The Water Park is located seaside, close to the major town of Flacq, offering an immediate local population of some 150,000 persons. The Park is close to the major hotels of the east coast and is just one hour away from the airport. Plans to build an inter-town express rail to a dedicated terminus close to the park are well advanced.
As its name suggest, the park trades on its water adventures and exotic image which is closely linked to the series of highly successful Indian movies, which were shown worldwide. The park consists of a series of dispersed semi-independent activity locations, which offer a diverse range of adventure activities, ranging from conventional sporting activities (e.g., waterfront sports, cascade climbing and parasailing) to snorkelling, deep sea diving and underwater sight seeing. The Park caters to both sedentary and very active visitors. A range of themed food and beverage, accommodation, and retail outlets are provided for a variety of visitor needs and wants.
Visitors returns in 2005 totalled Rs 1.7 million, with the average visitor spending Rs 500 on inclusive entry and a further Rs 300 on ancillary products. The market is geographically segmented as follows:
Within a 12 km radius 24%
13 to 34 km radius 32%
Over 34 km radius 23%
Foreign 21%
The main overseas markets are France, Germany and United Kingdom. Most staff positions are seasonal, with only a few management, technical, sales and marketing personnel employed on a twelve-month basis. Park employees can be categorised according to organisational level, duration of employment, education or training, and type of recruitment, as shown in the following table:
Declining attendance between 2001 and 2004 (from 2.4 to 1.7 million) prompted the park's directorate to commission a study, by a major management consultancy firm, to determine the main reasons for this decline. The firm's report presented the following key findings:
• A new theme park, located just 12 km from Water Park, is providing competition. The new park has a strong international presence and reputation for service and quality customer care.
• A decline in repeat business is the main cause of the Park's declining attendance.
• The Park's physical layout gives employees a sense of isolation and little feeling of "belonging" to the organisation.
• The park's individual activity locations are unaware of developments and activities occurring elsewhere in the Park.
• Management is perceived to be inaccessible and slow to respond to satellite problems.
• Management rates the quality and development potential of the majority of frontline staff as "poor-to-average".
• Thirty-seven percent of frontline staff do not have a foreign language.
(a) What internal communication problems are apparent at the Water Park?
(b) What should be done to alleviate these communication problems?
(c) What form(s) of communication would be most appropriate for conveying a marketing message to potential customers? Explain your answer.
(d) Who are the primary stakeholders of the Water Park? Design and discuss an effective system for communicating with each of these concerned groups.