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FOREWORD |
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National parks have long been a stable resource, serving a great number of visitors in terms of their education, cultural, and recreational needs. By successfully preserving much of the nation’s natural and cultural resources, it has become an essential provider of holiday experiences. Yet, this does not mean that they are free from market competition. The growth of leisure service markets in the 21st century has brought an increasing amount of competition between many private recreation/leisure service agencies and public agencies. For example, many commercial theme parks and private resorts have competed for the same market of visitors in terms of their service and product offerings. This increasing competition has elevated the level of customer needs and service expectations of both current and potential visitors to our national parks. In order to successfully serve a wide variety of the public in the future, national park managers will be expected to be aware of their customer’ needs and the ever changing, fast-paced market environments. Marketing has emerged as a desirable means for providing more relevant services for both existing and potential customers of national park services. Marketing indicates a provider’s comprehensive activity aimed at meeting customers’ needs in order to achieve organizational objectives. National parks confronting increasing competition for the limited leisure market should implement a workable marketing plan to achieve their goal of serving the general public. As every national park has different resources and faces different market challenges, it is recommended that each park develop their own marketing plan. This guidebook has been written in response to the emerging need of national park managers to successfully cope with the increasing market competition. Specifically, this book is designed to help National Park Managers develop an effective marketing plan that is directed primarily toward their own park. The end result of gathering marketing plans for multiple parks will be the ability to link parks based on their heritage/cultural resources. These linkages are only possible with detailed knowledge of the resources that each park has (i.e., by completing a marketing plan). This book consists of six chapters. This is a how-to-type manual. The order of chapters coincides with the contents of the marketing plan that you should be able to create at the end of the manual. As you read through each chapter and try to connect it to your park, you will gradually be able to see the overall picture of your marketing plan. The worksheets shown at the end of each section are to help you actually compose a marketing plan. During each chapter of this guidebook, you will be asked to complete a relevant worksheet. By completing these worksheets along with the readings, you will be able to produce a marketing plan working for your park. This manual is not intended for individuals to read and then complete the marketing plan by themselves. Rather, the process should be completed during a retreat/brainstorming session with as many key park personnel as possible. The marketing plan developed should guide day-to-day operations, making it imperative that it result from a diverse group of park employees.
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