Visitor Attraction Analysis: Ocean Park Hong Kong
Visitor Attraction Management
Edinburgh Napier University
School of Continuing Professional Education, CityU
29 November 2017
WINTER ISSUE
Author:
TSUI Ka Hei Gavin Sagum
ENU: 40338555 CityU SCOPE: 54024838
Word Count: 2194
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Contents
Introduction
Definition of Visitor Attraction
The offerings and the Stakeholders The Issues
Existing Rectifications Recommendations
Conclusion
Credits
Appendices
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Introduction
This report looks briefly into the history of Ocean Park Hong Kong, the “winner of the applause award 2012 of the world’s best theme park” (Mayne, 2013) and assesses it as a paid theme park attraction as well as analyses the products, resources and stakeholders of the park. Most significantly, The report will spotlight on the Park’s management as well as Visitor management issues. Relevant, feasible recommended rectifications will be proposed to address each single issue.
Definition of Visitor Attraction
Using the definition raised by VisitScotland (2014), a Visitor Attraction is defined as “a permanent excursion site granting access for three main purposes: entertainment, interest and/or education…On top of that, the public…must be able to gain access without arrangements made in prior, throughout prescribed dates annually. No more than one management shall manage that attraction” (Martinolli, M., & Bereziat, C. ,2010) Assessing Ocean Park against these terms, The Park is intended to remain on the same site forever. The primary purpose—“Edutaining” and inspiring visitors about the marine ecosystem and nature fulfils all three important criteria raised by that definition. Everyone, tourists or locals can buy on-site general one-time admission tickets or apply for annual passes of three distinct tiers without making prior arrangements throughout any given time annually (with exceptions). From these characteristics it is evident that Ocean Park Hong Kong fits this definition perfectly.
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The offerings and the Stakeholders
Ocean Park offers a variety of resources accompanied by a wide range of products that package them. In the context of visitor attractions, as advocated by Navarro(2015), are the “symbolic representations, the building blocks that define the visitor attraction as a whole” (Navarro, 2015) Products, on the other hand, compliment the core resources of the attraction. For the case of Ocean Park, Dolphin and Seal aquariums are one of the core resources that define Ocean Park as an Oceanarium. At designated feeding times visitors can even purchase a ration of feeding fish to feed the seals by themselves. The feeding service is one of the products that packages the said resource that enhances the visitor experience. The other core resources of the Park extends to all amusement rides defining the other role as an amusement park, The grand aquarium, Panda conservatories, Aviaries, Penguin and Polar bear conservatories as well as The Main Lagoon.
Some products offered on site include Fastrak, an optional service allowing guests to pay more for one expedited access to each of certain popular rides or attractions within the park, Animal Encounters where guests can interact with animals at closer distances for an extra fee and the nightly show of “Symbio”. In addition, Visitors with toddlers, as well as the less able-bodied are offered a stroller/wheelchair rental service for their convenience. All these products mentioned “package” the resources aforementioned respectively and make the overall Ocean Park experience truly enjoyable. During Christmas, Ocean Park hosted the event “Christmas sensation” where guests can access a part of the park for free and enjoy the festive atmosphere. This product is on scale 4 of the Visitor Attraction continuum (Weidenfeld & Leask, 2013) for being an temporary event within a permanent attraction.
There are a number of stakeholders behind Ocean Park. While local residents and tourists make up the majority, there are also smaller markets of thrill-seekers after those amusement rides as well as marine life enthusiasts, ecologists or environmentalists who are keen on ecosystem conservation. Another crucial stakeholder of the park is the Chinese Central Government as it has “donated certain animals like An An & Jia Jia, two of the pandas to Ocean Park in 1999” (Mok, 2016) and in recent years, golden monkeys.
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The Issues
The most problematic general management issue of Ocean Park is the placement and number of access points. The main entrance is the only way visitors can get in or out of the park. There was a second access point located in Tai Shue Wan, the summit section of Ocean Park but was closed for Park redevelopment. Under this arrangement visitors desiring to access attractions located in Adventure Land like the Raging River and Mine Train will have to travel all the way up to the Summit and from there, they can either take a long downhill walk from the Flying Eagle or descend a few long flights of Tai Shue Wan Escalators. The arising issue is imbalanced capacity—While the other zones of the park are filled with guests, the whole Adventure Land zone is deserted since, after the removal of the Tai Shue Wan access point, the zone became the innermost part of the Ocean Park.
Deserted attractions is the consequence of imbalanced capacity—Visitors who do not have much time on their hands and/or not very able-bodied may opt not to visit the two aforementioned rides. From the perspective of Supply and Demand, viewing Adventure Land as an independent zone, there is an inadequate level of demand yet there is excess supply of thrill rides. But Ocean Park is not able to “stockpile” or transfer them to other areas of the park. Barlow (1999) argues that “supply and demand directly affects the capacity of the visitor attraction” (Barlow, 1999).
Another interrelated management issue is overcrowding at certain popular attractions with wait times of more than 30 minutes. Long queues are detrimental to the satisfaction of guests, as advocated by Barlow (1999), “Customer satisfaction is the difference between Customer perception and Customer expectation” (Barlow, 1999). In the case of Ocean Park, guests expect to be able to access and enjoy the attraction as soon as possible, yet the long queues form an indirect barrier which dissuades them. Psychologically, visitors might feel “rejected” from the attraction and thus, perception levels will drop, causing dissatisfaction. Barlow further claims that “vacant time often feels longer than occupied time” (Barlow, 2004). When visitors are forced to wait in a slow-moving queue with nothing meaningful to do, they feel like they are being held for eternity which in turn making them frustrated.
When it comes to resources and products, three issues lie on facility maintenance and pollution. In the seal conservatory the water was murky to a point that the seals are almost invisible to visitors in the underwater section; the water cannons found at a target-based shooting game with special effects near the Raging River are plagued with insufficient water pressure hindering players from shooting further targets. The nightly grand show of “Symbio” at the main lagoon is not free from issues either as fireworks and flames are also included in the show, causing air and noise pollution every single time, ironic to Ocean Park’s mission statement. It also appears that, during periods when the park reaches peak capacity, there are not enough tables for people to have their lunch
Within aquariums and animal conservatories, there are informative panels about the various kinds of Marine and Land Animals but there are too few interactive screens for guests to know more about the animals. Interpretation forms part of the Visitor Engagement Cycle which, according to Taheri, Jafari & Ogorman (2014), is “a bidirectional interaction between multiple subjects”. (Taheri, Jafari & Ogorman,
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2014). If interactive levels are too low, visitors might become bored and opt not to visit that particular attraction again
The most prominent Visitor management issue is unruly visitor behaviour. A majority of them are from Mainland Chinese tour groups and stemming from cultural differences, they tend to speak loudly. This can really be a problem when these uncultured visitors do so in animal conservatories as animals can be frightened and their health and well-being can even be harmed. Apart from noise levels, there are also rules in aquariums that request guests to refrain from using flash-photography yet many of them chose to ignore the regulation. Other forms of unruly visitor behaviour observed include failure to obey certain safety regulations of thrill rides and littering.
Problems do not end even after the park closes. The entry plaza is often plagued by the congregation of visitors in groups sitting on the ground. Not only would this inconvenience the torrent of exiting guests, it is actually a safety hazard—if an exiting guest trips over a sitting guest, the whole situation could turn into a deadly stampede
The interests of different stakeholders appear to clash against one another. Apparently, Visitors enjoyed the animal exhibits and potentially even wish Ocean Park would expand their aquariums and conservatories yet on the opposing camp, “environmental activists condemning the captivity of dolphins and other animals and demanding the Park to free them” (Karacs, 2015).
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Existing Rectifications
Ocean Park has in effect a number of measures to fix some of the issues raised. For the remedies to work effectively it is vital that they meet all three pillars of the Triple Bottom Line, or “3BL—Finance, Society and Environment” (Norman & MacDonald, 2004). In other words, for a visitor attraction to be sustainable the remedies should be able to satisfy not only the financial elements but also be environmentally and socially responsible.
Financially, Ocean Park has implemented a three-tier pricing system in its Annual Pass scheme with varying prices and restrictions where the cheapest tier cannot access the park during presseribed designated days while pass holders of the most expensive tier can access the park all year round with many more benefits. According to the theory of “balancing supply and demand” (Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, 1984, cited by Barlow), Ocean park is managing demand by diverting crowds with low levels of willingness to pay (WTP) through establishing incentives in price to off-peak days while in the same time, differentiating its prices and bundling products to those with greater WTP levels, responding to the issue of overcapacity at certain areas of the park. While this price differentiation practice is effective enough in managing the capacity of regular park visitors, it overlooked the large market of infrequent day visitors
There is also signage within key animal conservatories and aquariums reminding visitors to refrain from talking loudly or using camera flash but these signs are usually ignored by a considerable number of mainland Chinese visitors
Recommendations
Some of the management tools raised answered the financial pillar of the 3BL and controlled capacity well but to further improve the imbalanced capacity issue the Park should, in the short term, offer incentives like freebies for visitors who chose to use the attractions located in the deserted adventure land; In the long term, the park should reopen the Tai Shue Wan access point as soon as possible. With one access point at the upper and lower section of the park, visitors will have the option to enter and exit the park unidirectionally at different entry points, hence bringing forth a more even distribution of capacity and improved flows of traffic. In addition to the existing three tiers of annual passes the Park should also adopt a new “systematic practice that further maximises the overall revenues”, AKA Revenue Management practice (Leask, Fyall and Garrod, 2013) of its day tickets by adding a “lite” version— half the price of standard with restrictions to certain attractions or areas with heavy traffic. By unbundling the products for day visitors with low WTP levels as well, The Park might be able to achieve optimum levels of capacity while maximising its revenue sources. For the problem of snaking queues, Single Rider lanes should be adopted or even better, introduce a virtual queuing system where guests can obtain a time ticket and return at a designated window, thereby further relieving the problem of long queues and balancing the S&D of resources
The Park should also beef up its security workforce in answer to the issue of off- hours visitor congregation at the entrance. With more security manpower at hand,
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the increased number of caretakers can ease the workload of regular staff in ushering squatting visitors away from the closed park, making the environment safer for all guests.
In addition, the Park should also consider filling sanitation positions with slightly to moderately retarded people in order to demonstrate its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). With great CSR levels the park might also be able to attract more visitors and provide more employment opportunities for the disadvantaged. For the clash between two stakeholders of Visitors and Animal rights activists, The Park should implement a system that limits the time an animal is held captive. After the prescribed period lapses the Park shall release that animal back into nature and capture a substitute animal in order to balance the two opposing camps
Last but not least, the park should tackle unruly visitors through the use of both hard and soft approaches. The Park can get tough by exercising its right to evict unruly guests after several unheeded warnings and enforcing its general code of conduct. For a softer approach the Park can enhance its education on guests about acceptable behaviour in aquariums and key animal conservatories
Conclusion
Ocean Park is plagued by the management issues of imbalanced capacity, overcrowding, deserted attractions, clash of certain stakeholders, slightly low levels of interpretation, pollution, poorly maintained facilities, inadequate capacity for on- site dining. Unruly visitor behaviour and off-hours congregation of visitors make up the visitor management issues of the park. The Park should fix these issues with references to the 3BL model of sustainability including revenue and capacity management. Furthermore, the park should also improve its security and enforce visitor behaviour codes using both hard and soft approaches.
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Credits
1. General Facts. (2016, November 02). Retrieved December 03, 2017, from https://
www.oceanpark.com.hk/en/corporate-information/general-fact
2. Mayné, F. (2012, December 23). Ocean Park Hong Kong rewarded by The Applause Award 2012. Retrieved December 02, 2017, from http://www.newsparcs.com/en/article/00005970- ocean_park_hong_kong_rewarded_by_the_applause_award_2012
3. Martinolli, M., & Bereziat, C. (2010). The 2009 Visitor Attraction Monitor. 4-4. Retrieved December 3, 2017, from http://www.visitscotland.org/pdf/visitorattraction-monitor2009.pdf
4. Navarro, D. (2015). Tourist Resources And Tourist Attractions: Conceptualisation, Classification And Assessment. 483. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
5. Mok, D. (2016, October 16). World’s oldest giant panda Jia Jia put to sleep at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park. South China Morning Post. Retrieved December 4, 2017, from http://www.scmp.com/news/ hong-kong/health-environment/article/2028549/worlds-oldest-giant-panda-jia-jia-put-sleep- hong
6. Gerald, B. (1999). Managing Queues, Supply and Demand (Chapter 10).
7. Gerald, B. (2004). Managing Queues, Queuing Psychology (Chapter 6). pp. 85-92
8. Karacs, S. (2015, June 27). 'Empty the tanks': Hong Kong's Ocean Park at centre of activists' battle to stop dolphin captivity. South China Morning Post. Retrieved December 11, 2017, from http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1827314/empty-tanks-hong- kongs-ocean-park-centre-activists
9. Norman, W., & MacDonald, C. (2004). Getting To The Bottom Of “Triple Bottom Line”. Business Ethics Quarterly, 14(2), 243. Retrieved December 25, 2017, from https://s3.amazonaws.com/ academia.edu.documents/38208673/3BL_proofs_corrected.pdf? AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1514185369&Signature=lpjI%2BRGi66 ul5JWrifA%2FppDgRxU%3D&response-content- disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DGetting_to_the_Bottom_of_Triple_Bottom_L.pdf.
10. Barlow,G.(n.d.).ManagingSupplyanddemand,Chapter11,citedFitzsimmons&Fitzsimmons, 1984
11. Weidenfeld,A.andLeask,A.(2013).Exploringtherelationshipbetweenvisitorattractionsand events: definitions and management factors. Current Issues in Tourism, 16(6), pp.557. “Visitor Attraction Continuum” Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2012.702736
12. Christmas Sensation 2017. (2017, December 19). Retrieved December 25, 2017, from https:// www.oceanpark.com.hk/en/park-experience/christmas-sensation-2017
13. Leask, A., Fyall, A., & Garrod, B. (2013). Managing revenue in Scottish visitor attractions. Current Issues in Tourism, 16(3), 240-265. doi:10.1080/13683500.2012.667070
14. Taheri, B., Jafari, A., & Ogorman, K. (2014). Keeping your audience: Presenting a visitor engagement scale. Tourism Management, 42, 321-329. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2013.12.011
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Old park maps, 1980
Appendices