RHP works collaboratively in destinations with communities, businesses, DMOs and other stakeholders to engage them in (re)discovering what is great about their place. We help them to view it through the eyes of a visitor and support the development of ideas about maximising value from tourism.
We believe that actions are more important than words. From the beginning we use the momentum from our engagement to create an enthusiastic and motivated group of people, willing to work together to co-create compelling experiences that tell the story of the place and all that it stands for.
Our approach recognises that thriving destinations in the 21st century are those that rediscover the true meaning of hospitality; provide individual and memorable experiences; and facilitate meaningful interaction with visitors. These destinations will compete by enhancing value rather than reducing price, using the tourism perspective as a means to create great places to live and work, as well as visit.
We recognise that every place in which we work is different and so offer a bespoke service. Our experience includes:
Our destination health checks create a snapshot of the visibility of a destination to targeted visitor segments. We provide an insight into the role tourism plays within the wider economy of a place, its environment and community, as well analysing the characteristics of what makes its tourism experience unique and marketable. Many of our clients find this a useful starting point for initiating dialogue with different stakeholders, leading to constructive short-term actions that can be taken to immediately improve the visitor experience.
We have developed a number of creative tools to engage stakeholders in identifying everything that a place has to offer. We focus on uncovering the hidden gems, as well as more familiar tourism assets. We can advise on creating experiences and stories that will appeal to new as well as existing visitors and encourage local people to be passionate advocates for ‘their’ place.
Tourism strategies often present a snapshot of the aspirations of a destination, however there is a world of difference between creating a strategy and making it happen. We work with destinations and DMOs to help deliver the vision and strategy – engaging stakeholders, defining key milestones and identifying and overcoming obstacles to success.
RHP takes a visitor-centred view of the tourism offer, and analyses existing routes to market. We support individual businesses in identifying ways in which they can promote themselves and the destination within a cohesive framework. We review the profiles of current and potential new visitor types and keep abreast of the emerging technologies that provide travellers with the freedom to explore their destination. With an ever-growing range of apps available, we help businesses identify how to use these to maximise impact.
Working together, tourism, creative, culture and heritage sectors can create significant opportunities to increase visitor spend, as well as a unique sense of place. We work at the interface between these sectors, creating a common language, building a common vision of the role of tourism, creating networks, defining visitor expectations, embedding what it means to be a host and maximising visibility.
When managed carefully, tourism can be a great asset to wildlife areas. It can increase public awareness of the importance of conservation, provide income and investment to support longer term stability and generate a sense of pride among local people. We have worked across many aspects of wildlife tourism projects. We create guidelines for international organisations, so that they can use tourism as a means of generating income and raise awareness of species conservation. We deliver training to support tourism organisations in creating best practice to minimise pollution, and audit supply chains to support sustainable sourcing. We can also facilitate trade associations in the development of welfare standards.
UK destinations – using culture and the creative industries to embed the personality of place at the core of the tourism offer. Find an example of our work in this area here
European destinations – engaging hotels in dialogue with their communities to support better integration of tourism into local life and enhance the economic benefits for all.
Stakeholders within a single destination – to reinvigorate tourism by celebrating the unique assets of place and improving connectivity between different elements of the visitor offer. Find an example of this type of project here
Leading thinktanks – to explore the issues of over tourism and rethink the metrics that can support and maximise tourism benefits for local people.