Developing Tourism Products in the Primary Attraction Shadow

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This article examines the activity and attraction usage patterns of en route traveling tourists in sparsely populated areas in Northern Europe. Several studies have documented that en route travelers are driving long distances close to every day, and that they spend little time on most stop sites. The choice of where to stop seems partly to be based on information of primary attractions and partly the stops are made by impulse. A common belief among both local developers and many consultants is that adding new attractions to a site will keep tourists staying in the area for a longer time, and hence spending more money. Consequently, there has been a rapid growth of new attractions like small museums, commercial information centers, and thematic attractions. Money for such investment has been available in abundance in Norway, and "positive" market analyses have been easy to obtain. After some time, however, many of these attractions fail or need additional financial support to survive. The developers then claim for more marketing money, often showing that other attractions in the region have higher visitor numbers, and that new investment is needed for survival. The aim of this article is to try to explain why some attractions fail to get a sufficient number of paying visitors, even after additional investment and "improved marketing." The study is based on models and data from both en route surveys and a sample of attractions built or expanded in the 1990s. The article will also discuss some alternative ways of examining markets and developing strategies to make attraction products more sustainable, based on structured information of tourist flows and studies of actual attractions behavior along routes.