How serious is the homogenization of scenic spots now? Tell me what you know.

With the upsurge of domestic tourism investment, the number of newly-built scenic spots has expanded rapidly, and the marketing environment of scenic spots has changed greatly. Many old scenic spots are facing the pressure of homogenization competition and tourists diversion in new scenic spots. However, due to the lack of marketing management experience, the new scenic spot is also difficult to develop its market. Among them, private scenic spots have the most problems and the greatest difficulties.

Where will the "creative" marketing of scenic spots go?

Facing the new market competition situation, can small and medium-sized scenic spots take a series of effective measures to improve their performance quickly? The author visited dozens of scenic spots all over China, and also made problem diagnosis and marketing training for some of them. According to my personal marketing observation and market practice, although there are many difficulties and problems in small and medium-sized scenic spots at present, it is still possible to greatly improve marketing performance in a short time as long as the ideas are right and the methods are proper.

First, make clear the goal and find the right position.

If small and medium-sized scenic spots want to succeed in the market, the first thing leaders should do is to make clear the strategic development goals of enterprises in the future. As the saying goes, if the direction is wrong, the efforts will be in vain. Marketing strategy is subordinate to enterprise management strategy. If the strategic goal of the enterprise is unclear, then no matter how hard the marketers try, they can only solve the temporary difficulties of the enterprise, but can't solve the fundamental problem of the long-term development of the enterprise.

Among the dozens of scenic spots I have visited, I found that most of them have great difficulties in management. On the surface, there are complex contradictions and a lot of marketing problems, such as lack of professionals, disorderly internal management, chaotic price system, poor marketing promotion and so on. In fact, the responsibility for investigating the causes of these problems lies first with the boss. One of the main problems that bosses are most likely to make is "grasping the small and not magnifying it". On the one hand, everything in the scenic spot is carefully grasped; On the other hand, there is a lack of forward-looking strategic thinking on major issues related to the long-term development of scenic spots. When communicating with the bosses of some small and medium-sized scenic spots, especially private scenic spots, I found that they can often tell exactly how many tourists came to the scenic spot on a specific day. They are very concerned about which saplings in the scenic spot should be watered and which weeds on the roadside should be removed. However, if you ask him what is the core selling point of the scenic spot? What does the scenic spot plan to develop into in three to five years? It is difficult for him to answer.

In fact, regardless of the size of the scenic spot, we must make clear two goals: one is the short-term business goal, and the other is the long-term vision goal. Business goals are based on the present, so they must have market feasibility. It must "reflect growth". Once an enterprise stops growing, it will soon face a business crisis; Vision and goals should look to the future and conform to the direction of industrial development. It is not a simple slogan, but a blueprint with strategic foresight that can be described in detail.

Defining corporate vision is particularly important for the development of small and medium-sized scenic spots. In the initial stage of any enterprise, there are problems such as small scale, tight capital and lack of talents. Because of this, employees need to have a dedication to their ideals and selfless work. Any enterprise develops step by step from small to large.

In terms of marketing strategy, in order to achieve performance growth, small and medium-sized scenic spots must first find the correct market positioning. What is positioning? According to philip kotler's explanation, it is "the enterprise will communicate the product characteristics developed for the target market segment to consumers through communication".

How can we find the right position? Simply put, it is two sentences: look at resources internally and look at the market externally. Internally, we should find out the core advantages of our scenic spot in "product characteristics" Externally, we should analyze the "demand" and "competition" of the regional market and find out the "key difference" between our own scenic spot and other scenic spots. Then, we must accurately convey this core advantage and key difference to consumers.

There are three common misunderstandings in the market positioning of small and medium-sized scenic spots: first, the product characteristics are not prominent; Second, the target market is not concentrated; Third, the market segmentation is not obvious. The main reasons for its positioning error are: first, investors are impetuous and blind; Second, managers lack research and pat their heads.

During the investigation of domestic scenic spots, the author found that the development and construction of some small and medium-sized scenic spots, especially private scenic spots, are not based on the actual needs of the market, but on the personal preferences of the boss. The boss likes flowers and plants, so he designed a garden himself. The boss likes to collect, so he shows off the antiques he auctioned at a high price in the scenic spot; The boss likes culture, so he just built an ancient celebrity museum.

It is not easy to readjust the market positioning of these scenic spots. Due to various mistakes in the early development and construction, these scenic spots often have major defects in the overall pattern.

However, the real difficulty is how to change the inherent thinking of the boss of the scenic spot. These small and medium-sized scenic spots, especially the bosses of private enterprises, have made brilliant achievements in other fields in the past, and even have legendary success stories and life experiences. It can be said that they have formed their own mindset to a certain extent, which is difficult to change for a while. However, we should be soberly aware that past successful experience is not only a kind of spiritual wealth, but also a kind of risk accumulation. A person's continuous success can easily lead to experience dependence, which makes us have some illusions about our own judgment and makes people become overconfident and even self-expanding. In fact, no matter how successful a person is, he may still make fatal mistakes.

Second, integrate resources and stimulate potential.

Compared with large state-owned scenic spots, small and medium-sized scenic spots lack innate resource advantages in market competition. Therefore, small and medium-sized scenic spots must integrate resources if they want to successfully achieve the established business objectives. Internally, the existing resources of scenic spots should be re-recognized, effectively organized and rationally allocated; Externally, it is necessary to study the internal relationship between scenic spots and other surrounding resources and related supporting services. Generally speaking, landscape resources can be divided into two types: one is tangible resources; The second is intangible resources. Tangible resources include landscape architecture, historical sites, human resources and monetary capital. Intangible resources include space and time, knowledge and experience, brand value and organizational ability of scenic spots.

There are two main ways to integrate the tangible resources of scenic spots: one is to seize the key tangible resources, such as an important scenic spot in the scenic spot, and optimize them to form a core scenic spot with core attraction to the market; The second is to dig deep into the potential resource value of scenic spots, carry out cultural innovation and turn it into tangible products.

In this regard, the successful experience of Wuxi Lingshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area is worth learning. Through the value refining and cultural innovation of religious resources, the scenic spot takes the religious story of "Tathagata was born" as the soul and the external image of "Jiulong Irrigation Bath" as the carrier, and skillfully combines religious and cultural resources, scenic spot product construction and modern science and technology application to make the scenic spot glow with new vitality.

There are two main ways to integrate the intangible resources of scenic spots: one is to develop organizational ability. The all-round development of organizational ability is the key for enterprises to obtain profits and maintain competitive advantage; The second is to stimulate personal potential. The most precious spiritual wealth of an enterprise, such as the accumulation of experience and knowledge, is often deposited in personal ability.

For example, the experience and knowledge of the old leaders and employees who initially participated in the venture in scenic spots are intangible resources that enterprises should attach great importance to and make good use of. Most of these old leaders and employees have deep special feelings for the career they once participated in. They have accumulated a lot of valuable experience and network resources in long-term market practice. Moreover, they have a keen sense and profound understanding of the key details in the operation and management of scenic spots, the complex relationship of the scenic spot market and the potential internal and external crises of scenic spots. Later generations should fully mobilize the enthusiasm of these old employees and give full play to the special role of these old leaders after actually mastering the right to operate scenic spots. This is especially true when the scenic spot is facing serious difficulties. For example, Mr. Han Jiankang, one of the original entrepreneurs in Zhouzhuang Scenic Area, plays a very important role in the process of successfully surviving the market crisis caused by the price increase storm and re-entering a new development path.

When integrating the tangible and intangible resources of scenic spots, we should pay attention to one thing: the tangible and intangible resources of scenic spots are not separated from each other. In fact, even physical resources such as natural landscapes and artificial buildings have two sides. On the one hand, the natural landscape and artificial buildings in scenic spots are tangible in physical form; On the other hand, the spiritual bearing given by the geographical and humanistic environment of the scenic spot is intangible. Therefore, when integrating resources, small and medium-sized scenic spots should not only pay attention to visible tangible resources, but also dig deep into intangible resources hidden behind tangible resources.

In this regard, there are many famous successful cases in China, which are worth learning and learning from small and medium-sized scenic spots. For example, the night show "Tibetan King Banquet Dance" in Jiuzhaigou is a deep excavation of Tibetan and Qiang minority cultures in Jiuzhaigou area. It should be said that the actual investment in the program is not large, but the ticket price is as high as 180 yuan, which is close to the ticket price of 220 yuan in Jiuzhaigou scenic spot, and the input-output ratio is very high. Another successful case is the large-scale landscape performance Impression of Third Sister Liu in Yangshuo, Guilin. Through the integration of natural landscape, cultural legends and celebrities, it not only enriches the night tourism projects, but also expands the brand tension of Yangshuo urban tourism with points and areas, and has achieved great market effects.

Third, continuously improve and innovate products.

Product innovation is an unavoidable practical problem for small and medium-sized scenic spots to improve their performance quickly in a short time. According to my investigation in domestic scenic spots, most of the small and medium-sized scenic spots with difficulties in operation have some shortcomings in product form, which affects the tourist experience and brings difficulties to scenic spot marketing. But if we want to carry out product innovation in these scenic spots, we will encounter a big problem: once the scenic spots are established, the basic framework is difficult to change. How can we effectively solve this problem? The key is to re-understand the basic concept of product innovation in scenic spots.

In fact, product innovation in scenic spots does not mean that everything is reinvented, nor does it mean deliberately pursuing novelty. "Moderate improvement" is innovation, and "continuous improvement" is also innovation. After the preliminary construction of the scenic spot is completed, although the overall pattern has been difficult to change, it is both necessary and entirely possible to realize the local innovation of the scenic spot products through moderate improvement and continuous improvement.

Let me give you an example here. The author was invited to visit a national scenic spot in Fujian Province. The market situation of this scenic spot has been tepid for many years. Despite a lot of efforts, there has not been much improvement. So, what problems does it have in product form? There are three main points: first, the first impression of the scenic spot is not good. After entering the gate of the scenic spot, I began to climb the mountain all the way. There are bushes on both sides of the mountain road, and there is neither landscape nor vision. The nearly one-hour mountaineering process has almost no fun except hard work; Second, the road design is very unsafe. The only way for tourists to go up and down the mountain is steep and narrow, and only two people can pass sideways. Moreover, there are no fences on many sections of the mountain, which is very dangerous. In this way, when the peak season comes, it will be impossible to receive large-scale tourists entering the mountains; Third, the landscape layout is unreasonable. At the top of the mountain, there is either no sightseeing platform or a pavilion with poor quality. What's more, the box office of the scenic spot is actually located halfway up the mountain, without considering the needs and feelings of tourists.

How to carry out product innovation in such a scenic spot? When I finished the whole journey of the scenic spot, I found that the natural resources in the scenic spot were actually very superior. Standing on the top of the mountain, Fiona Fang has dozens of square kilometers of Danxia landform, which is strange and spectacular. On the other side of the mountain, the lake is clear and turns around the mountain. Sitting on the boat, tourists can enjoy the flight of egrets on the lake leisurely, which can be described as extremely comfortable. It should be said that this scenic spot has been rated as a national scenic spot, which is by no means a hollow reputation. If you make some appropriate adjustments to the layout of the scenic spot, such as simply changing the gate of the scenic spot to the other side of the mountain, and making a reverse design of the original tourist route, let tourists enter the scenic spot by boat from the lake, first enjoy the Danxia scenery connected by mountains and rivers, and then start hiking; Redesign and build a viewing platform with both sightseeing and leisure functions in the peak scenic area, equipped with necessary leisure service facilities; If the original narrow uphill and downhill road is changed into a one-way street, the safety problem of the mountain road is solved, and it is conceivable that the tourist experience and environmental feeling in the scenic spot will be fundamentally changed. However, the actual cost of scenic spot reconstruction is not much.

Therefore, small and medium-sized scenic spots still have great potential in product innovation. The continuous improvement of scenic products, in the final analysis, lies not in the size of investment, but in meeting the demand. The basic principle should be to enrich tourists' experience, improve tourists' comfort and satisfaction, and embody humanized design.

Fourth, seize the contact and improve the service.

Another effective way for small and medium-sized scenic spots to seek performance growth is to seize contacts and improve services. The so-called "contact" refers to the key details that can affect the customer experience and purchase decision in the process of enterprise operation.

For example, Ctrip mode, its main business is hotel reservation and air ticket reservation, mainly through the call center. This means that the most important direct contact between Ctrip and customers is to answer the phone first. Then, answering the phone is a contact. It is also a key detail in all service links of Ctrip. For small and medium-sized scenic spots, according to the characteristics of scenic spots and business types, such key details may be door-to-door inspection at the box office, customer service catering, or equipment rental. For example, the professional ski rental service in ski resorts is a key detail.

The importance of contact service is often overlooked. In fact, grasping key service details can not only improve tourists' satisfaction, but also directly promote sales growth and stimulate tourists to increase consumption. For example, when tourists pay for tickets, if the conductor can actively and friendly recommend a scenic package or an amusement project in the park, it may change the purchase decision-making behavior of tourists in an instant.

Let me give you an example. A few years ago, when I was working in the Wuxi Film and Television Base of CCTV, I once met one thing. It was during the May Day Golden Week that hundreds of tickets for the three cities in the scenic spot, which had long been difficult to sell, were suddenly sold. After careful investigation, it turned out that the marketing manager of Wuxi District took the initiative to recommend tourists when he helped the ticket office staff to sell tickets in Tang Cheng. Therefore, we immediately conducted a special study on this, and quickly formed a standardized service standard, clearly requiring the ticket office staff to actively recommend the three-city joint ticket every time they sell tickets, so that tourists can have one more purchase option. With such a small measure,13,380 tickets were sold in seven months by the end of the year, which increased the ticket income of10 million yuan. On the other hand, if we ignore the service details, it will easily cause tourists' dissatisfaction and even form a bad reputation. For example, when tourists enter the park, if the ticket inspector is blunt when checking tickets, or moves too much when measuring the height of children with half tickets, it is likely to cause strong resentment among tourists, lead to disputes between tourists and scenic spot staff, and even lead tourists to leave angrily, thus causing double losses to the brand and interests of scenic spots.

To do a good job in the contact service of scenic spots, managers must decompose all links of scenic spot service one by one and find out the most potential key details. On this basis, it is necessary to re-formulate and constantly improve relevant service specifications and standards. At the same time, managers of scenic spots should further study tourists' consumption process and psychology of scenic products.

We should fully realize that tourists' desire for products and services in scenic spots is not only related to the quality of products in scenic spots, but also related to the specific experience of tourists in scenic spots. In fact, it is often small things that cause tourists' strong dissatisfaction, such as a face of the service staff or an action. Dissatisfaction with tourists should be eliminated at the first time. Otherwise, dissatisfaction will spread rapidly, which will directly affect the mood experience and actual consumption of tourists in the scenic spot.

A thought-provoking problem is that many scenic spots in China prefer to spend millions of dollars on advertising every year to promote their brands and markets. For tourists who take the initiative to come to the door, they are unwilling to provide even the simplest and most basic humanized details service. Don't you know that tourists are more willing to believe what they have seen and experienced with their own eyes than the huge advertisements in scenic spots? A tourist's cognitive evaluation of a scenic spot may sometimes be subjective and arbitrary, but it is difficult for us to change his view. Because people's cognitive judgment on things first comes from their own experience.

Five, simplify the process, dynamic management

One of the problems to be solved in the internal management of small and medium-sized scenic spots is to simplify the process.

When I was in domestic tourist attractions, I found a common management phenomenon: many scenic spots are not large in scale, but the booths are not small. A small scenic spot with an annual income of only a few million yuan may have only three or four or even one or two marketers directly facing the market, but the leading group is a sparrow, although small and complete, with a lot of management cadres and logistics personnel. This phenomenon is very unfavorable to the market development of scenic spots. There are three main disadvantages: first, the management cost rises; Second, the workflow is complex; Third, the market-oriented rapid response ability of scenic spots has declined.

Why does this management phenomenon occur in small and medium-sized scenic spots? According to my personal observation and thinking, one of the more important reasons is related to the good motivation of the owner of the scenic spot to pursue "standardized management" and hope to improve the management performance of the scenic spot.

It should be said that there is nothing wrong with the gradual standardization of the management of small and medium-sized scenic spots. However, it should be noted that management standardization cannot become "management complexity".

In fact, the reason why we need management standardization is precisely to make the complex process of dealing with various market problems simple through the reasonable design of workflow, not the other way around. However, if there are too many management departments and personnel in scenic spots, it will inevitably lead to complicated workflow, thus reducing efficiency. In this way, it is difficult for us to respond positively to customers' opinions and requirements quickly and timely, thus affecting customer satisfaction.

There is also a serious market hazard caused by too many management departments, that is, front-line marketers will have to face the passive situation of multi-head management, be tired of meeting various requirements of different departments, and have no time to take care of customer needs in the enterprise market.

And if the managers are redundant, it may also lead to power struggle within the enterprise. It is human nature to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. In order to prove their existence value, various departments often try their best to expand their functions. In order to fully reflect their work achievements, managers often intentionally or unintentionally make the originally simple things extremely complicated.

When I was doing marketing training in a scenic spot in China, I once saw a marketing performance appraisal form made by the personnel department of a scenic spot. The evaluation criteria range from president satisfaction, general manager satisfaction, department leader satisfaction, related department satisfaction, channel satisfaction to customer satisfaction, and the content is as much as 19. Faced with such a performance appraisal system, front-line marketers are definitely at a loss.

So, how should small and medium-sized scenic spots simplify the workflow? The key is to master two basic principles: First, the fewer management levels, the more reasonable. Second, the fewer turnover links, the more reasonable. We must use six words to design the workflow: convenient, fast and simple.

In the internal management of small and medium-sized scenic spots, we should also prevent another tendency, that is, "management orientation." Management standardization is essentially a static phenomenon of management caused by division of labor, which usually appears in the process of small and medium-sized scenic spots gradually developing into large-scale scenic spots after continuous market expansion. Its performance characteristics are: on the surface, the division of labor within the enterprise is clear, but in fact it is a mess. Everyone only cares about their own business, and no one really cares about customers and markets.

To properly solve this problem, the key lies in the basic management mode of scenic spots and the implementation of "dynamic management". The key points of its management are: first, let all departments and personnel in the enterprise look from the inside out and always pay attention to the customer needs of the enterprise market, instead of just caring about the specific affairs of themselves and their own departments; Second, the organizational structure of scenic spots should be as flat as possible to prevent the phenomenon of decreasing signal levels due to overlapping institutions and excessive internal levels of enterprises; Third, leaders should be flexible in their management. By controlling the key nodes, the organizational system can still maintain its rapid response ability in the process of scale expansion.

Six, the introduction of external forces, catalytic change

With the change of tourism market demand and the intensification of competition in scenic spots, small and medium-sized scenic spots, especially some old scenic spots with a long history of enterprises, have begun to face the adjustment and reform of enterprise organization and talent structure. It should be said that it is a difficult, complicated and long-term process to realize the innovation and transformation of enterprise organizations in old scenic spots. Over the years, the management system of many scenic spots in China has not been straightened out, which has seriously hindered the market development of enterprises. However, due to various problems left over from history, some state-owned enterprises in old scenic spots have too many redundant employees and their internal relations are intertwined. Although the performance of scenic spots is declining year by year, or even dying, it is difficult to automatically generate the power to promote enterprise change from within the enterprise.

To change the management of these old scenic spots, external forces must be introduced. Breaking the balance through external forces will "creatively destroy" the original organizational structure and power system of enterprises. Whether this can be done depends on the core decision makers of the enterprise.

I have seen in China that there are usually three situations in the management reform of small and medium-sized scenic spots, especially state-owned old scenic spots. First, the local government set up a scenic spot management Committee and appointed the leader of the higher authorities as the director of the management Committee to directly intervene in the management of scenic spots; Second, entrust units or individuals to contract operations; The third is to introduce investors to cooperate in development or lease operation. Judging from the current operation situation, it is difficult to draw a conclusion about the actual market effect of these three commercial forms because of the different specific conditions of scenic spots. But no matter which form is adopted, there is an unavoidable problem, that is, foreign talents must be introduced to participate in the management of scenic spots. How to use these talents correctly and give full play to their due role is a problem worthy of serious consideration by the leaders of scenic spots.

The foreign talents introduced into the scenic spot, whether airborne professional managers or directly imported professional technicians, usually encounter two major problems once they enter the scenic spot: first, how to coordinate their values with the original cultural atmosphere of the enterprise; The second is how to overcome the huge resistance of the original power system in implementation.

If these two problems are not handled well, it is easy to cause irreconcilable contradictions and conflicts within the enterprise. As a result, either professional managers feel that their heroes are useless and quit the enterprise stage; Either the original cadres and workers of the enterprise feel that they are facing a crisis of survival and have serious psychological and behavioral resistance.

How can we properly handle this problem? The key is to have an accurate and clear overall understanding of the enterprise reform of scenic spots:

First, it is necessary to realize that in order to realize innovation and change, scenic spots must first break the original power system and carry out "power redistribution" of enterprise organizations;

Second, enterprise reform does not mean ending employees' jobs. On the contrary, it can optimize the working conditions of employees and improve their salary. Moreover, truly successful enterprises will always give employees opportunities for development;

Third, a healthy and dynamic enterprise organization must be highly inclusive. It allows and encourages diverse thinking and multicultural existence of different employees;

Fourth, the gap between people often lies in the lack of communication. Therefore, there should be an exchange platform in the scenic spot to facilitate everyone to communicate and learn from each other;

Fifth, as the leader of the scenic spot, we should strive to create a relaxed and inclusive corporate culture atmosphere.

The above five aspects are my marketing thoughts on the current management status and market reality of small and medium-sized scenic spots in China. It should be noted that the marketing problems involved in this paper exist in domestic scenic spots to varying degrees. Among them, some problems need to be completely solved, which is not a one-off event and requires a long process. However, as long as we are brave enough to face these difficulties and problems, work hard from now on and constantly improve the marketing management level of scenic spots, I believe it is entirely possible for small and medium-sized scenic spots to greatly improve their performance in a relatively short time.

Source: Tourism Festival Marketing Wisdom

Editor of this issue: Ma Square Wave

Editor in charge: Zhou Jing

Comments: Fan