NITB Visitor Servicing Manual
NITB Visitor Servicing Manual
The PDF document has all of the information.
Introduction
Background
TTC International and its partners ASW Consulting and g2design, were commissioned to prepare a Visitor Servicing Strategy for Northern Ireland. This is in line with NITB’s commitment in its Corporate Plan 2002 -2005 to improve visitor satisfaction ‘through enhancing product/customer service knowledge amongst providers, information / booking services and the Tourist Information Centre (TIC) Network.
In addition to this commitment NITB’s Tourism Strategy 2003-2008 stresses the need for a Welcome and for good visitor servicing in all aspects of tourism.
This Visitor Servicing Strategy forms part of the overall Tourism Strategy and is intended to be used as a blueprint for the future – for the many aspects of visitor management and contact that are addressed in this report.
The production of this Manual follows on from a detailed analytical report on all the aspects of Visitor Servicing that form the detail of this document.
As competition in tourism increases year on year, the quality of the visitor’s experience becomes of increasing importance. Changes in technology and the decline of the travel agent together lead to a climate where previous experience and word of mouth recommendation can be key features of the decision to visit.
Satisfaction with a holiday or short break can depend on a variety of factors but a destination can help itself through taking control of those things that can be influenced or managed so that the visitor’s satisfaction is maximised.
The manual is laid out as follows:
• General Principles of Visitor Servicing
• Getting the Basics Right
• General Tourism Signage
• Tourist Information Centres
• Points of Entry
• Urban Areas
• Routes & Trails
• Areas of Environmental Sensitivity
• Literature
• Monitoring Tools
General Principles
Overview
The basic tenet of tourist or visitor servicing is to provide a standard of and series of services to the visitor which will:
• Meet or exceed his/her expectations in relation to the necessities of an enjoyable visit;
• Meet or exceed his/her expectations in relation to the availability and standard of information that is essential to a successful visit;
• Meet or exceed his/her expectations in relation to the delivery of the product on the ground being as promoted or advertised;
• Encourage the visitor to return personally or to encourage others to visit.
This Manual sets out a series of recommendations, checklists and pointers to best practise which should ensure, if applied consistently, that these expectations can be met.
Applicability
This Manual is principally aimed at those providing visitor services – that is facilities and personal services which may be supplied by those in the transport sector, in local authorities, community groups, and the broad public sector of government and in some cases private sector operators. These will normally be linked to transport, attractions and some provision of information services.
The Manual does not cover the territory of accommodation providers and their standards or food and beverage overall. These areas are of course critical to the success of visitor expectations but they are not the aim of this manual. Neither does the manual address the question of staff training except in its broadest applicability. This is an immensely important issue but is not for this manual. Suffice it to say that well trained, well motivated, skilled and enthusiastic staff is the foundation of successful visitor servicing all over the world.
Getting the Basics Right
Before addressing in detail the specific elements of the manual that are set out Chapter by Chapter there are a number of basic issues that deserve to be spelt out simply and frankly. They are not sophisticated and do not need any great insight into tourism strategy for their identification. Nevertheless the rest of the manual counts for little if these ‘basics’ are wrong.