review and rewriting (with permission of the author). All questions about "Tourism Tidbits", suggestions, or cancellations should be addressed to Dr. Peter E. Tarlow at tourism@bihs.net.
--
Dr. Peter Tarlow
1218 Merry Oaks,
College Station, Texas, 77840-2609, USA.
Telephone: +1 (979) 764-8402.