Things We Often Do Wrong
March 2003
All too often we blame business failures on others or outside factors. How often do we say things such as the economy is down, the security situation is unstable, there are too many hotel rooms, or there is not enough cooperation between the attractions. While all of the above factors can play a part in a poor tourism year, if we make too many excuses we tend to become captives to our own fatalistic inaction and resignation. Often we too make mistakes. While we cannot control outside factors, we can be careful to try to avoid the tourism mistakes listed below.
- The mistake of spending too much office time. Too many tourism and services oriented businesses have failed because their leadership has not met with, listened to, and heard its customers. Be thankful every time a customer complains. Too many service-oriented businesses have forgotten that its customers have a right to demand good service and customers do not owe us a living. Listen to the complaints and never argue. Afterwards you can decide if the complaint is valid or not, but excuses make no one happy except the person making the excuse.
- Never forget that you must win the customer anew every time, and that every visitor should be treated with the awe of a first time visitor and the love given to an old friend. Too many of us have come to believe that visitors come to us because it is our Divine right to have them, and this mistaken attitude leads to sloppy service and a poor product.
- Do not make the mistake of being so focused on one part of your business that you forget the other parts. Each component of a tourism business can be compared to a living being with multiple parts. If any one “organ” fails the being can die. If you manage a restaurant, it is essential to see how the kitchen interrelates to service and price. If you manage a hotel, oversee how security, use of facilities, ease of email access, and clean rooms all impact each other. If you manage a CVB then take the time to see the interaction between your hotels, restaurants, attractions, city services, and law enforcement. Too many tourism-oriented businesses are so interested in the marketing aspect of the industry that they forget the product. How often do you bring your facility’s various departments together or run city-wide meetings between the diverse components of the local travel and tourism industry?
- Do not overlook security issues, Too many tourists entities will be caught by surprised because they have been lulled (or lulled themselves) into thinking that September 11th was a one time event. Ask yourselves what changes you have made since September 11th, do you have a risk management plan and a crisis management plan, what architectural changes have you made, is your facility CPTED (crime prevention though environmental design) and TPTED (terrorism protection through environmental design) ready?
- Do not forget to collect data from multiple sources and by using multiple means. The worst type of data is data collected incorrectly or from a single source. Good data should be from various sources (multivariate in nature) and should be collected in such a way that it answers a research question. Never seek data to justify a position, this is called a tautological error and it is one of the best ways to go out of business. A good example of this bad data collection method is the various economic impact studies. In all too many cases these studies are conducted to support a decision which has already been made. The result? Economic failure and loss of jobs. In a like manner never depend solely on quantitative or qualitative methods. Both techniques have their place and both techniques have their limitations. Good tourism research provides for both methods and uses each one to verify the other.
- Never forget to transform the information that you have gathered into actions. If your data tell you that your customers are saying something in particular or asking for some change, try and accommodate them. Reasons such as we cannot afford it are mere excuses for lack of creativity. By being creative, customer satisfaction can be attained without bankruptcy. However, if customers are not satisfied, they will find other alternatives and bankruptcy may come faster than expected.
- Avoid being so e-oriented that you forget the personal. Too many travel and tourism industries have become so enraptured with e-technology that they have left the personal out of service. The travel and tourism industry is based around the concept of hospitality, and if we lose the personal touch in the end, we will lose our industry.
- Do not forget to watch the news, read both local and national newspapers and be informed. Travel and tourism are voluntary industries. Never forget that people chose to go on vacation and are free to select their destination. You have to know what is happening in the world in order to react to it.
- Teach the local population about the importance of tourism. A rude or angry local population can hurt any attraction, hotel/restaurant, or tourism community. Tourism does cause some local inconveniences, but these inconveniences are more than offset by the money brought into the community. Too many tourism industries never bother to inspire the local community and educate it as to tourism’s positive impact on the community’s life.
