Management & Operations of the Opera House-Samples for Students

Question: Choose any Tourist Destination and write a report on it. Answer: Tourist attraction chosen: Opera House, Sydney About Opera House, Sydney The Sydney Opera House is a centre for performing arts with multiple auditoriums and venues, in Sydney, Australia. Renowned among tourists across the world for its distinctive architecture, it was designed by Danish architect Jrn Utzon and was opened on 20th October, 1973(sydneyoperahouse.com, 2017). The facility is located adjacent to the Sydney central business district; near the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Facilities available: It hosts over 1500 events a year, with more than 1.2 million people attending them annually. It hosts programmes of countless artists from across the world, including four local companies: Opera Australia, the Sydney Theatre Company, the Sydney Symphony Opera, and the Australian Ballet. The Sydney Opera House trust, a New South Wales State Government agency, looks after management and operations of the Opera House. UNESCO officially recognized the Opera House as a World Heritage Site on 28th June, 2007 (environment.gov.au, 2017). SWOT Analysis STRENGTHS The Opera House is one of the most remarkable specimens of architecture of the 20th Century and attracts more than 8 million visitors annually, both domestic and overseas (Beranek, 2012). Over 350,000 people take the guided tour of the Opera House annually, with tours costing from A$ 30 to A$ 135. It can host multiple events at a time, owing to a number of performance venues; namely the Concert Hall, Joan Sutherland Theatre, Drama Theatre, Playhouse, Utzon Room, and Outdoor Forecourt. The building also has its own recording studio, restaurants, cafes, bars and souvenir stores. WEAKNESSES The Opera Houses primary weaknesses are its poor back-stage facilities which have not been improved and enhanced over the years. The orchestra pit congested, cramped and unfit for rendering high quality orchestral sound. Since 2003, a local activist-group called the Sydney Opera House Activists Group, have campaigned against the Forecourt Concerts exceeding the authorized noise levels. To that effect, the House was imposed a $15,000 fine by the NSW Dept. of Planning and Environment in February, 2017 (Boland, 2017). OPPORTUNITIES The Opera House has become a symbol of Australia and in the 2012-13 financial year alone, it contributed approximately A$ 141 million as direct turnovers to the Australian economy, and an added A$ 113 million indirectly, with its influential supply chains in other sectors of business. It currently boasts of a net worth of A$ 4.6 billion. However, it is valued even greater as a tourist-attraction- a Deloitte Access Economics report estimates the House to contribute A$ 775 million to the nations economy annually (Deloitte, 2017). It is also estimated to have created 8,439 full-time jobs directly or through other sectors like retail and tourism. The House also has a staggering digital reach of 128 million, owing to social media platforms and live-streaming through its official Play channel. THREATS The most immediate threat the Opera House faces is the obvious fact that opera and theatre are a dying art forms and their relevance is receding fast, replaced by movies, TV shows and online programmes. As the Government funding dwindles each year, it is unlikely that the House will keep attracting the same number of tourists in the foreseeable future, just because of its architecture. After 44 years of its formal opening, there has been no major renovation or restructuring project to bring the building at par with the modern age of international tourism and congested traffic. In 1999, Utzon was recalled to supervise a supposed remodelling project worth A$ 700 million; however such plans never materialized. Such procrastination and complacence will undoubtedly see newer attractions overbear the Opera House as one of Australias prime tourist attractions. TARGET MARKET PROFILE The target profile of the Opera House is a multi-faceted one. Visitors can be classified into three specific categoriestourists; people who go to watch performances ; and general visitors (mostly locals). Art forms like opera, theatre and concerts are losing popularity among the youth. So, about 90% of the 1.8 million annual performance-goers hail from the 40-60 age group, while 15 to 39-year-olds seldom buy tickets (OToole, 2013). However, the count of general visitors who drop in along with friends and family to the restaurants and bars, or just to enjoy the view, is significantly higher in this latter age-group (15-39). The age-categorization of the 350,000 people who take the guided tour annually, is a rather homogeneous one. There is a significantly higher proportion of overseas tourists than domestic visitors. All age-groups are well represented in this category; with a slightly higher percentage of people aged 20-45. References: Beranek, L. (2012).Concert halls and opera houses: music, acoustics, and architecture. Springer Science Business Media. Boland, M. (2017). Noise Fine: Toaster Folks' First Win Over Opera House Concerts.The Australian. Retrieved from https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/music/noise-fine-toaster-folks-first-win-over-opera-house-concerts/news-story/91362db275f0485a9ba4475525099de8 Deloitte. (2017).Sydney Opera House worth $4.6b to Australia. Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/media-releases/articles/sydney-opera-house-worth-australia-171013.html O'Toole, J., Adams, R. J., Anderson, M., Burton, B., Ewing, R. (Eds.). (2013).Young audiences, theatre and the cultural conversation(Vol. 12). Springer Science Business Media. sydneyoperahouse.com. (2017).sydneyoperahouse.com. Retrieved 8 August 2017, from https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/our-story.html World Heritage Places - The Sydney Opera House - World Heritage values.Department of the Environment and Energy. Retrieved 8 August 2017, from https://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/sydney-opera-house/values