Raising Quality

Tourism is Changing

If you haven't already read What every business needs to know then read it now.

Changing trends have delivered a number of new challenges to the UK tourism industry (in addition to all our usual ones like the weather, a strong pound and, sadly, in more recent years, threats of terrorism). There are three areas that tourism businesses must respond to if they are to succeed. The good news is that the tourism and leisure sector is growing and that businesses that successfully adapt are more profitable, more sustainable and perhaps even more rewarding to run. The three areas are:

1. Rising consumer expectations - not just of the products and services we deliver, but the way we deliver them: our customer service and our marketing, especially our online marketing
2. Increased competition, particularly from the use of the internet which makes it easy for customers to search for exactly what they want, and just click on the next business if you don't appear to offer it
3. Change of emphasis - visitors are now buying more on the basis of what their overall experience will be like. They want to be satisfied not just that your business looks good, but that your overall destination - the place you're located in - will be pleasant to get to and be in, and that there's plenty on offer for them in terms of places to stay, visit and eat and drink in. They also tend to be more theme-based: looking for culture, heritage, shopping, nightlife, activities, getting away from it all etc.

Quality wins

In this changing climate it is the quality businesses in the quality destinations that are winning the business. But what does being a quality business actually mean, and how do you go about raising quality?

Next in this section:

• What Raising Quality Means is the next topic in this section.
• Making a Quality Plan provides a step-by-step guide to planning to improve your business.