Will COVID-19 be the trigger point for developing visitor attraction revenue management?

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to explore how the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will influence the development of revenue management practice in the visitor attractions sector. Design/methodology/approach: This viewpoint paper builds on the argument that tracking previous patterns of behaviour and trends can be used to predict future actions and developments. Findings: The paper identifies how historically the development of revenue management practice has been driven by major external trigger points often linked to sudden increases in competitive pressures, such as the deregulation of the airline industry, and expands on this to argue that the pandemic is one such trigger point that has fundamentally changed the approach to revenue management through a refocusing on key principles to manage demand and that this could potentially accelerate its development within the visitor attraction sector. Originality/value: Pre-COVID, the practice of revenue management in the visitor attraction sector was underdeveloped, and the opportunities to develop revenue management had not been discussed in the academic literature. This paper suggests that the challenges of the pandemic that forced visitor attractions to focus on visitor demand management can now begin to be extended to incorporate the management of revenue and will consequently be of value for academics and practitioners.