"EDICION 73" MULTI-DESTINATION VENTURE

PANAMA-COSTA RICA-CARIBBEAN 

CONCEPT

Multi-destination is the combination of a series of multiple destinations at an affordable price.  Allowing the traveler to experience essential characteristics of different locations in one vacation package. 

“ In some cases, tourists spend a week, ten days or even two weeks in one resort and after a few days they realized they have seen it all and get bored”

Martha Vanessa Concepción.  

“Multi-destination, for obvious reasons it is a great asset to those countries that coordinate their promotion efforts, offering the opportunity of visiting several locations in one package.  It is obviously not the same to visit one destination or various because the combination of destinations in one vacation- at practically the same price- enhances the visitors awareness and enjoyment.”.

Mr. Angel Miolan

WHY MULTI-DESTINATIONS? 

Multi-destinations have become a trend that countries and individual tourism enterprises apply, as a means of diversifying  their a product offering.

The high visitation rate of European tourists to certain countries in the Caribbean as well as tourism flows of Europeans to Costa Rica and Panama in conjunction with existing airlines routes between the two regions, constitutes an opportunity to form the basis of the multi-destination package.  Similarly, visitation rates of  North Americans to both regions might find multi-destination a interesting alternative to extend their stay although, given the average length of stay of North Americans, it may appeal  to a lesser percentage of visitors. 

VISION FOR MULI-DESTINATION 

We envision that we can offer the traditional visitor to the Caribbean, Costa Rica and Panama an important variation and increase diversity when making their choice to visit the region.  Specifically the case of European visitors, the vacation experience is enhanced by offering them the best of each country as an example, Sun-Sea-Sand; Ecotourism; Cultural Tourism and Shopping. 

BENEFITS 

-The development of additional potential in destinations that at present do not represent primary alternatives for European visitors, but through the combination of product lines with other destinations, can create a product to attract a flow of visitors. 

-An exchange of visitation that can strengthen airline routes through a better use of long haul routes as well creation of new ones.

-Joint private sector promotion of multi-destination packages

-Exploitation of outbound nationals between the countries involved.

-Multi-destination implies joint packages with specific image identification of each country, avoiding the loss individual member country positioning through the integration of destination images. 

RESOURCES 

-The existence of chain or franchise hotels within the region facilitates the possibility of standardized pricing for the multi-destination package.

-Development of new airline routes as well as the existence of shared routes between the Caribbean, Costa Rica and Panama constitutes the basis of the multi-destination program, permitting and strengthening the exchange of visitor flows between members. 

“This new means of tourism operation, that hopefully will prosper, will surely result in significant grow of our tourism industry”.

“The new tourism authorities-judging by their pronounced objectives, are interested in innovating and growing-must emphasize the study of these multi-destination possibilities that will surely be profitable”.

“Finally, I dare to suggest that the Dominican Republic should prepare products and packages to be promoted in Europe, providing the opportunity for Germans, French, Italians, Russians and even Japanese to visit our country while at the same time experiencing other nations”.

Sr. Angel Miolan Caribe Communication.www.caribecom.com. El multidestinos México, La Habana, Santo Domingo DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MULTI-DESTINATION AND CENTRAL AMERICAN INTEGRATION

For the purposes of this document we define the differences between these two concepts on a basic level as follows:

Multi-destination: each individual country continues to promote its destination and unique image while the private sector of the countries involved negotiates to develop packages and alliances that will diversify and complement the product offering of the tourism sectors.

Regional Integration: implies the integration of images of the diverse destinations in order to generate one image or positioning towards the market. 

JUSTIFICATION FOR MULTI-DESTINATIONS 

As  we have mentioned before in the statistics section from previous issues, Costa Rica as a tourism destination shows a disturbing dependency on the United States as our principal market. Figure #1 demonstrates that from 1988 to date, the US consistently  represents an average of 46% of the total air arrivals to our country.  This is not unusual given the fact that the US is the second worldwide generator of outbound travel  and the closest primary market to Costa Rica.  However, an analysis of the impact of this dependence justifies our concern and the importance of creating multi-destination packages to capture a greater influx of visitation from other markets, thereby decreasing this dependence.  We must not misinterpret the previous statement, the recommendation is to maintain and increase present levels of visitation from the United States, while we stimulate greater flow of visitation from other markets. 

In Figure #2 you will note the impact of the dependence upon the United States. In 1989 the total increase in visitor arrivals was 18% or 40,510 visitors, of this number 22,950 (56.6%) corresponds to an increase of US travelers.  In other words, in 1989 for every 100 visitors of increase, 57 were United States citizens. In this chart you will also note that from 1989 through 1993 this trend slowly decreased and by 1993 of the total 67,150 increase in visitor arrivals (versus 1992), 23,534 were US citizens.  In this case, for every 100 visitors of increase, 35 were United States citizens while the other two thirds were citizens of other markets. 

The extreme levels of dependence on the US occurred in 1995 and 1996, the former a year of growth while the latter was a year of decreased visitation.  In 1995 the total increased was 21,194 of which 20,000 were United States citizens; while 1996 the decreased of visitations to the country was 24,310 of which 18,078 were US citizens.  These two years, the first corresponding to a 3.8% increase and a second to a -4.2% in visitor arrivals demonstrates without a doubt the impact of this dependence. While 1995 was a up year, for each 100 visitors of  increase 93 were US citizens, denoting that the health of Costa Rica’s tourism industry was a result of a positive reaction of United States outbound travel.  Similarly, 1996 (the first year negative growth since 1984) reflected a decrease in overall air arrivals that also coincides with the decrease of air arrivals from the US, for every 100 visitors less 78  were US citizens.

Finally, regardless of the fact that the dependence on the US decreased on 1998, we can affirm that the 15.3% growth rate for that year is due primarily to United States visitors arrivals, of which for every 100 travelers in increase 68 were US citizens.

In this vein, the last 10 years can be characterized in two stages (fig.3), the first 1989-93 a trend of greater visitation to the country with less dependence on the US.  The second stage 1994-98 the reverse, decreased levels of growth with greater dependence on the U.S. market reaching a level that implies a primary impact of the United States market towards the sustainable future of our tourism industry.

Given the above, we believe it is imperative to develop new alternatives in new markets as a future market strategy for our country.  The philosophy of investing tourism advertising dollars exclusively in the US is in our judgment erroneous, a strategy that will serve only to increase our dependence upon one market.   We recommend a more open policy of investing tourism advertising dollars in the US to maintain and stimulate tourism flows while simultaneously investing a portion these “advertising” dollars into new markets,  primarily European, as a means of assuring a future sustainable growth.

MARKET ANALYSIS

Form Figure # 4 an analysis was made to determine the feasibility of each outbound market for multi or single destination packages.  The principle factors considered for this analysis was the distance between the markets and our destination and the average length of stay of the visitor to our region.  Therefore, if the average length of stay of a near by market is less than or varies between 7-11 days, the market was considered to be apt for the development of single destination packages while markets whose length of stay and distance from the destination were greater may be considered candidates for multi-destination packages. 

Figures 5 considers the aspect of accessibility from the market to the destination and consequently does not consider the Russian Federation as an immediate potential market, given its distance, difficulty of access and economical stability. 

In figure 6 and by way of example we analyzed the markets of Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain that rank 1,4,5,6,12 and 20 respectively among the principle generators of worldwide tourism (WPO,1998).  This analysis only considers tourism flows from these countries to the Americas identifying at the same time those destinations in the Americas with adequate airline routes to Costa Rica.  For the development of multi-destination packages we disqualified the USA and Canada that while having excellent air accessibility to the country and are principal markets to the region, given the complexity of their tourism industries and average length of stay  must be considered in a second stage of multi-destination, process if at all.

We then considered those countries in Latin America and the Caribbean whose volume of arrivals from the potential markets and accessibility to Costa Rica could become our allies in the development of multi-destination packages.

In the figure 6 you will note the Dominican Republic is a primary destination in the Americas for four of the six destinations studied, in which it represents 9.3% of arrivals German outbound travel; 2.5% of the United Kingdom; 7.3% of Italian travel and 8.7% of overseas travel generated by Spain.  Similarly Cuba is a primary destination for five of these markets where it represents 2.3%, 2.5%, 13.5%, 1.4% and 11.2% of outbound travel from Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain respectively.  You will also notice in the chart that Costa Rica only appears as an important destination for the German market. 

CONCLUSION

While Costa Rica has and presently maintains adequate tourism growth, it is imperative thar the country explore new Markets and opportunities

 Marketing Programs and Campaigns are by nature subject to change, given that they are based upon the preference and expectations of the Consumer. Those changes however, can only be made if adequate statistics are analyzed  and alternative programs are prepared. The above envision