Customer journey of the international tourist in Fryslân
In the past 5 years, the Dutch tourism and recreation sector has grown significantly. As a result, provinces benefit from the various advantages that are cultivated in sectors such as hospitality and leisure.
Importance of international tourism
In 2018, tourists spent 55% more than in 2012, raising the total sum of expenses to € 540 million. An important factor in this increase is the growing presence of international visitors, which is responsible for 15% of the total overnight stays. Between 2017 and 2018, they even doubled their original expenditure of € 110 million. By doing so, the group proves to be of great importance for the development of tourism, recreation and to all stakeholders in the Dutch province of Fryslân.
Mapping out a tourist persona
Now the importance of the international tourist has been highlighted, various sectors have indicated to hold an interest in tourist personas:
- Who are the people behind this growth?
- Why did they choose Fryslân?
- How did they experience the province and its range?
- How do these guests express themselves about Fryslân?
- What do they comment on Fryslân?
- Do they want to return?
- What are they coming back for?
Customer journey research
We supervise three groups of Leisure & Events Management students from NHL Stenden University in their research on analysing the customer journey of the international tourist in Fryslân. This involves a lot of different touch-points and therefore, the customer journey was divided into 3 processes with corresponding research questions:
- Pre-experience phase: What is part of the pre-experience phase of International tourists coming to Fryslân?
- Experience phase: What is part of the experience-phase of international tourists visiting Fryslân?
- Post-experience phase: What is part of the post-experience phase of International tourists coming to Fryslân?
Are you interested in sharing your experience of expertise? Please contact the author of this blog, our assistant project manager Noël Middelhoek, for more information about this project.
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