Analysis

Once the assessment has been formed, it is important to analyze the data to find opportunities, competitive threats, gaps that interfere with success, strengths and weaknesses.  The process of gathering that analysis will be a combination of private interviews, interactive group sessions, and team analysis.  The process itself will prime the later discussion regarding the future of Essex County tourism.

The analysis will key in on five important themes:

• Products and Experiences
• Infrastructure
• Patrons
• Marketing
• Guiding the destination

Much of the analysis will be derived by looking at the data and seeking explanations for things that are out of line with expectations.  The analysis will identify key opportunities where product and experience development, infrastructure investment, and marketing energy and expenditure will pay off.  It will also highlight weak areas that need shoring up.  And it will help each community understand which parts of its tourism portfolio are really paying off, which investments could really make a difference, and which aspects are simply not going to be profitable.

Analysis will also carefully look at the relationship among patron groups, products, and seasons for each community.  We’ll look hard at who’s coming, to do what, when for each community – and explore ways to strengthen weak flows, create new flows, or change patterns in a way that is more socially rewarding or economically profitable.  Analysis may show that there are ways to raise revenues in Lake Placid’s summer season without significantly raising visitor volume, a key consideration for managing tourism’s impacts.  Analysis may also find that specific product improvements or developments may open the door to a stronger flow of visitor revenues to one or more of the other target communities.

Some demographic groups of visitors will patronize the region during times that may reflect local products, but may also reflect conditions “at home”.  Understanding how visitor flows and product performance interact to create peaks and valleys in volume and spending is important to charting a successful tourism plan.

Analysis will explore competitive products, combinations of products, and marketing in other destinations that compete with Essex County for the same patron groups.  It will find opportunities for each community to capture larger target market shares (when desirable) and identify areas where the competition is clearly ahead.

This part of the project will also identify patron groups that are a good match for each target community’s tourism products and experiences – but who are not coming.  It will be important to see how these opportunities “fit” into Essex County’s tourism picture, what they do in terms of changing the balance, and how they might affect profitability.

There will also be an analysis of destination leadership and how it guides the destination.  The team will look closely at what’s working, and what isn’t.  It will identify hiccups in the system that slow things down – or that everyone has to work around.  It will find out whether each part of the leadership partnership (and which sectors of the industry) are pulling their own weight – and which are riding on the backs of others’ work – or even holding things back.  Analysis will show what issues (or old ghosts) complicate the process of making decisions, advancing product improvement, succeeding at attracting patrons, and delivering great visitor experiences.

The tone of the analysis will be to find opportunities.  The process won’t avoid addressing problems, or listening to needed venting, but will, in the end, seek to find positive directions that each target community and the overall destination can go.

When the analysis is complete, a number of opportunities will be clearly identified and on the table for discussion.  At the same time, there should be a good understanding of which combinations of product and patron are not worth significant new energy and investment.

Again, the analysis results will be compiled in a document and posted on the dedicated web site for all Essex County interests to examine. 

Assessment and analysis are necessary work to create a common understanding of each target community’s tourism situation and of the way Essex County fits together as a destination – and interfaces with visitors.  Once this common understanding is achieved, the fun (and hard work) of imagining each target community’s tourism future can begin.  Without these steps, the process of designing a future inevitably becomes bogged down in disagreement about the current reality and the opportunities.