Destination Benchmarking: expensive luxury or essential

1
Destination Benchmarking expensive luxury or
essential?

• TMI Summer Hot Topic Debate
• Quality - Moments of Truth
• Birmingham - 7 June 2005

2
What is Destination Benchmarking?

• Independent face-to-face visitor research
• Standard questionnaire
• Results can be compared

3
Colchesters Commitment to Research

• Cambridge Model / Destination Residents
  Benchmarking / Accommodation Capacity / TIC
  Customer Satisfaction Research
• Part of a Performance Management Framework

4

• Benchmarking what does it tell us?

5

• Benchmarking what does it tell us?

6

• Benchmarking what does it tell us?

7

• Benchmarking benefits
• PR media releases about the results
• Internal liaison
• Improvement plans aids decisions
• Measures degree of improvement
• Confidence morale booster
• Partnership development
• Trend analysis
• Comparison with other places
• Accountability

8

• Impact of this commitment
• Spend on research 94/95 1700
• Spend on research 04/05 8175
• 380 rise !
• Budget reductions
• However
• In 96/97 external income 908,747
• In 04/05 rose by 152 to 2,292,475
• Real delivery / improvements in the visitor
  experience

9

• Real quality improvements
• 115k for new pedestrian signage
• Conservation work on Roman wall
• Redisplay of Castle Hollytrees Museums (around
  1m)
• 2 new cycle trails (6k each)
• New Shuttle Bus in Constable Country (22k)
• New Cruise Coordinator position at Harwich
  International Port (155k)
• New 16.5m visual art gallery in town centre

10

• Performance Management Framework

11
Summary

• expensive luxury
• or essential?