Comparison of Giant Causeway with Llyn Peninsula as a tourist destination

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Comparison of Giant Causeway with Llyn Peninsula as a tourist destination
Student’s Name
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Comparison of Giant Causeway with Llyn Peninsula as a tourist destination..................3
Introduction........................................................................................................................3
Background information....................................................................................................4
The Giants Causeway.....................................................................................................4
The Llyn Peninsula........................................................................................................6
Rationale........................................................................................................................8
Literature review................................................................................................................8
The terminology and context used in the report...............................................................15
The sources of data...........................................................................................................17
Methodology and evaluation............................................................................................18
SWOT Analysis for Giant Causeway County Antrim.................................................18
SWOT Analysis Llyn Peninsula Wales.......................................................................21
Conclusion and recommendations...................................................................................22
References....................................................................................................................25

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Comparison of Giant Causeway with Llyn Peninsula as a tourist destination
Introduction
The tourism industry incurs stiff competition in terms of winning market shares across
different parts of the world (Morrison, 2013). The players in the industry have been on the verge
of innovation and creativity in the hunt for local and international tourists as well as the
promotion of brands and building of reputation in the hospitality and tourism sector. Concisely,
the managers and the leaders to various organisations are incorporating the sociocultural aspects,
environmental, and the economic impacts in developing destinations that are meant to cater for
the dynamic human needs and wants inclined to the tourism adventures (Bowie, Buttle, Brookes,
and Mariussen, 2016). Besides, marketing strategies are being devolved to focus on the
destination management which is the cornerstone for the motivation of the travellers and the
visitors in the helm of seeking for destinations for conferences, festivals, seminars, and socio-
cultural events among others concerning tourism. Furthermore, the marketing strategies are also
shifting towards the provision of transformational experience designs to the customers whereby
the festivals and the conferences get incorporated with playful and recreational activities
(Harmeling, Moffett, Arnold, and Carlson, 2017, pp.312-335). The design experience and
transformational design in the sector has taken root especially among the business conferences
where the participants undertake tourism-related activities such as cultural interaction alongside
co-curricular programs (Harmeling et al., 2016)
As much as the industry is experiencing tremendous growth, the report seeks to present a
proposal on how tourist attraction destinations can benchmark from each other through the
annual marketing strategies. The selected tourist attraction sites for the proposed research is the
Giant Causeway County Antrim and the Llyn Peninsula in Wales. However, both the sites are in

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the UK with the Giant Causeway County Antrim in Northern Ireland while the latter is found in
Wales. Concisely, the selection of the destination within a similar business region or block would
enable the researcher to include other aspects such as the economic factors as well as political
influence such as Brexit to the performance of the two destinations in the market (Inman, 2018).
The primary aim of the benchmarking between the two sites is to device a strategic tourism
planning whose central role is to bring the stakeholders together through provision of tools to
enable them work together so as to transform a series of attraction activities and services into a
cohesive and compelling travel design and experience (Phillips and Moutinho, 2014, pp.96-120).
Therefore, the sections of the proposal would guide the researcher in conducting the proposed
topic of research to establish a comparison between the named tourist attraction destinations.
Background information
The selected topic project for the proposed topic takes into account the marketing and the
destination management of the two popular natural attractions of the United Kingdom. During
the selection of the destinations, the Giant Causeway, the world’s destinations full of wonders
whereas the Llyn Peninsula is remarked for the natural attraction in Wales. The background to
the two attraction sites is illustrated in the sections below.
The Giants Causeway
The Giants Causeway is a region covered with over 40000 interlocking basalt columns due
to the ancient volcanic fissure eruption (Blandford, 2015). The area was declared a world
heritage site by the UNESCO in 1986 as well as a national nature reserve in 1987 while
considered the fourth greatest natural wonder of the world by the UK. The columns formed from
the stepping-stones resulted in the cliff foot and disappeared under the sea. However, most of the
columns are hexagonal I shape although there are a few with different shapes bearing various

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corners. As much as the Giant Causeway and Causeway coast are the world heritage sites, they
are managed and operated by the National Trust and is one of the most popular tourist attraction
in Northern Ireland. The National Trust has granted free access to Giant’s Causeway. Thus, there
is no need to go via the visitor's centre that charges a fee while the remainder of the destination
site is owned by the number of private owners and the Crown Estate (Blandford, 2015).
Besides, the realisation of the destination site is associated with Bishop of Derry who is
said to have visited the site back in 1692. The announcement of the existence of the place came
at a time during the presentation of the paper from Richard Bulkeley from Trinity College in
Dublin to the Royal Society (Blandford, 2015). During this era, The Giant’s Causeway received
an international recognition when Sussanna Drury, a Dublin artist in 1739, made the watercolour
paintings. The Giant’s Causeway first became famous with foreign tourists in the 19th century
especially after the opening of the Giant’s Causeway Tramway where the National Trust
resumed managing the site in the 1960s leading to the removal of some of the vestiges of
commercialism. However, the Giant’s Causeway was never a visitors’ destination between 2000
and 2012 due to the fire catastrophe, which led to the rebuilding of the site using the public funds
(Blandford, 2015). The reconstruction precipitated an architectural competition, which was won
by Heneghan Peng who set the columns onto the ground to reduce the landscape effect.
Unfortunately, the rebuilding raised the political climate in the region due to the interests of the
private investors who wanted to take over the site to drive the cultural and the economic
significance of the site in 2007 leading to the freezing of the public funds allocated for the
construction of the site (Causeway cost & Glens Heritage Trust, 2018).

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After the failure by the private investors, the site was opened by the Prime Minister, Peter
Robinson after the completion of the construction work in 2012 using the funds from the
National Trust, public donations, The Heritage Lottery Fund, and the Northen Irish Evangelical
group. Since the launching of the site, there have been various reviews from the visitors, which
in terms of the pricing, causeway walk descent, design, and the content. For instance, there has
been a controversy over the about the exhibition content at the visitor’s centre section commonly
known as the Young Earth Creationist views of the Earth’s age. Contrary, a robust online
campaign was launched in 2012 to have the part removed which made the National Trust to carry
out a review and suggested that some content to be edited into a more scientific evidence, which
sought to explain the Earth’s age attributed to be 60 million years (Causeway cost & Glens
Heritage Trust, 2018).
The Llyn Peninsula
The Llyn Peninsula stretches 50 kilometres into the Irish Sea on North West of Wales and
the southwest of the Isle of Anglesey (Visitsnowdonia, 2018). The region is an extensive plateau
that is dominated by the volcanic hills and mountains that covers the northern coastal cliffs and
the rugged rocks along the offshore stacks and islands. The site forms part of the history of the
Caernarfonshire county and that of the local area authority of Gwynedd (Gwynedd Destination
Management Plan 2013-2020, 2013). However, the pilgrims, its relative isolation promoted the
conservation of the Welsh culture, travelled the history of the Peninsula and language due to the
perceived remoteness from the urban regions has helped in keeping the reputation of the tourist
destination for both the local and the internal tourists. Concisely, the locals many of whom are
priced for the housing market incomes know the site for its holiday home excellent reputation. In
the 1970s to 90s, the Meibion Glyndwr claimed responsibility for the several arson attacks on the