The growth and diversification of global tourism offers exciting opportunities for destinations and tourism businesses. It creates jobs both in developed destinations and in developing countries, where it can be one of the leading sources of employment.
This potential also creates a highly competitive marketplace making it increasingly difficult to stand out. Whether you manage a destination, operate a global tourism business or a community-led micro business, identifying what is special about your tourism offer and planning how you can create an experience that provides your customers with a memorable experience can be a challenge.
To help you to become sustainable and competitive, Acorn Tourism’s long-standing experience working with destinations across five continents enables us to bring an outside perspective to your product or destination. We can help you to create innovative products, services or experiences in the following ways:
Identify Your Audience and Differentiate Your Offer
We start by assessing your destination or tourism product and your current visitors. Using market segmentation, our niche market expertise and competitor analysis we will identify the market segments that will be most excited by your product. We can provide the insights, market profiles and buyer personas that help you to develop services and experiences that exceed your customers' expectations.
Options Appraisals, Feasibility Studies and Business Plans
Whether you are developing a new visitor centre or a resort, looking for a new use for an historic building or industrial site, or creating new visitor experiences for niche audiences, you need to know whether your idea is viable or whether there are other options you could consider. We can help you identify a feasible option and develop it into a detailed business plan.
We work alongside our clients to deliver options appraisals and feasibility studies for a wide range of urban, rural, green and brown field sites and protected landscapes. We can provide detailed business planning for attractions and mixed-use sites, education and visitor centres, museums and heritage buildings, industrial sites and property portfolios. We also work with all types of accommodation providers to deliver planning needs assessments or business plans for hotels, resorts, glamping or community-based homestays.
Creating Visitor Experiences
The growth of digital marketing platforms has created the opportunity for innovative entrepreneurs to reach the international marketplace with minimal marketing budgets. However, creating an engaging experience that will sell and, most importantly generate good reviews, involves having an in-depth understanding of the needs and expectations of your potential clients, combined with the customer service skills to deliver the experience.
Since 2007, Acorn Tourism has been closely involved in shaping community-led experiences. This has included developing the first national Indian network of homestays and creating home hosting culinary tourism experiences in Ireland and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. We have also worked with local community groups and tourism administrations to develop cultural, culinary and nautical tourism experiences in destinations across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, Central and South America.
Capacity Building and Training
Delivering a memorable visitor experience requires a skilled workforce. We will work with your team to build local capacity, whether it is for government agencies, tourism businesses or local communities. Our approach is always to share and transfer our knowledge and strengthen local skills. We also deliver more formal training courses using our in-house expertise and our network of trainers.
