Tourism Tech and Innovation Preliminary Report
This tourism tech and innovation preliminary report is about Top Shots Fun Park in Sunshine Coast in Australia. This is considered to be a full fledge package for family entertainment and serves as an attraction to a large population. The amusement Park has many different activities and individuals can choose from a variety of different games and activities that are available there.
The Park has indoor rock climbing, 18 hole minigolf courses, turn and spin, cannon ball blaster and various other activities for lovers of water sports. There are many arcade games which are operated through coins. In addition to this, there is also a fast food café on site to cater to the needs of individuals who feel hungry during their visit. Moreover, there are a variety of different packages that can be chosen from if someone wants to book a party place for young kids.
Innovation refers to applying new and novel solutions in order to be able to meet challenges in a better manner so as to cater to the existing market needs. The scientific field related to innovation has introduced the concept of technological innovation in order to provide an explanation of the rate and nature of innovation due to technological change (Ryan, 2013).
Therefore, a dynamic network which consists of various agents who interact together for making greater utilization of technology along with its diffusion and generation is known as the technological innovation system.
The new wave of technological innovation focuses on using social networking services in order to better help businesses in reaching their target market and increasing their customer base. The use of social networking services is growing in use and it can prove to be helpful for Top Shots Fun Park.
Top Shots Fun Park has many attractive activities and has a good website to provide information about the business. The website is quite detailed and gives information regarding the opening and closing times of the Park and information about different rides and their prices also. However, the business could possibly make use of more social networking services to enhance its service level and make the business better. This would in turn lead to an increase in turnover for the business as the message would reach a larger audience and more people will visit the Park on a regular basis.
A social networking service primarily provides a platform which helps in building social relations and social networks among individuals who are involved in the activities of the business or have real life connections with the business. There are many services that come under social networking which include platforms like Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, smartphone applications, email marketing, online live chat, social media advertising and promotions (Hoult, 2012).
Top Shots Fun Park is already making use of promotions to make their business better and to increase their clientele. The website of the company provides information related to free gift vouchers and discount vouchers which can be availed under certain conditions. The prime purpose of using this technique is to attract more customers to visit the Park which would lead to an increase in revenue for the company.
The company can also make use of promotion by giving surprise gifts to visitors or giving gift hampers on the purchase of a certain amount of tickets from the Park. Moreover, promotional campaigns can be held on different days of the week to attract more people to visit the Park during those days. These promotional campaigns can include various activities that might be of interest to the target market for the company (King, 2013).
Social media platforms like twitter, LinkedIn and blogs can also be used for advertising the business and creating awareness about it in the market. The company should have an individual twitter page where all updates should be tweeted in a timely manner. The twitter updates should also inform followers about the latest promotions that are being offered at the Park and must also advertise any new or existing rides or activities (King, 2013).
Top Shots Fun Park should also host an individual LinkedIn profile where professionals can directly contact for information and other services. Additionally, the company should start a new blog of their own which would cover the promotional campaigns that are being run in the Park as well as any changes in prices or additions to activities or rides in the Park.
One of the best strategies that the company can use to make its services better is development of smartphone applications to supplement the activities and games found in the Park already. For instance, the 18 hole minigolf game that is found in the Park could be transformed into a game that can be downloaded in the form of an application in a smartphone. Once people start getting addicted to the game in their smartphone, the likelihood of them visiting the Park to play it in real will also increase.
Smart phone applications can also be developed for the purpose of catering to users of the application who can keep a track of all the updates regarding the Park. This application could provide notification related to latest promotional campaigns and latest activities that are going on in the Park (Timonthy, 2010).
In addition to this, the application should also allow users to make advance bookings using the application by signing into their member account which would be provided within the smart phone application (King, 2013).
However, there are also some disadvantages to using smart phone application by the business. Firstly, the development of the application will cost the company a lot and this initial investment on developing the application will require a high budget but the benefits gained from it will eventually outweigh the cost. Secondly, individuals who do not use smart phones will not have access to the services provided through this new smart phone application.
Another important way of using social networking services to bring an improvement to the business is through the use of email marketing. The company can make use of email marketing in order to advertise their existing services and making customers aware about the upcoming activities and promotions that the customers can avail.
This email marketing would be done by initially using market segmentation. The segment of the market that the company is trying to cater to will be targeted accordingly and email marketing campaign will be designed in order to cater to their tailored needs (Ryan, 2013).
The success of any business depends on after sales service. The Top Shots Fun Park should make use of this technique in their business also. There should be online hand held terminals installed at the exit of the premises along with a counter where customers would be required to digitally submit their feedback about the Park and the services provided along with any suggestions that they would like to make in order to make the quality of services and products better. The feedback should then be recorded in the online database which would be reviewed and amendments must be made accordingly (Smith, 2013).
It is also highly important to have online live chat. This is something that the company website lacks. There should ideally be one section on the main page of the company website which would allow the users to reach live support with the help of using online live chat. The purpose of having this service for the customers is to provide the customers with convenience for getting information and proceeding with any queries that they might have (Ryan, 2013).
Social media advertising campaigns should also be used to increase awareness about the amusement Park and create a strong level of brand loyalty in existing customers. There are various types of social media advertising which can be used. This includes advertising on Facebook, twitter and various other social media networking platforms to reach the targeted audience in a better manner.
Hosting social media events can also help the business grow by keeping the fans of the business engaged in online activities related to the company. The company should keep weekly quizzes on social media and distribute gift hampers to winners of the game or activity that the social media event is all about.
To conclude, it can be said that Top Shotss Fun Park is doing quite well and has a large amount of clientele that is attracted to the activities for family entertainment that are provided at the Park. However, there is always room for improvement and the business can make use of various social networking services in order to provide better services and products to the consumers and also improve the working of the business as a whole.
References
Hoult, K. (2012). Strategic planning and social media marketing. Social Media Conference, WWU.
King, C. (2013). 16 social media marketing tips. Retrieved 23 rd March, 2014 fromhttp://www. socialmediaexaminer. com/
Top Shots Fun Park. (2014). Retrieved 23 rd March, 2014 fromhttp://www. TopShotssFunPark. com. au/
Ryan, F. (2013). Growing importance of technology and social networking services. New York Times.
Smith, T. (2013). 40 ideas for your 2013 social media marketing plan. Exact Target Marketing Cloud
Timonthy, R. (2010). Impact of smart phones on business. Journal of Marketing