Business & Tourism Management: Cornwall Tourism
How Cornwall Attracts Visitors Through Tourism Marketing
This presentation explores Cornwall as a UK tourist destination, examining Cohen's tourist typology, natural and cultural attractions, accommodation, transport, and the 4Ps marketing mix. It analyses how tourism services, pricing, accessibility, and promotional strategies attract visitors and support the local economy. Students seeking assignment help in UK can explore these tourism concepts and destination marketing strategies through this academic presentation.
Introduction
This presentation considers Cornwall as a destination for travel within the UK. Information specific to tourism in Cornwall, such as the volume of annual visitors, is presented as the reason why Cornwall is a suitable location for this purpose. Along with cultural landmarks, the destination features several naturally occurring attractions, such as the coastline. With a summary of these essential facts, the presentation discusses Cornwall based on Cohen's tourist typology. This typology takes into account a couple of variables that influence tourists' decisions to discover or visit a particular place, so an analysis based on this model fits the behaviour of Cornwall tourists.
Next comes an account of the accommodation options available to tourists visiting Cornwall, including hotels and other places to stay. The presentation also covers the supporting industries enabling tourism in Cornwall. It considers how accessible the facilities are, including tourist accommodation, food options for all types of visitors, and transportation for groups of all sizes, from single travellers to group followers.
4Ps Marketing Mix
The 4Ps are product, price, place, and promotion.
- Product: the tangible and intangible aspects of the destination, such as built attractions or destination branding.
- Price: the cost of experiencing Cornwall's attractions, including pricing strategies and available payment methods.
- Place: how tourists access Cornwall, and the distribution channels for services such as hotel bookings.
- Promotion: the advertising channels used to promote the destination and its commercial services.
The Marketing Mix is used to assess a destination's products or services against the four Ps. It is a "set of controllable variables" that can be leveraged in marketing a brand. This is important in context, as Cornwall becomes a product for consuming its attractions as novel tourism experiences. Any gaps in marketing, such as an incompatible pricing strategy or underdeveloped promotion channels, can be filled by optimising these elements. The framework allows businesses in Cornwall to show a consistent approach to marketing success and to engage visitors from diverse backgrounds. The four elements are used to explore Cornwall in the commercial tourism sense, after first establishing Cohen's tourist types in relation to Cornwall.
Cohen's Tourist Types
Cohen's Tourist Typology recognises four types of tourist behaviour: the organised mass tourist, the individual mass tourist, the explorer, and the drifter. The drifter is more adventurous than the explorer and prefers to travel alone. An individual mass tourist also travels independently, unlike the organised mass tourist, who moves in a group guided by an itinerary.
Cornwall attracts domestic and international travellers because the weather is hospitable across the year and the community is vibrant. Combined with the attractions of the destination, this makes it compatible with different tourist types. As a result, Cornwall can draw diverse types of tourists; tourism contributes 25–28% of the county's economy. Even as early as 1997, Cornwall's tourism sector contributed 21% of its GDP. As the county is relatively remote as a mainstream destination, it is reasonable to propose that Cornwall's cultural preservation and the Cornish language act as an economic enabler for locals, who offer travel services, guided tours and excursions, and overall hospitality.
Product
Cornwall lies in South West England, with a population of around 570,000. The county is classified as an "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty". Built attractions include the Eden Project, a domed eco-attraction, and the Royal Cornwall Museum, which exhibits the local mining and engineering heritage.
The Eden Project houses the largest indoor rainforest in the world. The Royal Cornwall Museum also holds artefacts of historical provenance, from the Grecian era to the Egyptian and Roman eras. The Courtney Library in the museum preserves 30,000 documents that serve as a repository of memories for Cornish families and towns.
Certain intangible cultural merits also define Cornwall as a product for attracting tourists. Cornwall features in the literary works of famous English authors, from J.K. Rowling to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This shows the destination branding of Cornwall for literature enthusiasts who know the place only through famous authors' works. Such aspects would attract Cohen's individual and organised mass tourists, who can enjoy the local points of interest in groups and families.
Natural Attractions
Cornwall has 696 kilometres of coastline and flora covering over 385 species of plants. It has more than 300 beaches offering authentic coastal experiences, such as Fistral Beach. These natural attractions bolster Cornwall's quality as a product for attracting tourists.
Whale sharks are herbivores and do not threaten coastline visitors to Cornwall. Local and international visitors engage in water-based adventures such as surfing and paragliding, demonstrating the unique interests of individual visitors. Visitors also find attractions in the county's Victorian heritage at the Lanhydrock Estate, and in the artistic and cultural content of the Tate Gallery in St Ives. The city of Truro makes these locations easily accessible.
Other attractions include the Minack Theatre, operational since 1930 and able to host an audience of up to 750 people. A hybrid of built and natural attractions, the theatre is carved out of the surrounding cliffs. With natural and built attractions and entertainment options such as surfing and theatre plays, Cornwall appeals to tourists with various interests and motives.
Price
Local places like Newquay offer seaside resorts and hotels rated three to five stars. Restaurants such as the Cornish Vegan cater to tourists with vegan and vegetarian dietary preferences. Local lodgings are found in establishments like the Chain Locker and the St Austell Brewery Accommodation. For mass tourists, there are five-star accommodations such as The Headland and The Riverside.
These local and major hotel options vary in experience level and price. Explorer or drifter types may make reservations on the Airbnb website to get true local lodging in rental units owned by Cornish residents, while others may prefer more traditional options such as three- or five-star hotels. For a more local dining experience, visitors may go to neighbourhood eateries and restaurants, or they can choose fast food restaurants and other general establishments with more standardised food. Food can even be brought to guests' accommodation through delivery apps such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo.
This shows the range of prices between the tourist towns and cities in Cornwall and the small towns and villages. All of them offer inclusive accommodation, with delivery value propositions around safety and visitor satisfaction.
Place
Five million tourists visit Cornwall every year for its attractions. Cornwall was voted one of the UK's top holiday destinations by the British Travel Awards. The Minack Theatre's performance season runs from the end of October until the Easter holidays. St Michael's Mount castle and Truro Cathedral also offer historically significant heritage experiences.
The Minack Theatre is a culturally significant attraction that still entertains visitors with plays and other dramatic material staged by touring theatre companies. Accommodation is available in locations from beachfront hotels to downtown. Local businesses that include a bar, such as the Chain Locker in a 17th-century building, offer harbour views from the bar off the quay. Other St Austell Brewery venues are found around Cornwall, such as the old Wellington Hotel in Boscastle village. Towns, cities, and villages all have accessible accommodation, so visitors to different parts of Cornwall can enjoy themselves in safety.
Guest houses such as the Anacapri have won the Laterooms "Simply the Guest" award for the UK's best beach hotel. The Headland is housed in a Grade II listed building classified as of "special interest", and includes international-standard facilities such as an indoor pool and spa.
Promotion
The public transport system allows visitors to hail coach buses and taxis. Tourists can also hail a cab digitally through ride apps such as Uber. The Cornish Main Line railway connects Cornwall and Devon, serving Cornish communities like Truro as well as major English cities such as London and Birmingham.
On-site visitors can hail a cab using the Uber app on their smartphones, just as they can book restaurants or hotels digitally. In this way, digital technology has many advantages. Even where bus and train providers support mass tourism and group travel, the Uber platform's capabilities are superior in overcoming any local language or cultural barrier that might limit local transportation.
Conclusion
The presentation provided an overview of Cornwall as a tourist destination. It showed that Cornwall has long had high visitor involvement, with tourism contributing 21% of GDP as early as 1997. It also covered the man-made and natural attractions that interest tourists, including the Royal Cornwall Museum and local cultural festivals such as the City of Lights.
In Cohen's Tourist Typology, organised mass tourists find the destination appealing. This is founded on Cornwall's geographical isolation as an English county and its distinct native tongue and way of life. The county also has good accommodation at hotels and lodging facilities around the area. First-class options from inner city to coastal locations ensure Cornwall can accommodate a wide range of visitors. Attractions are offered in quite an array to cater to various interests, from shared experiences and natural adventure to cultural and athletic attractions.
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