How tour guides can make or break a visit

Tour guides are an integral part of the visitor experience in many destinations and often make the difference between a good experience and an outstanding one or, sadly, what potentially could have been a good experience and one that instead lives on in the memory for all the wrong reasons.  I have recently returned from a holiday in the US where I had the misfortune to experience three examples of tour guiding that, for various reasons, showed that there is still a long way to go in terms of delivering an excellent experience that really meets the tourists’ needs.


The first example was at a small historic house in Annapolis, Maryland. The house, like so many in the US, is run by a charitable organisation that has deep roots within the community. And as a result, it is reliant partly on young ‘docents’ from the local college and partly on retired citizens for whom the property and their engagement with it is an integral part of their life. Our misfortune was to be show round by a (very) elderly lady who admitted that it was her first tour in a year as she had been incapacitated for several months because of a hip replacement.  Fair dos to her – she was keen and knowledgable, and eager to please, but the tour itself was an unconstructed stream of consciousness that was long on her personal opinion (e.g. “I like this clock”) and short on context.  A little refresher training on how to present a coherent tour that is pertinent to the audience’s interests (my wife and I were the only people on the tour and she had quickly ascertained we were from the UK) would have enabled us to get much, much more from the visit. As it stood, when we left we felt we had briefly become part of Cameron’s much vaunted (and now forgotten) ‘Big Society’, transferring our care for the elderly across the Atlantic to Maryland.


Two days later we booked on to a so-called ‘eco-kayak tour’ of the inland waters between Chincoteague and Assateague Islands on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay.  Although the water was calm and the sounds we went through rarely more than 1m deep, I was astonished that there was no safety briefing from the operator before we even stepped into the kayaks. We were issued with life jackets and as we were putting them on a young guy sauntered over to us and announced, in an amazing southern drawl “Hi. I’m Skippy, and I’m your guide”.

Of course, anyone of my generation (born 1960) automatically thinks of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, the popular tv programme from the 60s and 70s. So I was always going to find it hard taking him seriously from the outset. But about 2 minutes into the trip, whilst my wife and I were still getting to grips with paddling a double kayak (I’ve canoed a lot in the past, she never has), he admitted that he wasn’t a proper guide, but was filling in for someone who hadn’t turned up. In fact, he told us, he was a professional cage fighter based in Ohio and was just in Assateague for a few days visiting family. So we had paid well in excess of $100 to rent a kayak for a couple of hours and spend it, not getting an informed insight into the ecology of the wetlands and backwaters, but instead trying to decipher the drawl of someone who had obviously been kicked in the head one too many times.  His lack of biological understanding became evident when, on seeing a Tern, Skippy tried to convince us that the Tern family are basically a cross between an Albatross and a sparrow! I must admit, I’ve not checked this out with David Attenborough or anyone else from the BBC Wildlife Unit, but I’m pretty sure that if this was the case, ‘Life on Earth’ would have made this clear. So we went from random information overkill to nonsense information overkill.

Hoping for a more satisfactory experience we headed south to Williamsburg and the myriad of heritage sites along the James River. We decided to visit Historic Jamestowne, a site managed by the US National Parks Service, global leaders in interpretation and an organisation dedicated to delivering customer satisfaction. We booked onto the 10.00 tour and waited for a smartly clad, uniformed ranger to show us round the archaeological remains. Instead we were greeted by a youngish lady dressed in early 17th century clothing who spoke to the group in a cod-Shakespearean English accent straight out of am-dram acting. On and on and on she droned, asking us where we’d travelled from, what we did for a living and translating this information into a narrative that implied we were all there to help build the settlement. It was AWFUL. First-person costumed interpretation is difficult to pull off at the best of times, but although the presentation appeared to be being lapped up by the Americans in the group, it reminded me of every 1940s movie set in Merrie England. Unfortunately we could only gain admission to the site museum as part of the group so we couldn’t make a break for the border too early. When we did, we vowed that we would do no more tours that holiday.

Why have I been rabbiting on about this? Well, we spent around $150 between us on admission tickets for these three experiences, and apart from catching the sun during the kayak trip and getting bitten to buggery by mosquitos and other bugs on the Jamestown tour, we’ve got nothing to show for that investment. Apart from a couple of impressions that we can use at dinner parties to entertain friends. Oh, and we’ve already told anyone who will listen which historic properties in Annapolis and Williamsburg NOT to visit, and which company NOT to use for an ‘ecotour’ around Assateague. It was the end of the season, perhaps site operators were getting lazy or complacent. But there is no excuse not to deliver the highest standards of tour guiding to every party. Otherwise, all you get is bad press!

World Travel Market - seminar on visitor payback

World Travel Market is one of those events that I look forward to with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. The former feeling because I am never sure whether or not my feet will stand the pace of wandering around the Excel Centre for 2 days, and whether my memory is still good enough to allow me to put a name to every familiar face I see there. Excitement because it is one of the foremost opportunities every year for my colleagues and I at Leeds Met and at ICRT to spread the word about Responsible Tourism.

This year’s RT awards were as powerful as ever in terms of raising awareness of the great stuff that is being done around the world to help communities benefit more from tourism, and to help tourism businesses work more smartly in terms of delivering the highest standards of customer experience without trivialising the cultures their guests are visiting, or damaging irrecoverably the landscapes they are passing through. So all thanks to Professor Harold Goodwin, Justin Francis and the WTMRTD team for their hard work promoting, judging and presenting the awards.

But for me, the real work gets done in the breakout sessions that we offer, exploring different themes associated with Responsible Tourism. This is the fourth year that I have had the privilege of chairing one of the sessions. Last year we looked at managing visitors in World Heritage Sites, and this year we explored the concept of visitor payback initiatives – how to move beyond levying an admission charge but instead raising funds from tourists and tourism businesses and investing these resources in initiatives that really benefit the host destination and the resident community.

My three speakers were excellent and sadly, we ran out of time for a longer debate on some of the challenging issues they raised. But I know I’ll be thinking about what they all said and introducing key points into forthcoming lectures so that my students – undergraduate and postgrad – begin to appreciate what we as an industry can do to progress still further the spirit and the aims of the Cape Town Declaration.

Kath Bateman from Caledonia – a specialist language and dance tour operator based in Edinburgh and operating mainly in Cuba – spoke passionately about all the little things she does in terms of putting together packages that are true partnerships with the host community.  Employing, for instance, one dance tutor for every holidaymaker rather than one for the whole group. Limiting group sizes to 15 so that the impact on the host community is not overwhelming and so that the internal group dynamics don’t fragment too much. Utilising homestays rather than government-run hotels, so that the additional income goes straight into the pockets of the community. All small steps but when taken together, having a real benefit in the destination.

Hetty Byrne from the Forest of Bowland AONB spoke about a range of initiatives they are engaged in to promote a more sustainable and responsible approach to tourism in this hidden corner of Lancashire. Partnership again was a word that came up, both in terms of publc:private sector relationships but also between local tourism SMEs. She talked about two businesses who promoted an attractive walking route between the two locations, so that guests staying in one place could spend a day rambling through the AONB before ending up in a guest house offering a similar standard of experience. It might not deliver a major increase in business to either partner, but even if it stimulates a handful of extra bednights each season, that is income that otherwise would not have been earned. Incrementalism was another theme of Hetty’s talk – she mentioned a local inn that asked for a voluntary 20p donation on every bill, with the money to go towards improving access to the countryside for people with mobility problems. Some eighteen months later, thousands of pounds had been raised to purchase an electric buggy suitable for people with impaired mobility and to treat some of the routes around the inn so that they were fully accessible. Twenty pence on a bill of £20 or £30 is marginal to the customer, but added up those individual 20 pences have made a major difference in the destination.

The final speaker, Ruth Kirk from Nurture Lakeland, picked up on the theme of visitor giving and talked about some of the strategies for extracting funds from tourists. Voluntary donations are an obvious one, but she also mentioned how other businesses are also acting as conduits for funds that are collected and used to provide match-funding for major conservation projects such as footpath repair initiatives. One of the cruise operators running ferries on Ullswater asks for a small donation as part of the ticket income and some accommodation providers do the same. In the 18 years that the Lake District has had some form of visitor payback initiative, more than £2 million has been raised to invest in conservation projects.

In the short but spirited Q&A session at the end, perhaps the most challenging question was one that forced to address once again an issue we hadn’t really answered during the presentations. The title of the session had asked “Do tourists pay enough for accessing our heritage”? An audience member from Australia posed the simple question “Do they”. We had talked about strategies used by the public, private and voluntary sector to try to increase tourist contributions, but was it ‘enough’. The most straightforward and honest response came from Kath who said that tourists can never pay ‘enough’, because there is always something that needs to be done. Whether in Cuba, where she operates and where living standards remain lower than one would like, or in the North West of England where there is a legacy of erosion on the hillsides to treat as well as a major programme of investment needed to avoid future damage.

So rather than asking are tourists paying enough, perhaps we should be asking, “are enough tourists paying?”  In other words, should we be rolling out these initiatives that we know work for some people and extending their reach so that everyone is involved. Rather than a voluntary donation on top of your room charge, that could mean a bed tax. Rather than an optional top-up on your bar or restaurant bill, that could involve a local sales tax with revenues ring-fenced for re-investment in projects that benefit the host community.  But this would almost certainly require legislation at a time when government is seeking to remove as much red tape as possible because it is seen to stifle growth. So whilst some of us understand the  importance of understanding and responding to the polluter pays principle, both from an industry and consumer side, I’m not sure that the rest of the world is ready to play ball. Yet.

And in terms of my memory. Apologies to Rosie, for forgetting where I know you from (now I remember – a night out on the Senegambia strip and some very good whisky and cigars).

Am back in Addis Ababa working on the next phase of the Entoto Cityview project, a feasibility study for a major new tourist destination on the ridge of hills immediately to the north of the city. Our Phase 2 report has been accepted by the client so we are now embarking on the refinement of our initial proposals.  These include a lodge, restaurant visitor centre to interpret Ethiopia’s rich cultural heritage and a craft area where visitors can view handicrafts being produced.  Other components could include a high altitude training centre for athletes (our site is at 3,000m) and a backpacker hostel.

Sadly the rainy season has arrived and it has been difficult trying to get the client out of the office so we can talk through our ideas onsite. Though given the torrential downpours we’ve seen over the last few days, the ground conditions are likely to make any detailed site investigations difficult in any case.

So instead I’ve been doing some research on a couple of topics of relevant to the business planning phase of our work – potential demand for the backpacker hostel, and local handicraft initiatives with whom we could partner.  Interestingly, whilst there are some really good mapping studies showing backpacker flows around Australia, South East Asia and South Africa I’ve come across nothing on the volume or profile of the market in East Africa. So if anyone knows of any work I might have overlooked, please let me know. 

As for the handicraft sector, tomorrow I’m meeting key personnel in the Ministry of Tourism & Culture with responsibility for a number of initiatives across the country. Hopefully I’ll come away from the meetings with enough information to allow us to determine the size of that part of the development and also, who we could partner with. I am particularly keen to get the Beza Community Outreach project involved – they work with women infected with HIV, training them in jewellery production and providing them with an opportunity to earn a living. Their designs use coffee beans, silver beads and also the bronze casings from bullets, combining innovative design with recycling, something that is more and more common in the sector.  So to inspire you, here are two photos of recycled handicrafts – one of necklaces made by Beza here in Ethiopia, and the other a picture made from Coke cans from the Gambia. Enjoy.

Place friction and community economic development

One of the nice things about spending a couple of weeks working overseas is the opportunity to catch up on your reading. I am currently in Addis Ababa working on the Entoto City View Development Strategy, and in my spare time am re-reading Professor Nabeel Hamdi’s fascinating book ‘Small Change’.  An architect by training, Hamdi has worked on low cost housing projects  all over the developing world, using the principles of participatory action planning to help slum dwellers upgrade their living conditions.

One of the chapters in his book is entitled ‘The Bus Stop: Cultivating Community’. In it he describes the impacts that were achieved in one of his projects simply by rerouting a bus service that used to run around the outskirts of a deprived area to run through the centre of the slum where it intersected with another route. At this crossing point a small shaded area was provided as well as a water standpoint.  Because bus services were irregular, people would sometimes have to wait for a considerable period before they were able to leave for the main city centre.  As a result, an informal market developed with micro-enterprises being established by local people to service the needs of the waiting travellers.  A couple of street lights were installed to facilitate the operation of the market and associated informal activities into the evening so that the role of this location as a hub for community activities increased still further. And this then encouraged an NGO to locate a small health centre in the same place. So the simple act of diverting a bus route and creating a new stop led to the creation of a whole new economic and social infrastructure.

I was reminded of this chapter on one of our field visits for the Entoto project when we stopped off at the Maryam Church on Entoto Mountain. This is the location of a holy spring and is a major pilgrimage destination for Orthodox Christians, as well as being located right next to the former palace of King Menelik II, one of the most famous Ethiopian rulers. As a destination for cultural tourism, this location on a ridge above the city is ideal for development.  But the challenge for us as a team, if we select this site rather than one of the other locations we have looked at along this 20 km ridgeline (a decision yet to be made) is how to integrate into our proposals the thriving informal economic community that has grown up in recent years around the church.  As well as food sellers and cafes, gift shops and souvenir stalls, there are (very) low cost accommodation providers for pilgrims wishing to stay more than a day and even tailors who will alter or mend your clothing or make you a new suit or dress.  Given that these micro-businesses are providing a major service to pilgrims it would not be appropriate to move them in any attempt to ‘prettify’ the place for international heritage tourists. Our role, should we use this site, will be to ensure that they can provide additional services to a new market rather than lose their livelihoods altogether. Over the coming days, my colleague Dr Roberto Durero and I will be exploring these opportunities with community representatives in order to identify appropriate development strategies for the site.

This demonstrates the significant impact of what one could term ‘place friction’ – as you provide a space where people must slow down or stop, it becomes easier to sell them things and to encourage them to consume services.  It’s a simple concept, and was of course well known in the past – think of all the medieval markets that were established immediately outside cathedrals and abbeys so that they could capture the spend of pilgrims and worshippers attending services on Saints’ days.  So whether or not we do select the Maryam church site for our development, it has been fascinating for me to be able to relate my experiences in Addis this week both to the work of one of the world’s leading development academics but also to processes that we experienced centuries ago as our own economies were developing.

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Meetings Sector

For the last few months I’ve been part of a team based in the International Centre for Research in Events, Tourism & Hospitality (ICRETH) at Leeds Metropolitan University undertaking a major survey on the meetings industry’s attitudes towards, and engagement with, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In a double-header event this week, my colleague James Musgrave and I are releasing the latest findings at Confex and ITB respectively. I get the delights of a 3 day trip to Berlin where I’m part of a panel involved in ITB’s CSR day on 7^th March, whilst James heads down to London for the day .

Our research has involved analysing questionnaires from more than 1,100 meetings industry professionals worldwide – including venues, meeting planners and suppliers – and backing this up with in-depth interviews with another 70+ contacts from around the world. We are almost at the end of the data gathering phase and are now able to launch some of the headline findings in advance of producing the main study report in April.

One of the main things that we’ve found is that around 9 out of 10 meeting industry businesses are now actively engaging with CSR, with 1 in 4 saying they are very active. Reasons for doing this vary but in the main people are NOT driven by the profit motive – few people believe that being active in CSR improves overall bottom line performance.  But many of our sources have told us that having a formal CSR policy is important in getting them onto tender lists and approved supplier lists. Indeed, more than 30% of respondents said that they already give preference to suppliers who have a demonstrative commitment to CSR.

As well as developing business performance with suppliers, having a CSR policy also demonstrates credibility and trustworthiness to clients and, to some extent, still provides some market differentiation. However, external pressures are such that it is likely that engagement with CSR will grow across the sector in the next 5 to 10 years with more and more people following the current industry leaders. This in turn is likely to be the ‘tipping point’ needed for the more committed organisations to convert their current approach to engagement, which tends not to be recognised with external accreditation, into something that is recognised by one of the several accreditation initiatives. We certainly expect the launch of ISO 20121 later this year to focus people’s attention on the benefits of accreditation and there are some in the sector who feel that unless the industry as a whole engages more with voluntary standards, then there may be the risk of enforced regulation, particularly regarding environmental and social policies.

One final point that is of particular interest to the team, working as we do in Higher Education, is the emerging belief across the meetings industry that without a formal and coherent approach to CSR, employers may find it increasingly difficult to hire the best candidates. This generation, more than any other, is increasingly committed to finding employers whose ethics and world view reflect their own. Quite simply, if they don’t like the way you treat the environment and the community around you, they are unlikely to want to work with you either.

For more details of the project, please contact me on s.c.woodward@leedsmet.ac.uk

Pet tourism

As a dog owner I am sometimes limited in the places I can visit when out for the day. Many locations (understandably) don't allow dogs other than assistance dogs to enter their premises. So it is always nice to find somewhere that not only lets them in, but actively thanks you for supporting their business. So I present to you the Oliver's Mount cafe in Scarborough, a basic little place on the side of a hill overlooking the town. Dogs are welcome in the cafe, there is lots of space outside for them to scamper around and, best of all, they get a treat for visiting. In fact, it looked so good I almost ate one myself but didn't, sticking instead to my cup of Bovril!

A friend in New Zealand, the driving force behind http://www.caninespirit.co.nz/, is researching the topic of pets and tourism for her PhD. So expect more blogs on this topic in the future. And in the meantime, think about what you could do to help develop this niche market!

Universities and destination development

I was recently asked to write a book chapter on the subject of universities and their contribution to tourism. Surprisingly little has been written on the subject  - in the late 1990s one academic wrote a bit on the use of university accommodation and in 2000 UNESCO published a whole journal about university museums.  But I have been struggling to find more detailed research on the role of universities in place making for tourism, or in destination development.  So the next few weeks are going to involve a lot of primary research, an intensive literature review and some rapid writing up.  That’s not an excuse for me not updating the blog on a regular basis, but bear with me and I’ll be able to share some interesting stuff in a month or so. In the meantime, here is a picture of the James Graham Building at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK - this campus will be hosting a training camp for the Chinese athletics squad competing at the 2012 Olympics this summer - sports & events tourism  based at university campuses is surely one area that is worthy of further investigation by someone.