Project number: 2013-741
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $0.00
Principal Investigator: Jasha Bowe
Organisation: University of South Australia
Project start/end date: 9 Nov 2013 - 29 Sep 2014
Contact:
FRDC

Need

The Sydney Fish Market (SFM) is a prime attraction for tourists visiting Australia. For the large and growing Chinese tourist cohort, it is a 'must see'. Tourists constitute a significant but unspecified proportion of SFM's 2.5 million-plus visitors each year. SFM has very limited market information about these visitors and what value they represent to their business - from both site-management and retail-outlet perspectives. The primary objective of this project is to help SFM develop a better understanding of its tourist visitor base in order to maximise returns for both SFM and its retailers. Currently, all-important information about this large consumer segment does not exist. Understanding this group's visitation motivation, purchase drivers and perceptions of its experience are key areas requiring further understanding if SFM is maximise the value of its business.

SFM is also in a unique position to support the salience of the Australian seafood industry as a whole. Recent research in the area of country-of-origin and tourism indicates that tourist visitation to a country can lead to improved preference and purchase probabilities for that country's products. Such an effect is found in the absence of specifically targeted marketing activities. Therefore, this project will also be framed in such a way as to determine how Australian seafood exporters can develop an effective pull-strategy by harnessing the potential of tourists, particularly from Asian countries such as China and Japan. As a must-see attraction for tourists SFM is a suitable conduit for testing the promotion of Australian seafood products to a large and valuable consumer cohort.

In summary, the two key overarching research objectives of this project, with particular interest in Chinese tourists, are:

1. To enable SFM to tailor effective marketing initiatives in order to enhance the tourists experience at the market, thereby leading to improved revenue and profit, including from sales of seafood products, for SFM and its retailers.

2. To guide the seafood industry in developing effective strategies to improve customer perceptions of Australian seafood. SFM provides an ideal conduit to reach these consumers.

Specific issues that this project attempts to address are:

1. What is the demographic composition of the visitor cohort (local, interstate and overseas) to SFM?
2 Which are the key drivers of tourists’ satisfaction at SFM?
3 Which initiatives can improve the tourists’ experience at the SFM?
4 Which initiatives with the tourist cohort can enhance revenue and profit for SFM and its retailers?
5 Which initiatives at SFM would enable SFM to serve as a conduit for informing and influencing consumers about Australian seafood?

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-925982-12-1
Authors: Jasha Bowe Richard Lee
Final Report • 2014-01-10 • 487.54 KB
2013-741-DLD.pdf

Summary

This is the final report for the Seafood CRC project (Tourist Visitation to the Sydney Fish Market: Understanding Opportunities and Leveraging Value) awarded to UniSA in November 2013. Originally, the project targeted to investigate the following objectives:

  1. To enable SFM to develop effective marketing initiatives in order to enhance the tourist experience at the market, thereby leading to improved revenue and profit, including from sales of seafood products, for SFM and its retailers.
  2. To guide the seafood industry in developing effective strategies to improve consumer perceptions of Australian seafood. SFM provides an ideal conduit to reach these consumers.

Via email on 4 April 2014, the CRC decided to terminate the project citing the reason that Sydney Fish Market (SFM) no longer wished to pursue the originally approved objectives. Prior to the termination, UniSA has carried out the following tasks:

  1. A focus group survey involving participants from SFM
  2. A demographic survey
  3. A pretest survey regarding visitors’ perceptions of SFM

This report details the findings of the second and third surveys. A copy of the focus group transcript has earlier been submitted to SFM.

Related research

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Industry
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PROJECT NUMBER • 2023-200
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Community Sentiment Survey

1. To collect and report on community perceptions, sentiment and likely purchasing and consumption behaviors relevant to the issues identified in this application.
ORGANISATION:
Intuitive Solutions