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964 QUTaCh and Practice
Journal I* Bulletin of Stavropol Region
UDK 338.48
Olah I.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ANIMATION IN THE TOURISM OF HUNGARY
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to give an overview on the role of animation in the tourism industry. The topic is quite debated, because many believe that animation activities only increase the costs of hotels and are not profitable activities and their impact can be hardly measured.
Some experts think that they can be attractions to tourists, they can provide various activities for all the age-groups and people with various interests.
Key words: tourism, hotels, animation.
Olah I. -
Assistant professor, Szent Istvan University, Hungary, H-2100 Godollo, 1 Pater Karoly str. Tel.: +36 28 522-000 E-mail: Olah.Izabella@gtk.szie.hu
Discussion
In general, animation should help towards realizing holiday wishes and desires. In this respect it goes beyond being simply a way of occupying or spending time, and demands at the very least a prior understanding of what tourists actually want and can achieve: this means knowledge of the motives and needs of tourists on the one hand, and their abilities and inabilities, on the other. In places where animation is more than just the supply of rooms and organization, it is necessary for it to overcome, for some tourists, the discrepancies between wishes and abilities. This can be achieved through well thought out planning (what can one do in this hotel, or in this place), through stimulating suggestions for a varied program, through providing helpful examples, and through active participation.
Finger et alsummarize the possible effects of animation as follows:
- augmentation of contacts;
- increase in communication;
- greater variety of holiday activities;
- more intensive holiday experiences;
- increase in fun, happiness and pleasure;
- development of own initiative;
- realization of needs;
- chance to develop further the experiences undergone [5].
This formulation points to the need for a more thoroughgoing understanding of the concept of animation, one that does not just see it as an entertaining service, but also as an educational start in personality development. The programs practiced, so far, must be qualitatively measured against these goals, even though the intentions behind them have tended to be on a much lower level [3].
Animation in tourism includes services provided at accommodations, leisure-time centers, sport-facilities or other tourism-related places, whose aim is to offer experience through establishing relationships among people and participating in games or other programs. Therefore, its primary objective is to
encourage, initiate people to take part. It also aims to offer opportunities for people with similar interest to spend time together but not in the frame of traditional free-time activities. It offers active programs for families, couples and individuals as well.
Types of touristic animation:
- recreational animation;
- recreational theme-parks;
- aqua parks, seasonal and over-the-year touristic or adventure parks where the focus is on water attractions;
- animation with prevention purpose;
- thermal tourism/ healing tourism animations;
- sport activities (sport-animation) - active, passive;
- animation for the soul;
- cultural animation;
- animation in museums;
- animation in castles, palaces;
- other cultural animation e.g. festivals, excursions in the nature, eco-trips in natural parks;
- other venues: language learning opportunities, thematic routes in literature, music, theatre plays;
- "scene-animation" - national parks, nature protection areas;
- gastronomic animation (wine-routes, cheese-routes, cooking trainings, gastronomic festivals);
- atypical entertainment animations;
- prestige-like animation (where tourists are expected to go, e.g. the exhibition of a famous painter);
- adventure-animation (uninhabited islands, disaster tourism, adventure trips and survival trips (http://www.szallodamenedzsment.ektf. hu/dvd/tananyagok/szabadido_menedzs-ment.html).
Economic aspects
Animation will incur costs for the company offering such services, yet it can be deployed successfully and profitably in different areas by framing com-
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pany policies relating to animation services so as to achieve specific goals: Innovative competitive behavior can be converted into product policies by creating a new type of product (such as a club holiday or a sports hotel) that exploits gaps in the market, because holidays with activities 'a la carte' differ substantially from the existing package holiday. New categories of customer who were not attracted by the previous holidays on offer, can thus be won. Better use can be made of the capacity available in the poorly booked 'out of season' months, through offering an animation program which makes a hotel stay and the associated activities independent of the activities and entertainment available in the holiday resort, and such alternative programs can partly compensate for bad weather. Success in animation helps to increase customer satisfaction. Two factors are mainly responsible for higher rates of bookings and lower advertisement costs-first, word-of-mouth recommendations (an important factor in tourism) and second, an increase in the number of tourists who re-book a particular holiday. 'Guests who participate in an animation program remain in the hotel and thus increase turnover in the food and beverage section, through higher spending. They also take advantage of supplementary offers. In addition to such financial returns, animation can support marketing goals through achieving a better image and position [3]. In order to be successful in business life, we need to know our competitors and the potential risks. Regarding the competitors, we need to check their product/services, target groups, prices, sales as well as their fame. We need to clarify how we are different from our competitors, why we are unique or better than others. This can be done with the help of competition-analysis [2].
Animation at a touristic unit has the following economic and marketing objectives that ensure the success even to the investors[4].
1. Advantage in competition
Animation - as a touristic product - is aUSP(Unique Selling Product), which may bring significant advantage in competition due to its uniqueness. The more various and more interesting activities can be offered to the guests, the more special will be our supply, thus the number of guests may increase. This is in harmony with the latest touristic trends, saying that tourists are more and more interested in active holidays. They are more interested in learning new information about various topics, but at the same time they require high quality services [1].
2. Attachment of customers/guests
The more satisfied the guests are with the services (i.e. the first stage of 4C theory by Kotler works: meeting the demand and needs of the customers), the more confident they are about making the right choice in that hotel, camping or restaurant. Therefore, they are expected to choose the same place the next time (especially if they feel that they can experience something new every time). Links
can be also created between guests and the hotel, the guests and the animator as well as guests and guests. In my opinion, the latter one is the most desired objective[1].
3. Increasing income
After am entertaining program, e.g. evening show, disco, club dancing, aerobic or other sport activities, guests become thirsty easily, thus they prefer to stay in the bar, instead of going back to their rooms, which may increase both the income of the bar and the level of satisfaction of the guests [1]. (The increase in the income may reach even 2030 %, if animators are all around in the hotel and there is no «all inclusive» package available).
4. Expanding the season
Most of the programs can be realized indoors when the weather is not suitable, but it is also possible to organize programs for typically rainy weather, so-called«rain-programs»(e.g. rain tours). Fortunately it is not only the summer season is favourable for animation. In winter, activities like snowball fights, sledging, excursions, roasting chestnuts, preparing Christmas decorations and gifts are also popular among guests. In spring, programs related to Easter may increase the range of programs in hotels. Such can be egg-painting, searching for eggs in the garden as well as traditional Easter folk games can also be played. In autumn, leaves can be painted, excursions to forests can be organized. In addition, there is a great demand in that season for animators at team-building activities, company events or conferences[1].
Based on the abovementioned, we can state that animation activities have a lot of economic and social benefits, which are mutual. They are able to increase the satisfaction of both parties. Animation activities do not belong to the traditional tourism services, but as the world changes with the demand of customers, it is becoming more and more important part in tourism in some countries. Of course, there are some requirements and necessary conditions to do such activities successfully and profitably: among others for example mature stage in the lifecycle of hotels, solvent demand by the tourists, experienced tourists, openness to new and active types of tourism, high quality services, high quality human resource in hotels, program-packages for all ages and all interests.
Animation is playing increasingly important role in tourism (especially in the life of hotels and restaurants/catering companies), since keeping the guests, attracting new ones, as well as offering new experience are among the top priorities nowadays. From such point of view, animation can be a marketing (PR) tool while offering tailored services to guests [l].
Results
While making an overview on situation of Hungary, I tried to collect statistical data and concrete infor-
66 TsTsCh and Practice A^ÍCU""^
Journal XK, Bnllctln of Stavrapal Reglan
mation about the number of hotels offering animation services, the number of programs offered, the territorial distribution of hotels with animation activities, the changes in the length of stay in such hotels, but unfortunately there is no data collected by the Central Statistical Office for such. I could only obtain information directly from hotels, which is not sufficient for making a national analysis on the sector. In the first decade of 21st century, there were significant investments in Hungarian hotels. In 2015 22 hotels were opened, out of which only 4 are located in Budapest [7]. At the same time, 13 hotels are being renovated or before construction in Budapest, and additional 18 are expected to open over 2016. The latter ones are mainly 4* and 5* hotels, following the recent trends in the sector [6]. Numerous new hotels have been built in Hungary which faced the creation of services that are attractive for tourists as a must to survive on the market. In most cases, animation seemed to be the solution, because it was effective and it did not impose much burden on the budget. Regarding animation in tourism, we need to consider the Hungarian and foreign hotels from different perspective. In Hungary, primarily hotels around the Lake Balaton offer such services. Only a few - approx. 10 % - hotels out of the Balaton region try to attract tourists with animation services. It means that most of the hotels with rooms ranging from 100 to 200 do not organize any programs for the kids or for those interested in active recreation. They only offer accommodation and meals, which is expected to result the decrease in the number of visitors or the rate of occupation on such an expanding and innovative domestic and international tourism market. It can be observed that hotels tend to insist on traditional hotel services and do not feel the need for a shift to the expansion of the supply.
REFERENCES:
1. Magyar Márton. As zállodaiés vendé glátós zolgál-tatások fejles ztése azanimációs program okbeve zetésével.Budapesti Gazdasá-gi Foiskola-Magyar Tudomány Napja. 2004. P. 19-208.
2. Rofrics Eszter. Azanimáció, minta differen-ciáláshozszükséges marketinges zkozbemu-tatása azalakarosi Hotel Karos Spa-pélájánk-eresztül, Budapesti Gazdasági Foiskola, Külkereskedelmi Foiskolai Kar, Marketing mesterszak. Budapest, 2004. URL: http:// www.doksi.hu/get.php?order=DisplayPrevie w&lid=20489
3. Pompl W. The concept of animation: Aspects of tourism services: tourism management. 1983. Vol. 4. Issue 1. P. 3-11. doi:10.1016/0261-5177(83)90045-6.
4. Pompl W. Turisztikai menedzsment. Buda-pesht : Springer, 2000. 332 p.
Conclusions
Based on my research in the tourism trends in Hungary, I need to conclude that there are two approaches in the practice. One is related to the evolution of tourism, meaning that the supply is adapted to the changing demand, recognizing that tourism is not a static but a dynamic sector. Such hotels proactively work on the creation of new services and manage to expand the group of target customers by offering services to various age-groups, field of interest etc. The other approach is mainly represented by large, traditional hotels, based on thermal water resources, which provides a solid basis for the continuous interest by tourists. Such hotels are not really interested in introducing animation activities, since the thermal water is a constant attraction for tourists, which means that the motivation to offer animation services is really poor. In my opinion, the latest trends related to the traditional, original Hungarian products, so called hungaricums, should also represent more in the supply of hotels. It is not because we should be proud of such products and attractions, but also because tourism in Hungary should focus on making the country more popular based on all the historical, natural and cultural values and resources, including hungaricums [7].
Unfortunately the information about such hungaricums by even the Hungarian citizens can be considered quite poor. Based on our joint research carried out among students, we need to state that most of Hungarian young people do not know what products and attractions are in the category of hungaricums. Therefore, one really important objective would be in hotels to create programs related to such attractions so that Hungarian tourists could also get an additional benefit while relaxing on holiday.
5. Animation im Urlaub / Finger K., Gayler B., Hahn H., Hartman K. D. Starnberg, 1975. 22 p.
6. Hungarikumok területi jelentoségének vizs-gâlata, különös tekintettel a pâlinkâra / Kâ-poszta J., Ritter K., Kassai Zs. Tér és Târ-sadalom, 2015. № 29 : (4). P. 139-154.
7. Trend riport 2015 a hazai és nemzetközi szâllodaipar teljesitményérol. Magyar Szâl-lodâk és Éttermek Szôvetsége. Budapest, 2015. 21 p.
8. Grudeva E. National peculiarities in perception of the seasons in the Russian and English languages (on phycholinguistic experiment data) // Paradigmata poznani. 2017. № 1. C. 62-65.
9. URL: http://www.szallodamenedzsment.ektf. hu/dvd/tananyagok/szabadido_menedzs-ment.html
