THE TIMES REALLY ARE A’CHANGING (a copy of this article appeared in Attraction Management Magazine September 2022)

Bob Dylan’s refrain, The Winds of Change Are Blowing Wild and Free,  on his 1997 album Time Out of Mind echoes his earlier, purposeful anthem, The Times They Are A’Changin’.  The sentiment is prescient and wholly relevant today. The pandemic, together with other global crises, has shifted many aspects of leisure consumer behaviour demanding a response from the supply side of our industry.

Nowhere is this challenge more pronounced than in the visitor attraction sector. It is now time to reconsider the concept of a visitor attraction. Time to scrutinise their role and purpose. Time to re-imagine their business and operational models.  

It was thirty years ago when, in 1993, my essay Playgrounds or Agents of Social and Cultural Development won the American Express Annual Award for Travel. The text challenged theme parks and other attractions to become benchmarks of sustainable development and to recognise the needs of thoughtful consumers with their new priorities for selecting their leisure experiences. Very few rose to the challenge. Three decades on there is a new imperative to act. Precious time is definitely slipping away.

The heartbeat thumping the sector into action is compliance with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and the paradigm shifts within the  industry that will have profound impacts on how we re-imagine the future of the development and planning of attractions. These paradigm shifts are:

1. HYBRIDITY & TRANSFORMATION: the appearance of novel, unique solutions, in product development, experience creation and tourist engagement that are blurring definitions and making it increasingly difficult to categorise and accredit an ‘attraction’ – and does it matter anymore to the customer if a product receives a 5* or a 2* assessment by a tourist board? Initiatives that boldly go where few have been before to make a positive transformational impact in their destinations will prevail.

2. OUTLIERS: as part of the era of the hybrid, we are seeing the rapid emergence of attractions that would have been regarded as being ‘left-of-field’, or quirky, but now these niche outliers are fast becoming mainstream – ‘who would have thought it’ ideas are now becoming the expected, delivered by hybrid-thinkers and often developed by the new pirates (as they have been described).

3. CO-CREATION: multi-faceted, multi-layered, co-created, and collaborative unique experiences capable of commanding high value and capturing guest attention and involving the guest in their design will become a demand driver for destinations.

4. CO-DEPENDENCY: a cornerstone of co-created experiences is the need for destination stakeholders to work together and recognise a co-dependency tourism eco-system rather than a business-centric, ego-system.

5. ELASTICITY: the need for everyone involved in attraction development to be more agile, flexible, and fluid in their design, planning , and operations welcoming new ideas, different ways of working, and nurturing innovation.

6. TALENT:  exploring the idea that an individual’s talent may well be more important to a tourism business than a traditional skill or qualification – the fact that your security guard is the best fiddle player in the village might be more important than his security qualifications.

7. VALUE: the culmination of these shifts is resulting in our need to re-calibrate all aspects of perceived and real value of tourism in our destinations and, ultimately, to deliver new metrics of success.

In this context, much has been written about the experience economy and how attractions can deliver memorable experiences to add value and competitiveness. However, as Claus Sendlinger (founder of Design Hotels) has challenged us on many occasions, “The tourism industry needs innovative and creative ideas to survive but the industry is NOT SUFFICIENTLY innovative or creative to deliver what will be needed. We need hybrid thinkers delivering hybrid solutions.”

The next five – ten years in the sector will be a period of unprecedented experimentation, where old formulas no longer hold true; where traditional forms of partnership and collaboration will have to change and where hybrid solutions created by hybrid thinkers will prove to be winners. This will be about creating the ‘new-extraordinary’. In the words of Martin Raymond of The Future Laboratory, “We’ve spent our time fretting about the New Normal, when we should be talking about the New Extra-ordinary! The pandemic has precipitated scientific advancement, championed innovation, and ushered in a new age of collaboration, challenge, and accelerated change”.

Key to successful experience creation in attractions are the twin notions of co-creation and co-dependency. How can tourism (and other) stakeholders work and play better together to ensure optimal sustainable outcomes and exceptional experiences? For K Michael Haywood, (Professor Emeritus, School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada) the answer in his 2021 e‑book Astonish, Smarter Tourism by Design is that“There is a need for well-developed eco-systems (networks and clusters) for innovation within the tourism industry, its various interdependent yet operationally independent sectors, and all host communities and neighbourhoods.”

This brave new world will not be kind to, or tolerant of, the traditional visitor attractions offering well-rehearsed, tired, experiences - be it a castle, stately home, theme park, or zoo. There are examples of enlightened investors and operators who are embracing these changes who are ahead of the curve, they are few and far between, but they prove the winds of change bring wonderful opportunities to refresh, re-ignite, and regenerate the attractions sector.

Hybridity characterises the success stories in this new world. Take for example:

·        The Newt in Somerset (www.thenewtinsomerset.com)

·        Jupiter Artland hear Edinburgh (www.jupiterartland.org) –  an extraordinary collection of large-scale artworks in an heritage setting on the western fringe of Edinburgh

·        Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria (www.ars.electronica.art) – situated in an iconic building on the north bank of the Danube is an extraordinary collection of immersive exhibits exploring the interrelationship between art, technology, and society together with the inspirational 8-D Deep Space Evolution. But Ars is so much more. There is the annual Ars Electronica Festival attracting over 150,000 to Linz; the Prix Ars that drives innovation through a global competition; an innovation campus in a former Tobacco Factory, restaurants and outreach activities. This is a global trendsetter.

·        Monastero di Astino, Bergamo, Italy (www.fondzionemia) – located in a valley under the history walls of Citta Alta (Bergamo’s Upper City) is a former monastery, now owned and operated by a charitable foundation,  that has been renovated as a centre of sustainable agriculture and local culture. It is a working farmscape, a religious centre, an exposition of local food and drink, and a conference and cultural venue

·        Hauser & Wirth Somerset (www.hauserwirth.com/somerset)

·        Meneghetti Winery and Hotel, Istria (www.meneghetti.hr) – located a few kilometres inland from the Adriatic coast of Istria (Croatia) and at the end of  Boulevard World Genius (a country road lined with sculptures dedicated to the lives of world genius) is the campus of Memeghetti. It is part winery with tasting rooms and visitor centre, part hotel with villas and gardens, a conference and cultural centre, and a gastronomic celebration.

·        Roxanich, Istria (www.roxanich.com) – at the base of the historic hill-top town of Motovun this old farm storehouse has been converted into a contemporary design hotel with a five storey underground winery and visitor attractions together with conference centre and art galleries.

·        ARoS, Aarhus, Denmark (www.aros.dk) – a contemporary art gallery with a rooftop immersive 360degree walk through attraction, restaurants, and speakeasy of debates and discussions.

·        Babylonstoren, Franschhoek, Western Cape (www.babylonstoren.com) – this western Cape historic farm has been converted into a contemporary mix of gardens, accommodation, spa and wellness facilities and gastronomic experiences by the same owners as The Newt in Somerset.

·        Ljubljana Castle, Slovenia (www.lubljanskigrad.si) – this iconic heritage attraction sits above the historic centre of the Slovenian capital. Owned by the municipality the visitor experience has been transformed over the past three years from a typical, predictable, heritage offer to one that generates many reasons to visit. It is open every day of the year, free of charge and accessible form early morning through until late evening. Accessible by funicular from the city centre, or walks through the Castle vineyards, or by car there are numerous attractions, a wide range of restaurants, extraordinary living history experiences, and retail that showcases the best of Slovenian produce and craft.

·        Art Circle, Brda, Slovenia (www.artcircle.si) – in Spring this southwest corner of Slovenia – an area of 6,000 people and 74sq kms becomes alive with a unique range of art galleries, gastronomic experiences, and locally curated pop-up attractions. The local Brda Institute for Sport, Tourism, Culture and Young People invites some 17 international embassies to take up temporary residence in the community (in hotels, wineries, restaurants, community centres) for one month and to create centres for showcasing their art, artists, music, and crafts. The result is astonishing creating twenty international quality art galleries together with many other local attractions.

Undoubtedly, the trendsetter of these new ways of thinking about attractions and experiences is Slovenian Tourist Board (STB) with their national initiative, known as Slovenian Unique Experiences (SUE – www.slovenia.info) . The STB have created a scheme for the curation of 5* unique Slovenian experiences that conforms to the requirements of the national tourism strategy and are evaluated by an independent commission prior to going to market.

Each proposal has to meet forty criteria within ten thematic groups:

•        Local identity

•        Authentic

•        Unique

•        Experiential

•        Green

•        Boutique

•        Premium

•        Added value

•        Off-season

•        Digitally enabled

The result is a wonderful palette of experiences delivering the new- extraordinary. A template for the way to realign our attractions, maybe?