Cultural Heritage Tourism Handbook - LinkBC

Unique Selling Propositions (USPs)Unique selling propositions (USPs) are a feature or combination offeatures that make your product attractive to a market segment,presented to the visitor as a special reason to visit your community.Tie Product Development to Your PlanSetting the stage for a new experience can be as simple as adding acraft demonstration to an existing event, or as complex as developinga multi-day cultural/heritage package event for your region (asdemonstrated in Gros Morne). A good place to start is to refer toyour cultural/heritage tourism strategy. What are your goals andobjectives? Here are some examples of objectives:• Extend operating season (by days or months).• Encourage new visitation to your community (admission fees,attendance at events, room nights).• Extend stays of existing visitors (room nights).• Increase yield per customer (amount each visitor spends in yourdestination).• Shift visitation from peak to off-peak times (encourage shoulderseason visits).• Encourage repeat visitation and destination loyalty.• Diversify market reach (attract a variety of customers, or newcustomer profiles).Clustering and PackagingClusters of compatible experiences in proximity to one anothercan be marketed collectively to increase everyone’s market share.Identifying and creating clusters could be as easy as connectingexisting opportunities, or may involve working with partners tocreate new ones. While clustering brings together partners topromote their complementary products, each partner sells theirown experience separately.Packaging is different from clustering, in that it combines a series ofofferings that are purchased for one price. Individual experiencesmay come from one operator or multiple operators but are sold onlyonce. See Chapter 9 for a featured section on packaging products.This next case study profiles an example of clustered experiencesunder a unified banner.5455