Integrated Pre-Visit Communication Management

Background

As the result of the increasing influence of tourism, natural and protected area management is evolving from being primarily focused around ‘onsite’ management and conservation to more broadly encompassing a greater range of holistic recreation and tourism experiences. Marketing and visitor and stakeholder communication, especially pre-visit communication, can be influential in a visitor’s decision regarding where to go and what to do. The research and design of the Integrated Pre-Visit Communication Management (IPCM) Audit provides protected area managers with the framework to both plan and implement effective pre-visit communication strategies encouraging greater visitor satisfaction as well as improved environmental protection.

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)

STCRC’s research report, Marketing of protected areas as a tool to influence visitors’ pre-visit decisions has identified the value of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC )for protected area management and promotion. In particular, the research supports adopting an IMC approach to pre-visit communication with benefits including: creating a balance between conservation messages and demand management messages, building the brand or profile of the national park and protected area agency and strengthening the relationship between national park and protected area agencies and their tourism counterparts.

Within the report IMC is identified as: bringing together all visitor and stakeholder communication activities to achieve stated communication objectives, improving the connection between the strategic planning and the tactical implementation of communication and a means to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in desired communication objectives.

Integrated Pre-Visit Communication Management (IPCM)

Integrated Pre-Visit Communication Management (IPCM) represents the interrelationship between the broader concept of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) and the pre-visit communication focus of the report. To understand the nature of pre-visit communication in national park and protected area agencies, a series of interviews designed to generate insights into marketing, visitor and stakeholder communication, and in particular pre-visit communication were undertaken with protected area managers and tourism offices.

The IPCM and the research focused on three areas of: strategy foundations, strategy development, and strategy implementation.

The interviews, in conjunction with the literature review, enabled the development of a survey instrument which contained the elements of an IPCM ‘mini audit’. The IPCM findings are evaluative in that they provide a ’snapshot’ of where national park and protected area agencies and other organisations currently stand in terms of their pre-visit communication capacity or performance. The findings also point to areas in which organisations can strengthen and improve their pre-visit capability and performance.

Research findings include:

• The overall satisfaction levels with the planning, implementation and general outcomes of pre-visit communication was somewhat low amongst respondents and that scope for improvement in this area existed.
• With regard to the strategy foundations area, development of a vision and mission to guide pre-visit communication efforts was reasonably well practiced and a relatively strong characteristic of respondents’ pre-visit communications management.
• In the area of strategy development the poorest performing component was visitor connectivity. Visitor connectivity represents how the voice of targeted visitors and tourists is heard in the organisation and helps direct development of pre-visit communication strategy and the allocation of resources to the communication mix.
• In the final area of strategy implementation, respondents indicated that they have a reasonably good level of consistency in the communication activities they undertake.
• The area of availability of resources for undertaking pre-visit communication was the poorest performing dimension overall. An expanded marketing role needs significant consideration.

The Integrated Pre-Visit Communication Audit Tool: Workbook for questionnaire and summary tables

The IPCM audit tool is formative in that it identifies areas in which an organisation can strengthen its pre-visit capability and performance. The IPCM audit can be conducted in two ways, either internally and self managed, or externally via a consultant or independent auditor. The IPCM audit tool does not focus on the results or outcomes of an organisation’s communications practices after they are implemented or among their target audiences. Instead, the audit focuses on the organisation itself, its practice and capacity to undertake effective pre-visit communication.

The aim of the audit is to determine what is working well, what is not, and what might work better if adjustments are made.

The core of the IPCM survey and audit was built around seven main themes grouped into three main strategy phases as identified below.

The Workbook outlines the procedure for collecting and analysing data for the IPCM audit and provides the individual questionnaire for completion by the audit participants. It also provides IPCM data analysis worksheets and outlines how the data is to be integrated and analysed.

The Integrated Pre-Visit Communication Audit: A User Guide

The User Guide focuses on the issues salient to developing and implementing pre-visit communications in the context of national park and protected area marketing management.

The guide draws together several distinct themes, including the understanding of visitor destination decision-making, the development of segments and the segmentation process, and importantly, the idea of Integrated Pre-visit Communication Management (IPCM).

The User Guide complements the IPCM Workbook, which is included with the audit process. The Workbook presents the items in questionnaire format and can be photocopied or printed and submitted to those who are participating in the audit. The User Guide focuses on presenting a mini-audit of pre-visit communication management which can be used by managers to understand how well they have been performing in this area and provide direction for improvement.

Conclusion

The research concludes that pre-visit communication has become an essential part of visitor demand management and managing visitor expectations of national parks and protected areas. Protected area managers and agencies are making significant steps to improve planning and implementation of pre-visit communication. The application of the IPCM will assist managers and industry to carefully construct targeted and relevant pre-visit management strategies that will encourage improved planning for management of visitors in protected areas.