Are Tourist Railways "welcoming" enough?

And of those fit but not connected, they possibly have family/friends who are.

 

For someone who only uses on-line for reference etc., you do seem to spend quite a lot of time on NatPres chewing the fat!

But more seriously, even if penetration of the world wide web is not 100%, it is significant. Given the figures @simon has given, the vast majority of people are connected - so clearly it is an important audience, that can be both a place to market your attraction, and also to pick up feedback from those who have visited about how their visit could have been improved. OK, you could gain feedback from the 11% who aren't connected - but it will be harder, take longer, and you will therefore be less responsive to developing issues.

As for car parks - last weekend I went to what I suspect is one of the two or three biggest tourist attractions in Wiltshire (non-railway). The car park was gravel, and I don't recall seeing other people tut-tutting as they got out of their cars. When we have visited the same attraction on really busy days, the overflow has been a grass field.

Tom

 

A large fully asphalted car park is probably overkill/beyond financial resources for most sites.

Maybe a smallish fully surfaced carpark (including coach spaces) for quiet days, with a larger levelled, drained and rolled area of gravel for busier times, plus a field for overflow on galas etc would be more affordable.

 

I don't think it matters if the car park is a field, gravel, asphalt or gold plated, what matters is that it is fit for purpose and not full of holes or waterlogged

 

I have parked in many visitor attraction car parks, and can only think of one that has ever bothered me in any sense. I once went to the Battlefield Line on a hot sunny day and in a very clean car. Their car park was practically a dust bowl and my car needed a complete clean all over again. My favourite car park is the overflow one at Bridgnorth on a very steep hill. Great fun!

 

This is fine but you would find the gravel needing more maintenance than you would expect. As for grass it would be okay for summer events but never underestimate the ability of people to bog themselves in a moderately wet field, even on level ground.

Paul

 

That was my experience from carpark duties at Quainton in the '70s. Often needed a Landrover parked strategically ready to tow out when the field was in use.

 

I'm genuinely concerned about the competency management regime if it deems the turning of a steam heat cock to be requiring significant training. Utter nonsense. The valve should be open when the loco attaches and can be closed when the water (which will not be significantly warmer than ambient) ceases to issue forth. If the steam heat bag hook and is in good order then the chance of even a mild wetting is non-existent. Presumably the guard has to go to the rear of the train anyway at the start of the day to carry out the brake continuity check by putting the rear vacuum hose on the dummy? Or are they not trained for that either?

 

As an IT supporter I am internet connected BUT I do not access sites such as Visit England or Trip Advisor. To use an analogy - logging onto to a computer is like entering a main line station where there are any different services available. I may only make one journey each time I enter the station hence the remaining journeys are neither noted or used. In the same way accessing t'internet gives access to many areas of interest but people restrict their access to those things they are both aware of and value (for whatever reason). In some ways even restricting the access to NP, there are some threads that I look at but don't respond to - and others where I feel I have some comment that I think contributes to the subject hence make a posting.

Perhaps it shows how much I value NP as a source of information and knowledge .

 

Maybe you don't do Trip Advisor but many people do. Agreed it's just one source of feedback for any visitor attraction but the reviews will give them an insight to what some visitors think.

 

Unless you never go anywhere new, I would say you are missing out. One can learn quite a bit from sites such as trip advisor. I can see no reason not to use it to get a feel for a place before you go. But it's your choice.

 

On the basis that "one man's meat is another man's poison" I prefer to visit attractions and NOT be swayed by others whose expectations may differ from mine. If Trip Advisor constantly gives negative feedback for an attraction and I accept the opinions to the extent of cancelling my proposed visit then I may actually miss something that would be both of interest and meet my expectations. Horses for courses spring to mind but I prefer to have the opportunity to visit without prejudice hence my considered decision not to complete surveys from attractions as I don't want to disappoint other visitors based on my prejudices.

 

Have to agree with you to a certain extent Fred. A bit like reading a film review. The only way to find out what it's really like is to go watch it yourself. I have used such things as Trip Advisor when booking accommodation though. If all reviews were negative then I'd probably not consider a booking but I've yet to come across anywhere that bad.

 

As I say it's your choice. If the feed back is overwhelmingly bad, I think most people would take notice.

If I look at a hotel and it's uniformly bad I will go elsewhere. If it's uniformly good I get suspicious. If it's mainly good with a few poor it's usually ok.

However to give one example in planning our summer holiday I looked at one attraction on Trip Advisor which I had visited in the past. One review caught my eye: 'I bought a ticket in advance for a Monday when I got there I found that on Mondays parts of the attraction are not open, despite the fact that they had sold me a full priced ticket.'


Worth knowing and worth two minutes of research.

 

Actually if I read a series of film reviews and they are all bad then I am unlikely to go. It's not fool proof of course La La land got good reviews and that's two hours of my life I will never get back

 

I tend not to take too much notice of film reviews as many reviewers can be quite pretentious. My cinema going tends to be dictated by what my partner wishes to see.

 

Domestic Facilities sometimes watches Gordon Ramsays Kitchen Nightmares.

Its interesting to see how some restaurateurs just 'don't get it' when it comes to customer service

 

Very significant! We've found this at CVR, where our Facebook promotions are now more successful than local papers. We've advertised in the local papers regularly over the last few years, and people have turned up.

We've started using Facebook, and in February we only promoted through Facebook as a sort of trial. Half Term trains had 6 coaches full, something we've never achieved with local paper ads. So whilst there may well be some who don't use online sources, they are a minority and so online marketing is where we will be concentrating on going forward. And acting upon comments from Google / TripAdvisor / Facebook is very much a part of this.

 

I don't blame you - it's hardly ever worth buying the local rag these days.

 

If I can just briefly return to the comments up the thread about car parking - the one railway which I remember visiting which had a beautifully tarmacked car park was the G/WR at Toddington. Having arrived there to be honest I wasn't sure if I had arrived at a railway or a retail & leisure park - it's completely destroyed the character and atmosphere of the site, and has made such an impression on me that I have not been back in over 10 years.
Do with that information what you will.