Introduction
This report will focus on my experience in placement at TEM in planning a cultural festival to market local heritage in efforts to promote tourism. It will highlight key areas where the organization has succeeded and the major problem areas, such as ineffective marketing strategies and operational inefficiencies, while identifying successful regions, such as community engagement and digital integration. The following report, therefore, proposes a plan of improvement for future festivals that would comprise comprehensive marketing strategies, operational efficiency enhancements, and building partnerships with the various community sections (Evans, 2019). The festival will better present local heritage and tourism by strategically implementing learned theories and knowledge.
Problems Identified
As highlighted by Rogers & Davidson (2015), the poor marketing strategies resulted in a turnout lower than expected, having made considerable planning and preparations in this regard. This stems from improper promotional efforts and the need for a marketing campaign tailored for each specific audience portion. The festival’s marketing could have been less diversified or engaging. Hence, it did not manage to catch the eye of potential attendees. The unsuccessful use of digital platforms and social media channels also limited outreach and engagement efforts. In this digital age, with social media platforms as powerful marketing sites, the festival missed the crucial opportunity to get a message across to its target audience.
According to Wan & Chan (2008), operational inefficiencies exacerbate the problems associated with the festival. People attending the festival were also not satisfied with operational challenges such as long queues, lack of amenities, and poor crowd control, which all further damaged the overall experience. These operational challenges not only added to attendee dissatisfaction but needed to be stronger links contributing to the reputation and future success of the festival. According to Fong et al. (2018), in the planning and implementation of logistics, the event organizers underscored the need for effective logistical planning and execution, and hence the shortcomings in the two areas that were reflected by disturbances and discomforts of guests.
These issues might be addressed through various levels of action. At the initial stage, the festival organizers need to rebrand their marketing based on the insights of Rogers & Davidson (2015) to all-inclusive, targeted campaigns to all sections of the audiences. The client audience engagement is maximized through the adept application of digital and social media. Barron & Leask (2020) argue that there are constant iterations of logistic planning and execution that reveal inefficiencies of operation. An iterative process within this approach makes the work adaptable to evolving digital communication landscapes, spotlighting weaknesses so organizations can continually refine strategies to improve their reach and impact on diverse audiences. This kind of nature, through iterations, ensures adaptability in the ever-changing land of digital communication and broader coverage across various platforms.
Successes Identified
A major transformation in guest involvement was seen in the success of introducing digital technologies. In providing interactive digital games and virtual tours during the festival, the event allowed participants to get involved and experience something interesting and interactive, mainly aimed at a younger audience. According to Sit et al. (2020), the information communication technologies used were instrumental in enriching the experiences of events; this way, the approach helped diversify the audience and increase participation. Do not forget that the event created modern, innovative elements that people talked about and gave guests great memories, being in tune with the overall satisfaction and enjoyment from attending.
This could be further attributed to the stress the festival placed on the aspect of community participation and motivation of local heritage. Barron & Leask (2020) emphasized community involvement in events management education, which was strongly pronounced in the festival programsfestival’s programs. The cultural performances, the artisan showcases, and the interactive workshops all culminated in the local pride and support of the people, lending the feel of the region’s rich heritage and tradition with all the resonating that came through with the local people. The festival attracted attendees by adopting the local culture and displaying the same. It solidified ties within the community, making the festival quite an event to look forward to on the local calendar.
Recommendations
Development improvement focuses on several challenges identified during the festival to enhance its success in promoting local heritage and tourism. The process of developing a broad marketing strategy is based on realizing an increase in awareness and attraction by diversified audiences (Rogers & Davidson, 2015). The combination of traditional and digital channels has allowed a bigger demographic to be reached and created the bustle in the run-up to the festival. Matching the message per recipient persona secures the campaign to their preference and allows for relevance. Partnering with powerful voices in social media channels amplifies reach and engagement, which has an explosive effect on promotional endeavors.
In creating a seamless and hiccup-free user experience, there is a need to enhance operational efficiency. Improving the queuing system, increasing the availability of amenities, and instituting active crowd control measures will help reduce potential bottlenecks and ensure ease of event operation. Finally, partnering with local community organizations and coalitions will enable stronger support and participation from local community members and organizations. Collaborating expands the festival’s reach in promotional efforts, programming, and resource sharing and instills the sense of the community owning and being proud of the festival. The festival is an event of a collective effort that adds to the practice within the region as an important tradition through the participation of the local stakeholders.
Conclusion
The experience from my TEM placement brought to light the theoretical application that underpins the challenges and success in event management. Thus, the successful aspects of community engagement and digital integration can be capitalized upon in future festival editions, addressing issues of marketing deficiencies and operational inefficiencies so that these events have a higher impact on promoting local heritage and tourism. Events, therefore, improve continually, and in this way, through strategic and strategic implementation, learned principles evolve to meet the dynamic needs of all stakeholders attending them, enhancing their engagement and success in attaining their set goals.
References
Barron, P., & Leask, A. (2020). Events management education. In The Routledge handbook of events (pp. 287-305). Routledge.
Evans, N. G. (2019). Strategic management for tourism, hospitality and events. Routledge.
Fong, V. H. I., Wong, I. A., & Hong, J. F. L. (2018). Developing institutional logics in the tourism industry through coopetition. Tourism Management, 66, 244-262.
Rogers, T., & Davidson, R. (2015). Marketing destinations and venues for conferences, conventions and business events. Routledge.
Sit, S. M., Lai, A. Y., Kwok, T. O., Wong, H. W., Wong, Y. L., Lam, E. Y., … & Lam, T. H. (2020). Process evaluation and experience sharing on utilizing information communication technologies and digital games in a large community family health event: Hong Kong jockey club SMART family-link project. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 579773.
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