Tourism Destination Development: Strategies for St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury

This article discusses the importance of tourism for the economy and focuses on St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury. It covers the gaps in tourism, developing tourism in the area, and strategies for attracting diverse market segments. The article also discusses the impact of seasonality and COVID-19 on tourism and suggests ways to promote eco-friendly services.

Tourism Destination
Development

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
GAPS in the tourism .......................................................................................................................3
Developing tourism in the area .......................................................................................................4
Vision statement...........................................................................................................................6
Presenting strategies relevant to the development of a tourism destination................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Tourism plays a vital role for the success of many economies around the world. Tourism
sector is one of the fastest growing sector in the world. It is essential for economy to attract
foreign investment in improving countries economic condition. This sector boosts the
productivity and revenue of the economy of UK, it provides job opportunities to people. This
tourism sector combines complementary industries such as hotel industry, beverage and food
industry and transportation sector. With the support of tourism sector the economy can develop
its infrastructures. So, people love to travel as they feel this is the best way and easy way to learn
about tradition and culture of a country. The present study will be based on city in England
named as canterbury, which is one of the most attractive and peaceful historic cities in the
country. This place attract people who love to travel historic place. From all over the world,
visitors visit here to know about history of canterbury. The selected tourism destination is St
Augustine's Abbey, this site is constructed outside the city walls attracting lots of visitors. This
place is an amazing place to visit for people having open area with fresh air garden.
GAPS in the tourism
Diverse market segments to attract.
As we all know that tourism industry in the UK is currently growing and it is one of the
profitable sector among all other sector in UK. Due to Covid-19 the city was highly impacted as
people were not allowed to visit there especially during lock down time. This tourism destination
has good market segment so that people can revisit over there (Stoddart and et.al., 2020). Before
visiting place, people always see about the growth rate of the market segment. As per the term
market segment, audience segment become very attractive when the destination seems new to
visitors and has plenty of room to explore new things and expand more. As many cities and
countries are developing their diversifies market segments canterbury is also focusing on
developing diversifies segment of visitors in order to serve them with quite different needs and
requirements especially post Covid-19.
seasonality
Due to seasonality, tourism sector has been highly influenced as it can cause the
fluctuations in tourists who love to travel. It also causes the fluctuation in number of people visit
to a destination. Just because of seasonality few destinations have more people who visit there
and some destination have no visitors to visit (Zielinski and Botero, 2020). Likewise, St

Augustine's abbey is also suffered by seasonality gaps (Top rated attractions and thing to do in
canterbury, 2022). This place is famous for audio guides in which audio is available to provide
information related to its history. In England, most people prefer to see which season is best for
travelling and another major concern is about weather. However, they mostly visit in spring
season to experience beautiful climate, spring flowers and leaves. They especially avoid busier
summer to enjoy the destination with family and friends.
Due to covid-19 people were not allowed to travel in foreign countries everything was
disturbed which has a huge impact on the destination place. However, St Augustine's abbey also
faced a number of issues and challenges during the lock down time. The reason behind that such
as lack of availability, lack of resources, lack of transportation facilities in the city area of
canterbury, just because of this reason people were also faced challenges such as fear of any
harmful uncertainty, income issue, low paid salaries, shutdown, restrictions while walking
outside house (Hall, 2018). In the England, many tour operators have shut down their business
which has impacted the city a lot because no people were allowed in the city. However, post
Covid-19 when people start visiting various places they misuse natural resources such as
throwing waste around the place, excessive use etc.
Developing tourism in the area
As people are focusing on to grasp opportunities to generate more bookings for
themselves with the help of tour operator. They make bookings online which can boost the
bookings' system for visitors. It is essential to discover new and best ways to attract more visitors
to a destination place (Hjalager, Kwiatkowski and Østervig Larsen, 2018). By doing so, the city
will ensure that they constantly grab the attention of foreigners and people coming from different
locations to look the beautiful place. In order to develop tourism in the area of St Augustine's
abbey following points and tips will be helpful.
As St Augustine abbey is a heritage property where museum has been constructed to
attracted visitors who love history, Hence, it is known as historic place. In order to develop this
place the best way to attract more tourism is to develop the types of tourism which needs to be
improved.
Types of tourism to be developed
Recreational tourism

Many tour operators provide effective package for tourists such as discount coupons,
entry fees at affordable price, accommodation service nearby destination place. The best way to
develop tourism is to offer recreational option for a change and rest tourism style so that people
can enjoy their vacation.
Adventure tourism
Nowadays, people who want to visit various types of beautiful destination they take
adventure tour every year or months. In free time they go for enjoyment such as river rafting,
trekking, music nights, rock climbing etc. plus, people want peaceful place where they can spend
time with their loved ones (Mei, 2019). To develop the destination place it is essential to arrange
proper vacation for visitors under the blue sky with candle light dinner availability. The best way
to develop the current destination is to organize camp fire facilities and games nights with the
help of package facilities in which tour operator will arrange everything for the tourists.
Target markets for the current destination is tourists and students who want to visit the
destination for knowing about history. As students can come for picnic and for finding any
information for history projects in the universities. This place can target new audience such as
elder couples who want to enjoy their retirement time and know about the historic and heritage
place.s
Additional and potential resources
 It has been said that tourism is dependent on various attractive resources such as cultural
resources in which the place can be developed by arrangement of cultural events where
people can visit to know about culture of the place and grasp the opportunity to buy any
traditional products or services which has been produced over there locally.
 It is essential to create historic interest among people to attract more visitors with the help
of social media marketing and social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, you
tube advertisement and many more (Pop and et.al., 2022). As people nowadays only
believes the comments and likes done by the other visitors. So, it is mandatory to post
videos and images on regular basis to attract more people all over the world. By doing so,
the city can easily adopt potential ability to improve relationship between people and
culture of nation.

 Tourism marketing plays a vital role as the best strategy to attract more people and
promote places and destination such as offers going on at hotels, restaurants, destination
places, transportation facilities and many more.
 Due to change in current trend of visitors they prefer to use eco-friendly service and
focus more on travelling needs. Visitors know that tourism impact the availability of
natural resources and quality of surrounding area (Polukhina and et.al., 2021). So, it is
essential to focus on waste management and water shortages nearby location. Ban plastic
in the area so that it can be beneficial for the place and people who visit there. As the
modern travellers is now caring more about their carbon footprint and environmental
factors before travelling anywhere. Keeping this in mind, the city and tour operator can
suggest tips and advice such as following CSR, sustainability, wastage management, not
throwing waste product nearby St Augustine's abbey and place nearby (Streimikiene and
et.al., 2021).
 Tourism has potential to create the huge opportunity for recreation of things and
entertainment purpose for children. So, the current place can develop the idea to provide
fun and games facilities for children's. By doing so, it can increase the level of happiness
among people by seeing their children happy. To develop tourism it is also advisable to
keep in mind about well-being of people. Arrangement of fair and events can be done where people can visit to know about the
culture and beliefs of different country. The stalls and small shops can be established
once a year so that people can make reasonable decision of tourism. Plus, ecological
parks nearby the location can be developed for children where parents can take them at
evening for walk and playing games.
Objectives goals- The major goal of this tourism development plan is to create a sense of
wellbeing of history, culture and people living in the city.
Issues
Environmental impact- Due to undesired change in the atmosphere and surrounding environment
can create issue while tourism development plan. For eg: climate change, high winds and natural
calamities.

Economic condition is another major issue created during the development plan of tourism such
as unemployment, low paid salaries, COVID-19. On the other hand, If the people have good jobs
with good income they can easily afford to spend money on travelling and enjoy destination.
Vision statement
 To cultivate strong local communities for the betterment of heritage place and support the
cultural resources and provide protection to historic resources.
 To spread awareness among people so that they can increase respect for history. We
believe local communities in the city make more efforts to continue grow without losing
sight of their past history.
Presenting strategies relevant to the development of a tourism destination. In order to develop the tourism destination in the city, promotion of tourism is the best
way/ method used by people as a development strategy (Pop and et.al., 2022). By doing
so, growth in the tertiary sector can be achieved and also provide positive impact on the
growth of surrounding areas that will attract more visitors.
 Video marketing for destination is the best way to provide information about place in the
city (Mykola and et.al., 2020). As people are spending more time on internet searching
new place to visit at affordable budget, this creates an opportunity to provide them best
options mentioning the name of your city and exact location with map. This marketing is
known as destination marketing.
 Nowadays, people use internet and search engines like google to find out places to visit
related to destination. They read all the comments and review likes/dislikes features that
destination place can offer them (Dupre, 2019). It is essential to keep update website with
the help of travel websites so that people can search results immediately without any
issues. This can be done through search engine optimization strategy in order to promote
images and short films and videos of site.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Stoddart, M. C. and et.al., 2020. Collaboration gaps and regional tourism networks in rural
coastal communities. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 28(4). pp.625-645.
Zielinski, S. and Botero, C. M., 2020. Beach tourism in times of COVID-19 pandemic: critical
issues, knowledge gaps and research opportunities. International journal of
environmental research and public health. 17(19). p.7288.
Hall, C. M., 2018. Climate change and its impacts on coastal tourism: Regional assessments,
gaps and issues. Global climate change and coastal tourism: Recognizing problems,
managing solutions and future expectations, pp.27-48.
Hjalager, A. M., Kwiatkowski, G. and Østervig Larsen, M., 2018. Innovation gaps in
Scandinavian rural tourism. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism. 18(1).
pp.1-17.
Mei, X. Y., 2019. Gaps in tourism education and workforce needs: attracting and educating the
right people. Current Issues in Tourism. 22(12). pp.1400-1404.
Streimikiene, D. and et.al., 2021. Sustainable tourism development and competitiveness: The
systematic literature review. Sustainable development. 29(1). pp.259-271.
Mykola, I. and et.al., 2020. Ways to develop brands and pr management of tourism enterprises
with a focus on national markets. International Journal of Management. 11(5).
Polukhina, A. and et.al., 2021. The concept of sustainable rural tourism development in the face
of COVID-19 crisis: Evidence from Russia. Journal of Risk and Financial
Management. 14(1). p.38.
Dupre, K., 2019. Trends and gaps in place-making in the context of urban development and
tourism: 25 years of literature review. Journal of Place Management and Development.
Pop, R. A. and et.al., 2022. The impact of social media influencers on travel decisions: The role
of trust in consumer decision journey. Current Issues in Tourism. 25(5). pp.823-843.
Online
Top rated attractions and thing to do in canterbury. 2022. [online] available
resources:<https://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/canterbury-eng-k-canterb.htm>

APPENDICS
Mind map
Tourism development plan
Gaps in the tourism
Steps to improve those gaps
Developing tourism in the area
Aims and objectives
Goals, vision statement
Issues
Various types of tourism to be
developed
Potential resources which can
be used
Promoting destination
Social media marketing
Destination branding
Activities such as night stay
accommodation, sight-seeing, fun
stuff, restaurants, children games