High visitor satisfaction level revealed for South West

The South West Visitor Survey 2008, reveals satisfaction levels are particularly high with; the visitors overall enjoyment, the general atmosphere and the overall feeling of welcome during their visit to the region.

The results show that 90% of respondents would definitely recommend the South West as a place to visit and 88% would definitely re-visit, confirming the high satisfaction scores. Compared to the 2007 visitor survey overall, the South West remains high in terms of satisfaction levels, however  there is still room for improvement as the results show.

The South West Visitor Survey 2008 was produced to build on the findings from previous regional visitor surveys and provide an up to date view of key aspects of tourism in the South West for monitoring and informing the development and delivery of  the regional tourism strategy, ‘Towards 2015'. Six key areas were investigated for the survey and these comprised of: visitor profile, characteristics of visit, deciding to visit and booking accommodation, environmental quality and local food and drink, visitor satisfaction and activities.

Key overview of main findings for 2008:

Visitor profile

• The majority of respondents were or had been staying overnight in the South West (65%) with the remaining 35% classified as day visitors.

Characteristics of visit

• The majority of respondents (81%) were visiting the South West for a leisure/holiday related trip.
• At the time of interview 85% of staying visitors were on a repeat visit to the South West, of whom the largest proportion (46%) had visited more than once in the last 12 months.

Deciding to visit and booking accommodation

• 84% of all staying visitors had not considered any other destination outside of the region, demonstrating a very loyal visitor market.
• The majority of respondents booked directly with their accommodation provider (61%), of which approximately half booked over the telephone with the other half booking online.

Environmental quality and local food and drink

• The largest proportion of respondents felt that the quality of the natural environment had not changed (41%), 37% felt that it had improved to some degree and 14% felt that it had worsened to some degree.
• At the time of interview, on average, respondents had spent 4.04 days in the region. Of these, 1.12 days (28%) were car free.
• Quality of product, cost/price and convenience/proximity were the top three most important factors for visitors when deciding to purchase food and drink on holiday, ahead of the fact that food and drink was locally sourced.

Visitor satisfaction

• Visitors to the South West displayed the highest levels of satisfaction with the overall enjoyment of their visit, the general atmosphere and the overall feeling of welcome during their visit.
• The lowest levels of satisfaction displayed amongst all visitors were for the availability of information.

Activities 

• The results clearly show the need for the provision of information to visitors whilst on holiday, with 40% of respondents not planning any of their activities or places to visit prior to their stay.
• There is an indication of a possible impact on secondary spend with approximately one in ten visitors restricting their choice of activities due to the cost of living.

Malcolm Bell, Director of South West Tourism, said:

"The results are positive for the region showing a high level of repeat visitors to the region, with the South West also being their first choice, which is very encouraging. These reports are useful to show how the industry is performing in terms of satisfaction levels as well as improvements that are needed, so we do not become complacent as a region. In particular this applies to the availability of information for visitors which was at the lower end of the satisfaction levels.

Tourism businesses who don't currently offer ideas and suggestions to their visitors could include car free days out itineraries on their website/in welcome packs, or personalise the information and ideas to the locality to keep the visitor spend in the local area. These small steps could also help with repeat bookings and long term customer satisfaction levels for these businesses, as well as increasing the visitor experience and distinctiveness of the area. This will also help towards keeping the South West as the UK's number one holiday destination."

Click here to view the full report

Date added: Thursday 18th June 2009
Latest updated: Thursday 4th March 2010