1. The good, the bad and the totally useless: An analysis of adventure marketing in Ireland Antonie Bauer

2. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 2 Research questions  How do adventure providers market their activities?  Which marketing strategies work best for the soft adventure industry?  How rational are the companies’ and the tourist boards’ marketing strategies?

3. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 3 What the literature has to say  Very little research on marketing of adventure providers, somewhat more on adventure tour operators, destinations and the adventure tourist  Schott: distribution mainly at destination; Swarbrooke et al.: brochure main instrument  Ateljevic: marketing of small tourism firms rather inconsistent

4. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 4 Data collection  Based on audits conducted for Fáilte Ireland  70 members of Fáilte Ireland’s adventure hubs in Cork and Kerry  Almost all of the market leaders  In-depth interviews with senior management or owners  Structured questionnaire

5. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 5 Data collected  Time and money spent on marketing  Details on all marketing activities  Evaluation of marketing activities  Main sources of new business  Profit and year-over-year growth

6. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 6 The companies  Providers of soft adventure – usually low risk, suitable for families  hill walking, horse-riding, diving, surfing, fishing etc.  Mostly owner-run micro-businesses  median revenue € 90 000

7. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 7 The companies Grouped into clusters for analysis:  growing (17) vs. shrinking (32)  profitable (38) / breaking even (17) / loss-making (15)

8. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 8 Results  Marketing budgets: On average 6.85% of revenue  Time spent on marketing: On average 7.4 hours/week  Strong correlation with company size

9. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 9 Who does what?  Growing firms tend to spend more money and less time on marketing than shrinking ones and to use more marketing instruments  Profitable firms tend to spend less time on marketing and to use more instruments than loss- makers.  Strongest difference between marketing strategies of managers with and without marketing training

10. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 10 Professionality of marketing

11. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 11 What the professionals do No marketing trainingAt least some training Marketing budget as % of revenue 6.37 Short-term planning64%88% Hours spent per week (median) 1.56 Long-term planning41%73% No of marketing activities (median) 712 Median revenue47,500122,500 % profitable5558

12. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 12 Size matters (sometimes): communication tools by company size

13. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 13 Frequency (red) and average rating of activities (blue)

14. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 14 Business generated and perceived effectiveness

15. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 15 Comparison to ratings  Negative evaluation of activities is confirmed; some of those with positive evaluations may be overrated (posters, brochures)

16. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 16 Is the marketing mix right? High rating + performance Low rating + performance High usageFlyersRadio and print ads Trade shows Low usageInternet / Website optimisation TI campaigns Match funding campaigns

17. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 17  Marketing mix still contains too many high-cost, low-impact activities like newspaper advertising and trade shows  Too few low-cost, high-impact measures like website optimisation and viral marketing.  The campaigns of the Irish tourist boards do not meet the needs of the providers at all.

18. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 18 So do the professionals know better? % using instrument

19. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 19

20. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 20 Conclusions The marketing activities chosen by adventure providers in the Irish Southwest  depend on company size and marketing training  vary widely in effectiveness and  tend to be rather inconsistent => Clear upside potential for individual providers and the tourism boards’ activities.

21. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 21 Thank you for your attention

22. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 22 Key references  Ateljevic, J. (2007) Small tourism firms and management practices in New Zealand: The Centre Stage Macro Region. Tourism Management, 28, p. 307-316  Buckley, R. (2010) Adventure tourism management. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann  Schott, C. (2007) Selling adventure tourism: A distribution channels perspective. International Journal of Tourism Research, 9, p. 257-274  Swarbrooke, J., Beard, C., Leckie, S. and Pomfret, G. (2003) Adventure Tourism: The new frontier. Oxford: Butterworth- Heinemann

23. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 23

24. Antonie Bauer, The good, the bad and the totally useless 2012 Adventure Conference 17 February 2012 24 Median rating = 4Median r. = 3Median r. = 2Median r. = 1