The document provides an overview of tourism services offered by Equinox Advisory across the public and private sectors. Some key services included destination planning, marketing and promotion, digital strategies, tourism training, cultural tourism development, meetings and events planning, and new product development. The services are aimed at improving destinations' economic, social and environmental goals while increasing tourism revenues and quality of offerings.

1. TOURISM SERVICES
Our Suite Of Integrated Tourism Services

2. INTRODUCTION
The importance of the tourism industry as a major
contributor to the economic and social health of nations
and regions throughout the world has increased
significantly over the past 2 decades.
Travel and tourism are now commonly viewed not only
as a major source of employment and foreign currency
inflows, but also as a catalyst for urban and rural
regeneration.
Equinox Advisory provides services to those Destinations
seeking to find a balance between their economic,
social and environmental aspirations while increasing
their market share, business leads, brand awareness and
marketing exposure, and improving the quality and
diversity of the tourism product offering.

3. INTRODUCTION
We also offer services tailored to the business
needs of private operators in the tourism
industry.
The full range of services we cater for
provides a holistic one-stop shop for
destination
planning,
marketing
and
management while reflecting the interaction
between (and the focus on) visitors, the
tourism industry that serves them, the
community and local population that host
them and the environment within which all
takes place.

4. PUBLIC SECTOR
Cultural And Heritage Tourism
An Overview Of
Our Tourism
Services
PRIVATE SECTOR
Destination Planning & Positioning
Cultural And Heritage Tourism Development
Development Funds
Digital & Social Media
Digital & Social Media
Energy Efficiency
Infrastructure And Value Chain
Marketing & Promotion
Marketing & Promotion
Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Events (MICE)
Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Events (MICE)
Mystery Shopping
New Tourism Product Development
New Tourism Product Development
Strategic Tourism Planning
Site Accessibility Studies
Tourism Accessibility
Strategic Planning
Tourism Policy Training
Tourism Training
Tourism Training Needs Analyses
Tourism Training Needs Analyses

5. MARKETING & PROMOTION
Marketing Strategy
• Providing Marketing Guidelines that
capitalise on a destination’s assets so
that money spent on marketing and
promotion can be focused on a
consistent message designed to drive
home the different points of that
message and to achieving its greatest
impact and return, rather than being
spent haphazardly and ending up with
insignificant returns on investment.

6. MARKETING & PROMOTION
Tourism Asset Inventory
Taking stock of assets with tourism development
potential and of what they need in order to be
turned into prime tourism sites that can attract
the tourists that matter – those with spending
money.
In accordance with the tourism readiness of the
sites identified, Equinox will then categorise the
inventory of tourism assets into those that can be
marketed right away and those in which
investment has to take place prior to marketing.

7. MARKETING & PROMOTION
Production Of Marketing
Material
Providing premium quality content
for multiple advertising channels
Providing top-notch design material
for printed advertising channels
Providing cutting-edge video
production and editing services
Providing professional soundcapture and editing

8. MARKETING & PROMOTION
Public Relations
Media relations
Press office function
Editorial meetings
Development of sales collateral
Press kit creation
Press release writing and distribution
Article advertorials

9. MARKETING & PROMOTION
Events
Roadshows
Media missions
Launches
Exhibition support and organisation
Representation at industry events at
target market

10. DIGITAL & SOCIAL MEDIA
Developing creative, targeted and effective marketing
campaigns which communicate directly to the consumers.
Careful strategic planning ensures campaigns have maximum
impact and every campaign is specifically tailored to respond
to client needs, to maximise visitor numbers, and to increase
destination brand awareness direct sales.
Social media platform creation and management, including Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest
Key influencer outreach, including bloggers and tweeters
Online content management
Devising ideas that will have go viral on the Internet
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to keep high-ranking online presence
even after changes to search engine algorithms

11. Major tourism trends have changed the
way
tourism destinations market their
products, resulting in an increasingly
complex maze of distribution channels.
As Destination competitiveness to attract
tourists lies in the ability to identify the
trends in tourism and to develop strategies,
as well as that of adapting the tourism
offering to the market, marketing,
distribution channel optimisation and
investment in human resources to keep
them up-to-date with the latest trends has
become more important. Some of these
trends are listed on the following page.
TOURISM TRENDS

12. Globalisation of markets with more efficient methods of
information exchange
Increase in direct bookings through the Internet
Dramatic increase in airline traffic and low cost airlines
Move from mass tourism to more bespoke, “experiential”
activities, with tourism shifting from the observer type to the
active role type
Increasing professionalism in the industry
Rising customer expectations
Greater awareness of environmental impact and regulation
Greater price consciousness and price competition
TOURISM TRENDS

13. DESTINATION PLANNING & POSITIONING
Situational Analyses
Tourism is a highly-fragmented industry. A planned
approach
to
tourism
product
development,
segmentation and marketing is essential if the tourism
sector is to realise its full economic potential.
This is best achieved by strategising in a planned, orderly
fashion
and
through
the
undertaking
and
implementation of a Strategic Tourism Master Plan that
Understands:
• the host community;
• Visitors; and
• the contribution of tourism, both in terms of
 Economics; and
 Social and entrepreneurial value.

14. DESTINATION PLANNING & POSITIONING
Planning Process
Destination leadership
Stakeholder Representation & Engagement
Strategic Planning
Research Planning
Risk Management Planning
Strategic Marketing Planning
Festival & Events Planning
Assistance for Access to Funds & Grants

15. DESTINATION PLANNING & POSITIONING
Destination Development
Effective Destination
Management
structures – setting up
the right:
•tourism associations,
•business hubs, and
•networking amongst
tourism stakeholders
Facilitation of Public
tourism infrastructure
and Private sector
investment
Destination Access
including aviation,
land transport,
water transport
Protection of
Natural Environment

16. DESTINATION PLANNING & POSITIONING
Destination Development
Destination Products and Experiences:
Destination Quality and Standards
idea generation and development of accommodation
festival and events
food and wine
culture and heritage
growing niche markets
visitor information and interpretation
Creation and Implementation of Training Programs to
Further Develop Skills
Development of Emergency Security Plans for Natural
Disasters

17. DESTINATION PLANNING & POSITIONING
Destination Marketing
Brand Development and Management
Market Research and visitor insight
Digital and Social Media
Public relations
Consumer Marketing
Events and Festivals
Trade Representation
Cooperative Marketing – Public/private partnerships for sustainable tourism

18. DESTINATION PLANNING & POSITIONING
Performance Monitoring and
Evaluation
Visitor Satisfaction and feedback reports
Review of the Planning Framework
Education of the Role and value of tourism
Promoting the awareness of the value of tourism
among locals and youngsters through training and
development of training kit

19. STRATEGIC TOURISM PLANNING
Impact Assessments
This comprises the analysis of the economic, social
and environmental impacts of tourism. Tourism
development, if planned and carefully developed
according to market needs, will bring about the
positive benefits of creating more jobs, increasing tax
revenues and the quality of life of the hosting society.
Measuring and monitoring tourism impacts on which
different tourism sectors can be developed on the
economic, social structure and environment fronts,
and on both urban and natural environments will
enable decisions to be taken to bring the highest
return on tourism investments with the least possible
negative impacts. This entails achieving growth
within a controlled environment, rather than
haphazardly with possible negative short- and longterm consequences on the destination.

20. STRATEGIC TOURISM PLANNING
Visitor Research
• Provide a destination Vision and foresight that will be
based on the needs and wants of the existing
potential tourist. The Visitor research will also identify
new market segments and decision patterns that will
increase visitation to the destination. Therefore,
visitor research will show how the destination needs
to brand itself to appeal to existing tourism and also
to create new forms of brand images to appeal to
new potential markets and tourists.
• Match tourism supply and demand – a plan to
provide adequate facilities, amenities, services and
events after identifying what the visitors want and
need. To further develop tourism in line with what
the visitors want, and to choose to develop only the
high quality tourism sectors which focus on smaller
numbers and greater revenue return.

21. STRATEGIC TOURISM PLANNING
Development of Niche Markets
• To propose the development of high-quality
niche tourism sectors which would be in line
with projected needs and wants gathered
from the visitor research.
• Niche Markets could be as narrowly or
broadly defined as the case requires.
Culture-oriented events, the MICE Industry,
sports tourism, gastronomic tourism and
other forms of tourism targeting specific
market segments all qualify as niche markets
and they need to be developed in
accordance with the specificities of the
destination and the target addressable
market profile.

22. STRATEGIC TOURISM PLANNING
Developing Stakeholder Involvement
In order for a destination to be sustainable for
economic growth to happen in line with environment
conservation and quality of life improvement principles,
stakeholder participation is key. Stakeholder focus
groups including locals and local entrepreneurs, airlines,
hotels, real estate developers and other tourism
stakeholders, need to be involved in the vision and
strategy formulation processes.
Through stakeholder involvement, the potential to
repackage existing tourism products and packages, as
well as the development of new products and events
that may bolster tourism in both off-peak and peak
months needs to be examined and acted upon.

23. STRATEGIC TOURISM PLANNING
Value Chain Development
A value chain is a system of people, organisations
and activities needed to create, process and deliver
the tourism product and service from the suppliers of
any inputs involved, through to their processing by
intermediaries and producers, all the way to the end
customer (the tourist).
Careful analysis, selection, and effective dialogue
between actors in the value chain (such as
producers of local food that supply hotels and
private or public institutions), assist in identifying
opportunities for inclusive growth, which means,
among other things, that smallholders can sell more
products at prices that are closer to the market price
for the final consumer. This results in increased
incomes for traditionally low-income households and
long-term social benefits for local people especially
in rural and peripheral areas.

24. TOURISM ACCESSIBILITY
Transport Planning For Tourism
The creation of ideas to develop unique
transportation methods both for land and sea. This
would include transport routes, transport vehicles,
the
integration
of
transportation
systems
(intermodal transport solutions) and tourismfriendly transport systems and schedules.
This facilitates mobility of tourism around the
destination and also to areas which are not
touristic hot spots at present, but are still attractive
to the tourist. This would also be a means for
income generation in segregated areas.

25. TOURISM TRAINING
Tourism is a people’s industry. In view of the fact that
the human resource is a fundamental input on the
showing that the level of service given to the tourist,
together with the strategic and operational
management of tourism establishments, will have an
impact on the destination product experienced, the
service delivered, as well as the resultant brand and
destination image are even more important in
developing countries in the context of their Tourism
Development Strategies, most of which embrace
ambitious tourism number targets. Perceived level of
service can have a significant impact on tourism
numbers and repeat customers.
It is therefore important not only to achieve these
goals in the short-run, but to cater for them in the
long-run and train employees and management to
be prepared for projected increases in tourism
numbers if those numbers are to be sustained across
time.

26. TOURISM TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSES
Our training needs analysis services can cover training needs
both from a public sector perspective and from a private
sector perspective.
From a public sector perspective, it is important for the
central authorities of a country to know what policy direction
they should take in terms of education and training in order
to be able to sustain the tourism industry over time.
From a private sector perspective, it is important for
economic operators to be able to know what strategic
direction they want to give their business and to ensure that
they have the right mix of human resources to be able to
make that strategic direction a reality. This does not only
pertain to employee quantities, but also to the skills that such
employees should and need to possess. Training needs
analyses may identify shortcomings and enable economic
operators to address them before they become a problem.

27. TOURISM TRAINING
Provision of Tourism training targeted to
direct tourism establishments (such as
restaurants and hotels) and also to
indirect tourism suppliers (such as bus
drivers, farmers, guides, and souvenir
makers).
Tourism training would normally, among
other
things,
include
operations,
performance optimisation, strategy,
management,
customer
service,
innovation, e-business, critical and
creative thinking, problem solving.

28. TOURISM TRAINING
Tourism Entrepreneurship Training
Provision of training in Tourism Entrepreneurship
will give rise to a wide array of benefits for a
country, including:
Provision of employment opportunities and
creation of new income streams
Diversification of the economy
Increase in cultural and arts products and
awareness

29. TOURISM TRAINING
Training locals in entrepreneurship skills will
enable them to become economically selfsufficient, to have the option and the choice of
becoming
independent
from
foreign
employers by having the necessary skills and
knowledge to produce products and services,
and also extend their productive activities
towards the creation of their own income
streams from tourism instead of having to go
through intermediaries who keep the lion’s
share of the earnings.

30. CULTURAL AND HERITAGE TOURISM
Culture and heritage create a competitive edge due to the
uniqueness of culture to the destination. Our services in this
area include:
Evaluation of existing projects and sites
Feasibility studies for new heritage and
educational developments
Strategic planning and strategy development for
heritage, recreation and tourism
Interactive heritage interpretation and education
including audio visual productions
Developing, marketing and operating guidelines for
heritage visitor attractions
Developing cultural event themes
Visitor management and services

31. CULTURAL AND HERITAGE TOURISM
Culture and heritage are part of the tourism product
and also part of the local sense of identity and lifestyle.
Cultural events are developed around local beliefs
and traditions within a local community.
New cultural and heritage events can be developed
for the purpose of attracting tourism. This development
needs
to
be
carefully
crafted
since
the
commoditisation of culture could create a ‘stage’
effect to the real purpose of the event which at times
creates a ‘fake’ replica of the real meaning of the
event, which increasing number of tourists are tending
to dislike. Provision of carefully-developed events that
keep the local culture in mind will enhance local
culture and crafts, provide a financial return to other
tourism businesses and creating a stronger sense of
local identity.

32. MEETINGS, INCENTIVES, CONFERENCES &
EVENTS (MICE) INDUSTRY
The Mice Industry is the business side of tourism and it is
a very important component of any tourism strategy
since the average spend per person is 3 times that of a
leisure tourist and since it also complements leisure
tourism in terms of seasonality while using the same
infrastructure. Our services in this area include:
• Venue Auditing & Positioning – this will give a clear
picture of the present venues that are available for
the conference industry. New venues can then be
proposed to be built.
• Analysis of existing and potential markets
• Evaluation of MICE Economic impact on destination

33. MEETINGS, INCENTIVES, CONFERENCES AND
EVENTS (MICE) INDUSTRY
The conference industry is a people’s
industry and is built on overseas agency and
PCO relationships.
A
strategic
investment
plan
and
recommendations for new developments
and new business systems need to be put
together to serve as a roadmap. The more
critical features of this roadmap are
provided on the next slide.

34. MEETINGS, INCENTIVES, CONFERENCES AND
EVENTS (MICE) INDUSTRY
Strategy and positioning – a destination might be a good MICE
destination for one target market but not for another. A
strategy plan and market research will identify which countries
might consider the client country as a destination for MICE
Examination of the present IT policies and systems, as well as
stakeholder engagement strategies to ensure the effective
distribution and successful operation of the company's
products, as well as market entry strategies
Nurture existing and develop new business leads to the right
target market to increase the volume of requests for proposals
and converted sales

35. NEW TOURISM PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
A destination keeps ahead of the competitive
edge by its ability to offer creative and innovative
products and services.
Design of new leisure and incentive itineraries and activities
Creation of tourism pathways in villages including signage and
information boards
Creation of new product ideas and tourism schemes such as
voucher systems linking different tourism companies to offer a
new package that could also be customised by the tourist

36. Our Mystery shopping services are intended
to test specific aspects of a tourism services
portfolio and to compare current service
levels with best practices in the field. Any
areas of potential improvement will be
pointed out together with recommendations
as to how the existing gap may be plugged.
We cover the following areas of service.
Restaurants
SPAs
Hotel Rooms And Hotel Facilities
MYSTERY SHOPPING

37. MYSTERY SHOPPING
RESTAURANTS
Use Of Ingredients
Cooking Methods & Menu Choice
Presentation
Overall Experience

38. MYSTERY SHOPPING
SPAS
Client Evaluation
Service, Ambience & Ingredients
Overall Experience

39. MYSTERY SHOPPING
HOTEL ROOMS AND HOTEL FACILITIES
Hotel Environment
Common Areas
Individual Rooms

40. INFRASTRUCTURE AND VALUE CHAIN
In order to be able to attract tourists, a destination
would normally require at least a decent
infrastructure. For countries that are still
developing, this means that an investment of
resources needs to be made before tourism can
take off. Infrastructural items that would normally
need to be invested in before tourism can take off
include the following:
Telecommunications
We can also help in
identifying
which
priorities to give to
which areas in order
to make the best
use of available
funds.
Health & Sanitation Services
Water Infrastructure
Transport Infrastructure
Energy Infrastructure

41. DEVELOPMENT FUNDS
A destination keeps ahead of the competition
by its ability to offer creative and innovative
products and services. In this areas, our
services include:
Design of new leisure and incentive itineraries and activities
Creation of tourism pathways in villages including signage and
information boards
Creation of new products ideas and tourism schemes such as
voucher systems linking different tourism companies to offer a
new package that could also be tailor made by the tourist

42. ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Energy efficiency is no longer a buzzword that is just
elicited for hype purposes.
In today’s world, characterised by the need for cost
efficiency and increasing energy costs, it is important
to be able to ensure, even from a business perspective
alone, let alone from a business ethics point of view,
that energy consumption is as efficient as it can be.
Efficiency takes into account the cost and lifetime of
the equipment being used, together with electricity
consumption and its cost.
At Equinox, we can help you determine which
investments are worth their while from the business side
and which ones are best left to a later date following
improvements in the technology or in its price.

43. MORE INFORMATION
For more information on our
Tourism Services Offering please
contact us on
info@equinoxadvisory.com or by
telephone on (+356) 21376242
EQUINOX – perfectly aligned with your needs