To analyse a Melbourne or Perth visitor attraction based on SEALIFE case study
- Introductions and Overview
SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast aquarium known as one of most visited attraction in Queensland, Australia (Tripadvisor, 2021). Swarbrooke (2001) stated there are four classifications for attractions, there are natural attractions, man-made attractions design for tourist attraction, man-made attractions not design for tourist Attraction and the last is special event. This attraction is man-made attraction design as a tourist attraction, located in Mooloolaba Queensland, Australia. This Attraction associated with Merlin entertainments, a company who own the Sea Life Aquariums around the world. This attraction established 1989 (Visitsealife.com, 2019), with over 8.5 million tourists domestic and international visited this aquarium (Sea Life Council, 2015). In 2013, the aquarium had renovation for 16 zones and 7 animal experiences to create better experience of marine life for visitors.
This report will look at how SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast Aquarium dealing with crowd management in 2021.
- Detailed Analysis
- Website Information
SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast Aquarium official website (visitsealife.com/sunshine-coast/) has very simple design to help people who need information an easy access for what they need. Information such as opening time, ticket and pass, Facilities and accessibility, booking option, information about news, activities and help centre can be accessed very easily. This website also connected with other Sea Life Aquariums website around the world including new discoveries and activities that Sea Life organization did in conservation that they had. This website also provide overview map of the aquarium for example gift shop, cafe areas, children playground, and the attractions (visitsealife.com, 2019).
- Facility
According to Michigan Economic Growth Authority, tourism attraction facility is a building or area that supporting activities of tourism attraction (lawinsider.com, 2021). SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast Aquarium has many facilities supported to help visitors feel marine life experience. These facilities inside the SEA LIFE Aquarium are gift shop, aquariums, cafe areas, children playground, and information centre. On the other hand, other supporting facilities for example toilets, parking, ramps are provided to help visitors who need medical assistance to have the same experience with other visitors (visitsealife.com, 2019).
- Activities
SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast aquarium uses several activities with the aim of introducing and providing education about marine life. In addition, activities such as feeding the fish, diving and conserving marine life are also carried out to provide visitors with more experience in interacting with marine life (visitsealife.com, 2019).
- Signage and Interpretation
According to Moscardo (1999) interpretation is a process of describe a place or an object, so the people who visit the place or experiencing the object will get a new information from it. Relating to SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast aquarium, interpretation means how this aquarium gives information to the visitors about marine life. To help the visitor understand the marine life, this aquarium creates some activities that can help enchant the visitor’s experience for example tours and events related to marine life.
SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast aquarium created several tour packages for visitors. This tour is divided into several group, the first is a special tour for school children where children are invited to interact with marine life. The second is the stay at the aquarium package, where children are invited to experience the life of marine life at night. not only that, the aquarium also provides tour packages where visitors can determine and make their own tour plans and the last is conservation where visitors can participate in conservation projects held by the company (visitsealife.com, 2019).
- Events
To provide a different experience to visitors, SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast aquarium presents several entertaining events, for example daily shows about the pirates Trevor and Mermaid Ethel, there is also a boat ride where visitors are invited to experience being a pirate (visitsealife.com, 2021).
- Visitor Centre
To facilitate the availability of information for visitors, SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast Aquarium provides information services through the official website and through information desk within the aquarium. Information regarding the aquarium's opening and closing hours, prices, tours and events that are and will be held can be easily obtained through the official SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast Aquarium website (visitsealife.com, 2021) or through third-party site for example TripAdvisor (Tripadvisor, 2021). For information about marine life in the aquarium, information can be obtained through the information centre in the aquarium.
- Challenges
SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast aquarium has been named as one of the must-visit attractions according to TripAdvisor (Tripadvisor, 2021). As one of the most visited attractions, there are several problems faced by the attraction, for example the satisfaction level of visitors who come to the aquarium, the dwelling time allowed for visitors to enjoy the available attractions, and the problem of excessive crowds. When talking about excessive crowds, Seasonality is one of the main issues an attraction needs to handle in order to give the visitors better experience of the attraction.
Goulding (2008) stated, there are three mains issues why an attraction will has seasonality of demand. First is the staffing problem, where most attractions will use casual staff members to fill in the staff shortage but at some point, the staff not well prepared by the management and become a problem because the staffs do not know what must to do. Second is miscalculation of the capacity of the attractions. This is the most common issue happened to attractions. Usually when management sell the tickets or passes, they forgot to predict how many visitors that can use or come to the attraction and how to give the best experience to the visitors. And at the end it will lead to overcrowded and longer dwelling time for the visitors to experiencing the attraction. The last is features that an attraction has unavailable. This might be happened because of lack of demand from the visitors about one particular features or attraction.
According to TripAdvisor review (TripAdvisor, 2021), SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast aquarium need to dealing with the overcrowded visitors due to pandemic situation from 2020 – 2021 reviews.
- Recommendation
Based on reviews that SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast aquarium has from Official website (visitsealife.com, 2021) and Tripadvisor (Tripadvisor, 2021), this attraction needs adjustment for the policies to managing the overcrowded situation. The adjustment can be done by adjusting how long the visitors allowed to spend inside the attraction. This also related to the pandemic situation and policies that the government use to restrict crowd of people. Beside of that, the aquarium management adjusting how many visitors that allowed to visit the attraction. This can be done by looking at the pre-booking list and the online demand. By doing these two adjustment, the overcrowded situation can be minimize.
- Conclusion
Known to be in the list of the top 10 most visited places in Queensland, although the aquarium needs adjustment to overcome the overcrowded situation due to the high demand in the Pandemic situation, with a variety of unique attractions and complete facilities, the SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast aquarium is one of the best attractions in Australia.
TASK DETAIL
Aim —To analyse a Melbourne or Perth visitor attraction
Part of this joint assessment requires students to write a report based on the information they found on their week 3 site excursion and information obtained from research.
~ An analysis of the above aspects and recommendations based on the analysis are to be discussed in a report of 1,000 1,200 words.
~The issues to be discussed in the report can be found in the marking rubric attached below.
- A minimum of three academic and three electronic resources have to be referenced within the report.
