Market Research in the Boat Tourism Segment

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a need for better tourism information on a portable media like a PDA or mobile phone. The market segment addressed in this market research was boat tourists in the Baltic Sea Region. Two parallel surveys were carried out; a quantitative survey with a sample of 665 respondents and a qualitative survey with 30 respondents. The results indicates that boat tourists have a complex information search process. The boat tourists in this region would like to see a lot of improvements on the information they retrieve, especially in relation to weather, vacancy in harbour, harbour facilities, digital 3 dimensional vizualisation of harbour entry and leisure shopping/land based activities. Almost half of the respondents would like to receive the information they need on a mobile device. To a great extend, improvements on the information and distribution side will also influence the decision process in terms of which harbours they will visit and how long they will stay in the harbours. The great desire for improved information services indicates a market potential for content providers in the tourism segment. In this respect, the author addresses the importance of the Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) in this paper. The market research is carried out by the EC funded project “TellMaris”. The project will over a 2,5 year period develop services based on the user needs, using mobile terminals and an existing Destination Management System (DMS) as ambient intelligence environments. The scientific objective is to develop new data structures for representing interactive 3D maps on mobile terminals, combined with mobile location services. INTRODUCTION Travel related services are among the most used services on Internet. As tourists are becoming more experienced, they increase their requirement for updated and quality approved information in a media they prefer, when they want it, and where they need it. To meet the user requirements, the content providers are becoming more critical in the value chain. Secondly, user requirements seen in the light of the development on mobile devices, make it possible to increase the ways of distributing the data for tourists on the move. Looking at a specific market segment, boat tourists have a complex information search process. The rapid technology development and deployment in boats and the necessary electronic equipment, has made it possible to travel longer distances, with the result of a greater and more complex data collection, especially in a region like the Baltic Sea with a variety of countries and cultures. Improved information systems will reduce the number of barriers and hassles of crossing boarders and visiting other cultures. In addition, flexible access to tourism information for everybody, from anywhere at anytime will improve the satisfaction and enjoyment of travelling. For boat tourists especially, improved information services combined with Mobile Location Service (MLS) will also improve the safety on travelling at sea. There is today, however, very little knowledge of this market segment and their specific information needs. TellMaris, a RTD project addressing the IST programme and key Action 1 – Systems and services for the citizen within the European Union’s fifth RTD Framework programme, have therefore carried out market research on two levels in order to increase the knowledge of this user group. TellMaris will focus on tourists and citizens on the move, and their need for tailor made tourism information using mobile terminals and an existing Destination Management System (DMS) as ambient intelligence environments. The scientific objective is to develop new data structures for representing interactive 3D maps on mobile terminals, combined with mobile location services. The end user objective, using boat tourists in the Baltic Sea Region as a case, is to improve the quality and the easiness of getting land based tourism information. The results from the market research will influence the R&D work in TellMaris and the two prototypes being developed. The following key issues are important for the user perspective in TellMaris: • Provide only the information relevant to the users. • Give the users more effective means of accessing the information base and retrieve the information they want. • Give the users more effective means to specify and formulate a query that reflects the users information needs. • Give the user better tools for locating specific information. • Help the user in orienting his/her position in geographical space. • The information must be available anywhere and anytime optimised for the computer device available. TellMaris started 1 June 2001 and will run until December 2003. The project has six principal contractors (Sintef, Nokia, Helsinki University of Technology, Tellus IT, Pouliadis Associates Corporation and Fraunhofer Institute for computer graphics) and seven assistant contractors (destinations in the Baltic Sea and Skagerak Region). RESEARCH METHODS The market research in the boat tourism segment in this project is divided into two parts. The first level is a market survey aiming to provide the project with a better understanding of the characteristics of boat tourists, their information search process and media they use. The second level aims to get feedback on the user friendliness and perceived value of the prototype developed in TellMaris. The services to be developed for the boat tourists in the prototype is strongly connected to the results in the market survey. The first phase in the market research was carried out in the period JuneSeptember 2001. The survey was divided into an on site survey using a closed questionnaire, and a qualitative methodology using in depth interviews. The population for the survey was boat tourists in the Baltic Sea and Skagerak Region. From the population we made a random sample of boat tourists in ten harbours in this region. The respondents were the persons on board that had done most of the planning and information retrieval for the trip. The sample size was 665 respondents for the quantitative survey and 30 in depth interviews. The research objectives for both surveys were to: • get a better understanding of the boat tourists as a market segment • get improved knowledge of information needs on three planning stages: At home, on the way and at the destination • get improved knowledge of the factors that influence their choice of destination when planning at home and on the way • get improved knowledge on which information they require and preferred distribution. The closed questionnaires were handed out at the destinations participating in the project and they were filled in by the tourists themselves. The in depth interviews were based on the same questionnaire. In addition, the respondents were shown a PowerPoint presentation on a Compaq Ipaq, simulating a prototype of the TellMaris product, combining tourism information with mobile location services and maps (2 dimentional). FINDINGS 84% of the respondents were men, mainly coming from Norway (38%) and Germany (30%). The typical respondent works in the private sector (46%) and he has a degree from a University/College (56%). He uses his own boat (87%), which is a sailboat (72%) with the average size of 33 feet. He travels with friends (73%), and 3 persons is a typical group size. The average boat tourist in this region does not travel with kids. The average trip lasts for 21 days, visiting in average 11 harbors. The length of stay in each harbor is short, only 1,8 nights in average. As many as 24% of the respondents use digital sea maps. Most of the boats have a combination of technical equipment on board in order to receive information. 89% have a radio, 71% use GPS and mobile phone, and surprisingly, as many as 18% have a PC with Internet access in the boat. A boat trip lasting 3 weeks in average requires a lot of planning. In average, the boat tourists planned their trip 9 weeks in advance. The main reasons for choosing this travel route were: Attractive shore (56%), been here before (45%) and attractive destinations/harbours (37%). The main sources of information for planning this trip were: Recommendations (92%), harbour books (56%) and sailing magazines (43%). Only 14% used Internet as a information channel for planning the trip. An even smaller proportion used Internet as information channel when they chose the harbour they where in when they filled in the questionnaire. The main reasons for visiting that specific harbour were: Good harbour facilities (71%), land based activities (46%) and coincident (37%). As shown in figure 1, the most common land based activity among the boat tourists is shopping (71%). 67% visit restaurants and bars on their trip and 43% visited attractions. Figure 1 Land based activities the boat tourists participated in on the trip When the boat tourists were asked to state what influences them to change the planned travel route, 95% of the respondents said that weather circumstances influence them to change route. 36% of the boat tourists change route when there is no vacancy in the planned harbour. Recommendations from other boat tourists influence every third to change route (34%). 17% of the respondents replied that information on interesting activities made them change the route. The boat tourists were asked what they would like to be improved on the information and distribution side with relevance to the boat trip and the services and activities they preferred. 68% would like to have better information about the weather, 54% wanted better information about vacancy in the harbour, 40% wanted better information about harbour facilities and 28% wanted better information about land based activities. 71.4 67.3