World Tourism Conference Proceedings

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

4-6 October 2010

Tourism Success Stories and Rising Stars

Copyright © 2012, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)Calle Capitán Haya, 4228020 MadridSpain

Tourism Success Stories and Rising Stars – World Tourism Conference ProceedingsKota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 4 – 6 October 2010ISBN-13: 978-92-844-1394-2 (printed version)ISBN-13: 978-92-844-1428-4 (electronic version)

Published by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Madrid, SpainPrinted by First printing in 2011 All rights reserved

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World Tourism Organization (2012), Tourism Success Stories and Rising Stars – World Tourism Conference Proceedings – Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 4 – 6 October 2010, UNWTO, Madrid.

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Foreword ............................................................................................................... v

1. Overwiew .............................................................................................................. 1 Datuk Dr. Victor Wee and Dr. Wong Kong Yew

2. Papers and Presentations .............................................................................. 19

2.1 Opening Ceremony ......................................................................................... 19 2.1.1 Welcome Remarks ............................................................................... 21

The Hon. Dato’ Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen Minister of Tourism, Malaysia

2.1.2 Welcome Remarks ............................................................................... 25

The Right Hon. Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman Chief Minister of Sabah

2.1.3 Welcome Remarks ............................................................................... 27

His Excellency Mr. Taleb Rifai Secretary-General, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

2.2 Keynote Speeches ............................................................................................ 33 2.2.1 Country Branding for Sustainable Success .................................... 35

Susan Warren 2.2.2 Shaping the Government Agenda

to Improve Tourism Competitiveness ............................................ 55

Dr. Jurgen Ringbeck 2.2.3 Running a Successful National Tourism Campaign:

Visit Malaysia Year 2007 .................................................................... 71

Datuk Dr. Victor Wee and Dato’ Dr. Ong Hong Peng

Table of Contents

2.3 First Session: Mega Trends and Innovation .............................................. 97 2.3.1 Preparing Tourism Business for Mega Trends .............................. 99

Prof. Kaye Chon 2.3.2 Expanding into New Frontiers with Air Asia .............................. 119

Azran Osman Rani 2.3.3 Global Destinations Rating for Competitiveness ....................... 129

Albert Stafford

2.4 Second Session: Tourism Business and Service Excellence ............... 147 2.4.1 Know Your Customer ...................................................................... 149

Paul Nursey 2.4.2 Creativity and Innovation: Tourism and Leisure Business ...... 157

James McBride 2.4.3 Maintaining Higher Tourist Arrivals: The Case of France ........ 175

Frédéric Pierret

2.5 Third Session: Tourism Product Development and Marketing ......... 183 2.5.1 Global Economic Shift and Changing Consumer Behaviour:

Maximising Tourism Potential ....................................................... 185

Daniel Levine 2.5.2 Getting More Value Out of an Eco-tourism Destination:

Sabah’s Experience ........................................................................... 209

Dato’ Seri Tengku Zainal Adlin Tengku Mahmod 2.5.3 Amsterdam:

Developing New Experiences for a Tourism City ...................... 243

Hans Dominicus

Annexes ............................................................................................................ 271 Annex A – Statistics for Participants .......................................................... 273

Annex B – Conference Programme .............................................................. 275

Foreword • v

Foreword

Tourism has proven over the years to be a great contributor to the global economy.

It is a powerful driver of socio-economic growth and progress as evidenced by the

creation of jobs and enterprises, infrastructure development and the generation of

foreign exchange income.

Even though it is not immune to the influence of crisis situations of national, regional

or international nature, it has also repeatedly demonstrated its ability to rebound

strongly after crisis.

The World Tourism Conference (WTC) 2010 was organised at a time when the tourism

industry was gradually recovering from the exceptionally challenging time it had

experienced under the influence of the global economic crisis. This was no coincidence.

UNWTO’s response to the global economic challenge and its negative impact on

international tourism was to design a Roadmap for recovery. It is a testament to

tourism and travel as one of the world’s biggest sources of employment and export

earnings as well as a crucial catalyst for economic recovery. In line with the Roadmap,

WTC 2010 aimed at examining the strategies of leading destinations and organisations

which can be adopted to accelerate growth in the tourism industry. It also focused

on innovative product development and marketing strategies for tourism to enable

public and private sectors to harness and maximise the potential of tourism.

Tourism Success Stories and Rising Stars – the end-product of the Conference is a

compilation of examples of success stories and best practices of leading destinations

and organisations in the tourism industry. It covers topics ranging from the creation

of tourism businesses, service excellence, country branding to tourism product

development and marketing.

I congratulate all the international speakers and experts as well as their local

counterparts from Malaysia whose valuable contribution of information has enriched

vi • Tourism Success Stories and Rising Stars

the contents of the publication. It is a must-have reference material which we are

adding to the pool of knowledge on tourism business operations, tourism policies,

strategies and methodologies for tourism development at the national, regional and

municipal levels.

I also commend Dr. Victor Wee, Chairman of UNWTO’s Programme Committee and

Dr. Wong Kong-Yew, Associate Professor of the Tourism Research Institute for Policy

Studies of Malaysia for their contribution to the conclusions of the publication as well

as their editorial input.

Last but not least, I compliment the Regional Programme for Asia and the Pacific of

UNWTO on initiating and coordinating the production of this publication.

Taleb Rifai Secretary-General

World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

1Overview

Overview • 3

Datuk Dr. Victor WeeChairman, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board

Dr. Wong Kong YewVice President, Strategic Projects, UCSI University

The World Tourism Conference 2010 (WTC2010) held from 4 to 6 October 2010 in

Kota Kinabalu, state capital of Sabah, Malaysia was very timely because it provided

useful inputs to governments and the tourism industry that were looking for ways to

boost the economy and businesses following the 2009 economic slump. The tourism

and travel industry is now gaining more attention as a generator for income and

employment. To mainstream tourism in the economic agenda, the World Tourism

Organisation (UNWTO) and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) are both

collaborating on a campaign to raise the profile of tourism by meeting with heads of

states and impressing on them the importance of this industry.

As mentioned by Dr. Taleb Rifai in his Welcome Remark in the World Tourism

Conference 2010 (WTC2010), sustaining growth in the difficult world-trading climate

is a challenge. Adding to the issues faced by the tourism industry, Rifai said that

the economy, employment, enablement, environment and energy are currently the

industry’s biggest challenges. The austerity measures, as well as the rise in taxation

on travel implemented by several advanced economies, are expected to negatively

impact the leading outbound markets. Of concern are governments – in particular

the United Kingdom and Germany – taxing outbound tourism as a source of revenue

which has been disguised as taxes to reduce airline emissions. For tourism to prosper

and deliver its full range of benefits, including generating employment, governments

need to adopt enabling environments in terms of tourism facilitation policies and

enabling legislative environments.

Yet, as the world grows smaller, the competition for tourism businesses is heating

up. Unforeseen occasional shocks could adversely affect a country’s tourism industry

and even set back its entire economy (Ringbeck and Gross, 2007). Hence, there is a

question on what countries can do to sustain and improve their tourism industry.

WTC2010 brought together an impressive panel of speakers who represents a

selection of the “Stars” from the tourism industry, addressing the issue of how to

4 • Tourism Success Stories and Rising Stars

enhance one’s competitiveness and grow the tourism industry at different levels,

specifically the national, city, destination and corporate levels. To bring about growth

in this industry that cuts across sectors, government bodies, private sectors and

NGOs should collaborate and cooperate to promote and sustain development of the

tourism industry. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is one of the most popular practices

adopted by various destinations to enhance their competitive advantage.

Tourism as an economic contributor

The growth of tourism industry globally in the past few decades has made significant

contributions to economic growth and employment generation. According to the

UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2011, the overall income derived from inbound tourism in

2010 exceeded US$ 1 trillion, or close to US$ 3 billion a day. Tourism earnings which

are regarded as export of services also account for as much as 30% of the world’s

export of commercial services and 6% of the overall export of goods and services in

2010. It is ranked fourth after fuels, chemicals, and automobile products in the global

export category. Tourism’s contribution to worldwide GDP is estimated at 5%, with

figures ranging from 2% for countries where tourism is a comparatively small sector

to over 10% for countries where tourism is an important pillar of the economy. The

contribution of tourism to employment tends to be slightly higher and is estimated in

the order of 6-7% of the overall number of direct and indirect jobs worldwide.

Despite the occurrence of occasional shocks, international tourist arrivals have shown

a strong growth trend, from 675 million in 2000 to 940 million in 2010. Tourist flows

tend to be more rapid in the emerging and developing countries where their share

of arrivals have steadily risen, from 31% in 1990 to 47% in 2010 (UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2011). This massive number of tourists trotting the globe annually for

pleasure has important implications and effects on the economies, infrastructures

and governmental policies of the countries to which they travel.

Tourism is also recognised for its contribution to reducing poverty and preserving

natural and cultural resources in nations across the world. It has not only encouraged

growth in the hospitality and related industries of many countries, but also led to the

development of infrastructure to access the natural as well as man-made attractions

which benefit both the tourists and the local residents.

Overview • 5

Attitudes and recognition of countries on tourism as an economic mechanism

Many governments all over the world have acknowledged tourism as one of the

mechanisms to stimulate economic development, accelerate local investment and

boosting employment. The Travel and Tourism Growth-Policy Risk Matrix (Ringbeck

and Gross, 2007) is helpful for governments to review and examine the operation

and performance of individual and aggregate rankings in their countries. The Travel

and Tourism Growth-Policy Risk Matrix was created by combining the Travel and

Tourism competitiveness index and the tourism satellite account outlook for growth.

The matrix can be used to assess business units or product lines, and how best to

allocate resources on an international basis. Figure 1 shows a growth-policy risk

matrix of whose results are classified in Cash Cow, Dogs, Question Marks, and Stars.

The explanation of each of these categories is shown in Table 1. The success stories

presented in WTC2010 fall within the northeast quadrant.

However, the intention of using the matrix is not to suggest that enterprises should

strive to achieve a balance of businesses across all four quadrants. Rather, the matrix

allows the industry to begin addressing how it wishes to proceed in terms of current

operations and the direction for possible future investments. Countries can also

figure out what they want their future tourism industry to look like.

Figure 1 Travel and Tourism Growth-Policy Risk Matrix

Source: Miller, 2007 in Travel and Tourism Competiveness Index Report

6 • Tourism Success Stories and Rising Stars

Table 1 Travel and Tourism (T&T) Growth-Policy Risk Matrix Public-Private Partnership (PPP)

Characteristics Ways to move forward AspirationCash Cows – Countries with low policy

risk and slow T&T economy.– Companies in this group

generate a return in excess of the amount of risk incurred by operating this country.

– Satisfied with policy situation but unsatisfied with outlook for growth.

– Should focus attention on incentives that will encourage investment.

Stars

Dogs – Countries with high policy risk and slow T&T economy.

– Companies in this group typically break even, although they generate barely enough return to maintain the risk/return ratio.

– Worried about policy situation and outlook for growth.

– Should prioritise by focusing on policy issues with the greatest return on investment.

Question Marks or Cash Cows

Question Marks – Countries with high policy risk and fast growing T&T economy.

– Require large amount of investment and policy attention to decrease the policy risks.

– Public sector should reduce the risk in a return-on-investment approach.

Stars

Stars – Countries with low policy risk and fast growing T&T economy.

– Sustaining the country’s policy leadership requires extra attention.

– In order to maintain high level of growth, significant attention to details and working with private sector to understand their needs are required before translating this information into policy initiatives that will keep a country ahead of a curve.

A growing number of studies and articles offer evaluations of public-private

partnerships in a broad range of theory and policy areas. In tourism, the issue of

participation and stakeholders’ involvement in development has been addressed to-

date in the context of National Tourism Administrations (WTO, 1996). A successful

model for PPP is acknowledged by tourism destinations as a key driver for tourism

resilience. The most common types of PPP that have been identified by the majority

of the destinations are those related with marketing and promotion activities and the

development of new products and services (UNWTO, 2009).

PPP is activated when specific challenges need to be addressed, or opportunities need

to be unlocked, which clearly require the support of both parties. These will be shown

Overview • 7

in Table 2 below. Therefore, it is suggested that PPP will enhance the competitive

advantage of tourism industry in a particular destination or destinations. It will

provide viable and alternative efficient and effective delivery of tourism products,

infrastructure facilities and added value, through collaboration and partnerships

between various key stakeholders from the demand and supply side.

Table 2 Requirement of the Government and Private sectors for Competitive Advantage

Government’s needs Private sector’s needs

Specific skills or expertisefor implementation

Planning permission

Capital investment Funding

Risk management Incentives

Accelerated delivery Policy modification

Budget leverage Lobbying support

Industry advantage Elimination of red tape

Source: Compass, 2010

The concept of competitiveness and competitive advantage has been attracting

enormous attention from scholars in business and international trade. Hence, the

competitiveness of tourism destinations is also of interest to all stakeholders in the

industry. Literature on competitiveness has been reviewed extensively. The principal

hallmarks of this literature centre on theories of international trade and on the

contemporary work by Michael Porter on competition among firms and among nations

(Crouch and Ritchie, 1995). Porter’s diamond model (1991) shows four determinants

of national advantage which will affect its ability to compete: (1) factor conditions

– the necessary resources are readily available or easy to source through global

networks, (2) demand conditions – home demand which plays a disproportionate role

in influencing the perception of buyer needs and the capacity of firms to improve

products and services over time, (3) firm strategy, structure, and rivalry – the context

for competition in a region or nation, and (4) related and supporting industries – the

availability, accessibility and presence of local suppliers in related fields and the role

of government policy.

The contribution of partnerships to the competitive advantage of tourism destinations

can be summed up by the tentative destination competitiveness model of Crouch and

Ritchie (1995). The model includes four groups of factors (Figure 2). The core group

8 • Tourism Success Stories and Rising Stars

represents factors which act to attract tourism. It includes tourism resources such

as biological, ecological, cultural and social resources, as well as attractions, festivals

and events, and man-made superstructures. A destination can identify its competitive

advantage in terms of pull factors, and which factor will capture tourists’ attention

and make it stand out compared to other destinations. This is a fundamental for

tourism planning and developing.

Figure 2 Tentative Destination Competitiveness Model

Source: Crouch and Ritchie, 1995

Supporting factors provide the foundations for a strong tourism operation. Since

tourism is considered a cross-sectional industry, availability and support from

related industries suppliers will provide advantages in terms of information, access

to new technology, and market penetration. Therefore, competitive advantage is also

affected by the presence of local suppliers and related industries in those products,

machines or services that are essential to the process of innovation. This also refers

to forward and backward linkages in the tourism industry where an enterprise system

is an engine for free enterprise economics, accounting for employment and output,

especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are the greatest source for new

ideas and inventions. Therefore, tourism SMEs are of fundamental importance to the

development of tourism as an industry.

Overview • 9

One of the most important influencing factors for competitive advantage is government.

The key role of government in tourism policy is undeniable, even though tourism is a

private sector-driven industry. Government bodies at all levels can improve national

advantage by their investment schemes, which influence the goals of individuals and

firms (Porter, 1991). Government policies that succeed are those which create an

environment in which companies can gain competitive advantage (Porter, 1991).

A further factor which influences a destination’s competitive potential, is destination

equity (Wong, 2004) which is considered as tourist perception of a destination, based

on social, economical, environmental, and infrastructure development, and political

stability. This global force is not only important to attract tourists and travellers but

also draws interest and business opportunity from investors.

Destination management factors represent the destination’s ability to shape and

influence its competitive strength (Crouch and Ritchie, 1995). It can include business

permits and zoning controls, research and development work, marketing strategy

and promotion, business association initiatives and a host of other techniques to

shape the service integrity and productivity.

The approach

The main thrust of this conference was to uncover the ‘secrets’ of leading destinations

and organisations in the tourism industry and provide invaluable lessons on how

to achieve growth and competitiveness in the tourism industry in an increasingly

challenging and competitive global environment. The conference was targeted at

government officers and policy makers involved in managing and promoting tourism

growth, as well as industry leaders and practitioners who were seeking a greater

understanding of current market trends. It provided an understanding of tourism

destination management and marketing, and generated ideas on how to synergize

corporate strategies with government initiatives to obtain optimum benefits for all

the parties involved.

The conference featured three keynote speeches and three thematic sessions in order

to provide an opportunity to industry stakeholders to learn on a first-hand basis from

the success stories, perspectives and experiences. The keynote speeches touch on

10 • Tourism Success Stories and Rising Stars

the issue of branding and managing reputations for countries and destinations, the

macroeconomic reality and growth in regional travel that shape government travel

and tourism agenda, and Malaysia’s big success in running a year-long campaign on

Visit Malaysia Year 2007.

The first session focussed on Mega Trends and Innovation and how they impact on

stakeholders in carrying out their business in the competitive world. The innovative

approach adopted by Air Asia X was excellent example of how a low-cost carrier

achieved success by riding the trend for passenger traffic. Cities being major tourist

destinations could be rated for global competitiveness in order to evaluate their

capacity to sustain strong visitor flows.

The theme for the second session was Tourism Business and Service Excellence. The

Canadian Tourism Commission conducted an in-depth study of its best and worst

tourism customers and turned that customer knowledge into more targeted campaigns

and improved marketing performance for overall tourism competitiveness. Two

cases were presented in this session. The first was on running a chain of Malaysian-

owned international luxury hotels, while the second was the experience of France in

increasing its already high tourist arrivals.

In the third session, the presentations narrowed down to Tourism Product Development and Marketing. Levine argued the case of developing new tourism

products and maximising the tourism potential by recognising global economic shifts

and changing consumer behaviour. Sabah had distinguished itself as a mega bio-

diversity destination and showed how more value could be obtained from nature-

based tourism. For an established tourism destination such as Amsterdam, the

challenge was reinventing itself and creating new experiences for tourists so that they

would continue to return to the city as visitors.

Keynote speeches

Image building is a complex process, and no single organisation can control and

communicate reputation. In her paper, Susan Warren argues that managing reputation

for countries and destinations is a powerful way to support success across the four

pillars of sustainability: economic, social and cultural, environmental, and climate

Overview • 11

change. There are multiple stakeholders, conflicting political agendas, and the private

sector which is mainly industry-driven, which do not engage enough to provide

strategic inputs for successful national branding. Hence, country or destination

branding must encompass a wider range of capabilities spanning across political,

investment, business, tourism, culture and community. The collaboration and

agreement with multiple stakeholders on a vision and national strategy is a must

for country branding. For this reason, government, business and civil society should

take responsibility to lead and manage national reputation. Warren pointed out some

examples of successful brands that have been undertaken by India, South Africa,

Australia and New Zealand. More and more countries are pursuing nation brand

initiatives for a more comprehensive approach to reputation management as well as

providing higher visibility to influence reputation.

In his presentation, Jurgen Ringbeck, who was a Senior Partner in Booz & Company,

highlighted four major drivers that will shape the global Travel and Tourism agenda:

(1) new macroeconomic reality with high uncertainty, (2) increasing competition

throughout the Travel and Tourism value chain, (3) the “typical” tourist is changing,

and (4) sustainability will become a prerequisite for Travel and Tourism. He also

recommended five considerations for policymakers to map out potential means to

ensure successful development under these new conditions: (1) fostering resilience

of the national Travel and Tourism sector against short-term disruptive events and

external shocks, (2) ensuring easy access to national tourism offering, (3) refining

national tourism strategies to cater to new or more attractive tourist segments,

(4) implementing a more holistic view of Travel and Tourism economy as a whole, and

(5) considering environmental sustainability as a major driver of future Travel and

Tourism competitiveness

A good case highlighting the collaborative effort in running a successful tourism

campaign was provided by the paper presented by Datuk Dr. Victor Wee (Chairman,

Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board) and Dato’ Dr. Ong Hong Peng (Secretary General,

Ministry of Tourism Malaysia) on how Malaysia had successfully put together a

powerful campaign that encompassed branding, getting the resources and support

from multiple stakeholders’ collaboration, and obtaining strong government support

in developing and promoting tourism. The Visit Malaysia Year 2007 (VMY2007)

campaign, which was mounted to mark Malaysia’s 50th year of Independence, were

aimed at showcasing to the world Malaysia’s achievements during the last 50 years

12 • Tourism Success Stories and Rising Stars

as well as revitalising and propelling tourism development in order to transform

Malaysia into a tourism country.

The presentation unveiled behind-the-scenes considerations and strategies that were

adopted to run a successful national campaign. In fact, it can be said that VMY2007

was probably one of the most successful visit year tourism campaigns ever conducted.

Through the campaign alone, Malaysia increased its arrivals by 3.5 million in 2007

and raised its tourism receipts by US$ 3.3 billion. This campaign boosted Malaysia’s

arrivals to 21 million and tourism receipts to US$ 15.4 billion and helped to propel

Malaysia into the rank of the top ten most visited destinations three years later.

We gave the arguments that were used to request for the budget to run the campaign.

One perennial problem faced by tourism agencies was convincing the Ministry of

Finance to allocate sufficient resources to run a successful campaign. The Ministry of

Tourism (MOTOUR) was able to put up a strong argument on how every ringgit that

was allocated to run the campaign could bring in a return of RM100 in international

tourism receipts for the economy. Another problem faced by MOTOUR was to get the

other bigger ministries whose policy actions affect tourists to adjust and reorient

their policies to become tourism-friendly. MOTOUR was instrumental in establishing

the Cabinet Committee on Tourism, comprising ministers from key agencies and

chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister. As the secretariat, MOTOUR prepared papers

with recommendations on how to improve government policy measures for the

growth of the tourism industry which led to the synchronisation of policy actions and

contributed to the success of VMY2007 campaign. Through coordination meetings,

the various government agencies and the relevant industry players became clear

about their respective roles and functions which contributed to the success of the

campaign.

Megatrends on travel

One prominent example of partnership in contributing to competitive advantage is a

study about top ten trends which will re-shape world tourism patterns in the next 20

years. This study was a collaboration between Hong Kong Polytechnic University and

UNWTO in order to identify major trends shaping tourism in Asia Pacific based upon

content analysis of popular media in tourism. Professor Kaye Chon, Chair Professor

Overview • 13

and Director of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, discussed some megatrends

occurring within tourism and their implications on business practices. He also

projected future trends that would shape the future development of tourism business

practices and outcomes.

One of the prominent future trends pointed out by Chon was the rise of conscious (as

opposed to ‘conspicuous’) consumption and stronger consumer awareness towards

responsible tourism. Corporate social responsibility would encompass issues of

climate change and global warming. Some future trends to look out for are hospitality

industries offering environmentally friendly products and services, while long-haul

travel will not be considered environmentally threatening as airlines opt for bio or

renewable fuel. There will be companies which would not sign contracts with hotels

that do not have environmentally friendly features. There will also be rising demand

for medical tourism, sports tourism and soft adventure, as increasing longevity

creates new business opportunities. The pressure to remain competitive will make it

necessary for businesses to innovate and offer new vacation destinations, including

space tourism.

Professor Chon’s study pointed out that the centre of trade and travel will gravitate

towards Asia, while low-cost carriers will thrive, with the rising trend towards intra-

regional travel. Air Asia, one of the most successful low-cost airlines in the world,

had capitalised on this megatrend. Most low-cost carriers would only concentrate on

short- and medium-haul routes, but Air Asia ventured into a new territory with the

establishment of Air Asia X, which flies long-haul routes that are dominated by legacy

airlines. Instead of waiting for passengers to decide where they would like to go, Air

Asia motivates consumers to purchase tickets at bargain prices without necessarily

knowing where they would be travelling to. It markets aggressively to convert interest

into purchase decisions through innovative campaigns and engaging the customers

with the brand. With low ticket prices and increased affordability of intra-regional

travel, the trend for long-haul travel is towards a multi-destination experience.

Concluding the topic on megatrends and innovation, Albert Stafford offered a

systematic way in benchmarking and listing the performance criteria for cities which

would like to be global tourism destinations in their own right. The performance

measures include traditional elements such as visitor numbers, expenditure and length

of stay, international events and MICE activities. In addition, there are also various

14 • Tourism Success Stories and Rising Stars

measures such as product development and infrastructure, and the economic impact

of visitor expenditure on employment. Cities aspiring to be globally competitive as

tourist destinations would need a highly transparent governance structure for city

management, efficient infrastructure and marketing approaches which stimulate new

investments and create new attractions and experiences every few years. In addition,

Stafford suggests the need for applying technology to provide high-quality visitor

information and engaging with local communities for their support for tourism

development and integration. The competitive global cities should adopt honest

and accurate imagery, as well as recognise the mix of culture and the diversity of

local cuisine which adds to the gastronomic experience. Marketing and promotion

should be undertaken as a clever partnership between government and industry with

responsibility not just falling to one or the other.

Tourism business and service excellence

Putting the customer at the centre of the marketing approach and understanding

what they want is the key for successful destination marketing. William Harding

related how, when faced with keen competition, the Canadian Tourism Commission

(CTC) had to take the step of learning more from Canada’s best and worst customers

so as to turn that knowledge into its competitive advantage. Better knowledge of the

customers would lead to more targeted campaigns, improved marketing performance

and lower marketing costs. The ‘Explorer Quotient (EQ)’ was developed to match

consumers with tourism products based on travel values and motivations. The

marketing campaigns conducted by CTC using EQ and conversion studies helped

marketers to achieve deeper consumer awareness and excellent results.

For YTL Hotels, the development of the award-winning Pangkor Laut Resort on a

beautiful tropical island set amidst the lush rainforest, was the result of passion,

innovation and determination. James McBride mentioned that YTL adopted the people-

centred and experience-based strategy in its chain of luxury hotels, ensuring that its

employees understood consumer needs. To build its pool of quality manpower, YTL

ran its own hotel school in Kuala Lumpur to ensure that its employees had the right

talent and skills to do the job. For a hotel to be able to command premium rates, it

must have a beautiful destination and extraordinary staff who are engaged and able

to deliver quality service that meets the highest level of expectations.

Overview • 15

In the case of France, it is one of the world’s top three most visited countries and

Frédéric Pierret argued that it has the benefit of history, geography and cultural

heritage that offer a wide diversity of products to its tourists. It has four main areas:

urban tourism, coastal tourism, snow and mountain tourism, and rural tourism. In

addition, it is one of the world’s oldest tourism destinations and has strong cultural

strengths in its culture, such as art, literature, architecture, and rich history. Tourism

activities include sports and physical activities, discovery and adventure, shopping,

entertainment, religion, wellness and health and MICE. France’s tourism industry is

supported by profitable and quality transport networks, strong governance systems,

and a high density of security and hygiene norms. A point that is often overlooked is

the importance of domestic tourism in the industry. In the case of France, domestic

tourism accounts for 70% of its tourism receipts.

Tourism product development and marketing

In the third session on tourism product development and marketing, Daniel Levine

supported the finding of Chon’s megatrends study. He argued that those involved

with travel and tourism should understand social trends so that they could foresee

the direction of future demand and come up with innovative solutions to address

the demands. The economic downturn had influenced the way people now think

about travelling. Instead of travelling for sheer hedonism and to flaunt wealth, the

purpose is now shifting to meaningful travel such as spending time with friends and

family, self-improvement, social responsibility, learning about themselves, education,

health, spirituality, and pursuing passion. Hence, more creative products will be put

together to meet the new direction of consumer demand. People will travel on the

motivation of enrichment and self-improvement so that they come back renewed

with more understanding than before they left. The motivation to feel connected

will result in more demand for travel to spend meaningful time with friends and

family members. There will also be opportunities in travel that are connected with

community involvement which could touch the lives of other people and concern for

the environment and eco-awareness.

Building upon the interests of tourists for eco-tourism, Sabah on the Borneo island

is fortunate to be very well endowed with eco-products. It is equatorial and lies at

the heart of mega-diversity of the Indo Pacific Basin and Malesia Eco-region. Tengku

16 • Tourism Success Stories and Rising Stars

Zainal Adlin pointed out that Sabah is located at the apex of the coral triangle, and is

the world’s centre for marine diversity. Its diverse rainforest is over 130 million years

old, more than twice the age of the Amazon. Nature products are fragile and have

limited carrying capacity. The approach adopted by Sabah is placing more emphasis

on yield rather than numbers and also being tourist- rather than product-centred.

The secret of its marketing success is relationship-marketing, in which it engages in

strategic networking and smart partnership with key players at all levels.

Amsterdam is a mature destination for city tourism, and Han Dominicus said that

the real challenge is developing new tourism products to attract more visitors who

come more often and spend more money. In its tourism product development, it

considers visitor’s opinions through its surveys. Since Amsterdam is a small city,

there are concerns about overcrowding. The plan was to spread out development

out to the city centre in a polycentric pattern, with each area having its own identity,

character and authenticity. New suburbs are developed so that visitors can experience

the authentic way of life out of the city centre. The development of new areas with

different attractions will help to keep the tourists longer and encourage them to

spend more.

Conclusion

Tourism is an important industry in Europe, although it is sometimes not perceived

as serious. This is unfortunate because tourism is an important economic pillar which

generates employment and supports a more diverse range of amenities. From the

paper presentations, it is clear that the government plays an important role in leading

and stimulating growth especially in emerging tourism industries and destinations.

In addition, a strong collaborative mechanism for public-private sector partnership

is another important element for creating competitive advantage and success. For

countries such as Malaysia, the tourism industry is the second largest source of

foreign exchange and an important element in propelling economic growth. Malaysia’s

competitive tourism industry benefits from the strong government commitment to

this industry, and a plan is underway to take the industry further in the next 10 years.

At the conference, many of the success stories that were shared had a common

thread, i.e. being alert to the changing trends, creative product development, and

Overview • 17

being innovative in providing service excellence and experience. While the wealth of

experiences and insights can be very useful in tourism planning, there is no magic

bullet that could be used to propel a country, province, city or business to achieve

star status. Some important lessons are: (1) learning to recognise consumer trends

and adjusting the business to take advantage of this; (2) government commitment to

develop and promote the tourism industry; (3) forging close working relationships at

all levels of government as well as strong public-private sector partnership in running

a successful national or branding campaign; (4) establishing a strong brand image

and delivering the service quality that exceeds expectations; and (5) creativity and

innovation to be ahead of the game.

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