As destinations prepare to resume after months of restrictions due to the pandemic, tourism managers have to tackle many safety issues, including bad behavior among tourists.
With compliance among tourists as a problem, destination managers need effective tools to ensure compliance.
A professor at the University of Surrey, Xavier Font, explains that visitors see holidays as a period of freedom. As such, tourism managers need to nudge visitors without making them feel like they are sacrificing their freedom.
Destination management and tourism specialist, Doug Lansky, has tips for tourism managers to stop tourists from behaving badly.
Lansky suggests that managers can use education, fines, and signs to inform tourists what behaviors are unacceptable in whatever area they visit.
Tourist managers can nudge tourists to avoid bad behaviors by attaching a benefit to compliance. Managers can also impose fines on tourists who break the law.
Some managers can make tourists take pledges or sign a consent form before they visit or on arrival.
Lansky believes that combining nudging with fines also works great in cases where some tourists get rewarded for good behavior while others get fined for bad behavior.
Designed compliance is another alternative for tourism managers, according to Lansky. He says tourism destinations can force good behavior by creating situations where compliance is the only option.
Lansky also suggests a situation where all tactics are combined. Destination authorities send emails to inform visitors of the rules immediately they register, educate them while on a flight, confiscate and replace contraband objects at the airport, make them take a pledge at the destination, and appreciate them for compliance at the end of a visit.
According to Lansky, tourism members have several tools at their disposal. The onus is on them to choose which measure to take, and the best ways to implement them.
