Pauline Etienne
5 Octobre 2004
Port Louis — Eric Adams is a consultant for Tourism Intelligence International. Tomorrow, he will be presenting a proposal for the development of a Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) strategy for Mauritius to the minister of Tourism.
You are a consultant for a German-based firm called Tourism Intelligence International (TII). What exactly does your work consist of?
Our name is very indicative of what we do. The principal owner of TII, Dr Ahuina Poon, is a tourism specialist. We are tourism specialists who believe that information is a natural prerequisite for making decisions. Consultancies have two approaches. Some are commissioned while others take it upon themselves to discern trends. We are among the latter, which allows us to be objective as we have no one to satisfy.
One of the deficiencies of tourism providers is that they usually concentrate on the provision side of things. Not enough is done on the demand aspect. For example, a few years ago, we embarked on an ambitious project to analyse and assess the demographics and psychographics of the four principal outbound markets: Germany, UK, USA and Japan. We were able to determine who the customers are so that hotels or governments can market their products accordingly.
We also did a post-11 September study that showed that the industry would recover within nine months of the disaster. It proved accurate as did our forecast that recovery would be slower in the US. The British were the first to resume travelling.
Our most recent work was a report entitled "Successful Tourism Destinations". France, Ireland, Australia, Barbados, Costa Rica, Jamaica, South Africa, Singapore, Dubai, Thailand and Mauritius were singled out. We discovered that 25 factors are responsible for their success, such as good governance, safety and security, having a recognizable identity and a national carrier.
What are you doing in Mauritius?
I was invited by the manager of Tropical Haven Conferences Ltd, Valérie Charoux, to present a proposal for the development of a Meetings Incentives Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) strategy for Mauritius. Tomorrow I will be making a presentation to the minister of Tourism. Countries like Singapore, South Africa and Australia, who, potentially, are the main competitors of Mauritius, are very serious about promoting the MICE market. They have gone beyond traditional tourism.
Why is that?
The consumer is changing and that is a lesson Mauritius must learn. Successful destinations must constantly recreate themselves to suit the customer's needs. If you are a high quality destination with declining arrivals you should not try to attract a lower class market. You need to find another value-added item and MICE is ideal. What we are proposing is for Mauritius to keep the high quality aspect while focusing on different markets.
What is the global outlook for tourism?
Extremely positive. We have survived the South East Asian financial crisis, the dot.com crisis, the 11th September and SARS, although oil prices will continue to have an adverse effect. When the Chinese start travelling, there won't be enough rooms in any destination to cater for them. That is both a promising and frightening prospect. Space travel is the next big thing with Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic hoping to have tourists in space by 2007. The global economy will continue to dictate travel and tourism. Regionally, the Middle East, Africa and Asia are very promising in terms of growth.
What have the most noticeable trends in tourism been?
There continues to be two broad trends: changing consumer demographics and tastes and technology. These will continue to affect the way people travel. Terrorism briefly caused a preference for short-haul travel over long-haul travel. On the long-haul side, certain airlines, such as Emirates and Singapore Airlines, are ordering jet planes that will have longer flying times for direct flights from the US to Dubai and Singapore. Low-cost carriers, like Ryanair and EasyJet, will continue to flourish. Cruise travel has outstripped air travel in terms of growth but many destinations don't really want to attract that kind of tourism as there's not much revenue involved.
Customers now want experiences, not just to come to a nice hotel and stay in a room. Hotels will have to stage experiences so that their clients can enjoy the fauna and flora and participate in cultural activities. The private and public sectors will have to reach out to the community to stage experiences for tourists.
Mauritius is building a string of new hotels in the South. Is this the right strategy or is it better to consolidate what we already have?
Every destination has to find its unique selling point, find the target market and market the product accordingly. Usually, if you have a high-value product, volume should not be an objective. You must also be sure to preserve your environment and, by definition, volume degrades the environment. Everything you do must be informed by strategy and strategy must be informed by intelligence.
Air access has been a subject of some controversy here with the government proving rather reluctant to open Mauritian skies. How important is air access policy?
Air access policy is extremely important as you have to get customers over here. Open skies are not necessarily a pre-requisite for success, though. You may not want to attract more customers but more money.
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