Developing a tourism hub
A government tourism agency approached Synovate Business Consulting to conduct a strategic review for the Healthcare, Education, as well as Lifestyle & Events sectors.
Synovate conducted a 2-phase approach to tackle this study. The first phase involved the determination of key growth trends, industry drivers and barriers, and the economic benefits of each product segment through an exhaustive secondary research of government statistics, industry reports and other published sources. A group of global 'gold standard' countries to learn from, as well as direct competitors to benchmark against, were then identified and shortlisted based on a weighted-scoring system that involved both micro and macroeconomic factors.
The second phase involved the profiling and benchmarking of the top 5 competing gold-class and direct destinations for each STU through in-market research and interviews with relevant government agencies, industry experts, key opinion leaders and other entities in the value chain such as travel agencies and cruise companies. Through Synovate's comprehensive analysis of the information collected, specific competitive advantages of each STU in their corresponding profiled destination countries were identified. At the conclusion of the engagement, Synovate recommended investments in manpower, facilities, cluster structures, revisions to key public policy guidelines, and assessed the implications of major trends shaping the industry.
This formed the basis of the country's competitive and marketing strategies. Following our engagement, the country reversed its declining tourism growth in the preceding year to enjoy a 35% increase in visitor arrivals in 2004.