A New Visitor Experience For NTS Crathes Castle 2018 PDF

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The Development of A new visitor experience at NTS Crathes Castle for 2018

Crathes Castle is formally known for being a tower house/castle which was originally built during the 16th century. It was owned by the Burnett family and through the years has been used for a variety of different purposes including being used as a field hospital during World War II. Since 1951 the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) have had ownership of the castle and its doors have been open to the public (Aberdeenshire Council, 2017). Crathes Castle is one of 130 sites which the NTS own today (NTS, 2017). Having visited Crathes Castle on the 15th of November 2017 my University class were tasked with pitching an idea which would drive the amount of footfall on the estate. David Write who is the Business Manager for the NTS, in charge of the northern region of properties which the NTS own said that he wanted something which would encourage those of a younger audience to visit Crathes Castle as currently many of their 310,000 members of the NTS are of the older generation. He wanted a prospective idea which would entice a younger audience and make the NTS more inclusive to everyone. In this essay, I will be addressing a new visitor experience for Crathes Castle as well as discussing the role which I played as an individual as part of my team.

My groups proposal was themed around one of the most famous stories at Crathes Castle about the ‘Green Lady’; a story of a ghost who was first seen in the 18th century by Queen Victoria who reportedly saw a “green mist” floating across one of the rooms at Crathes before sweeping up into a ghostly figure and disappearing into a nearby fireplace. This took place in the aptly named ‘Green lady’ room and since then there have been many reported encounters. Property Manager James Henderson said: “There have been a number of mysterious sightings in and around the castle of late, in particular around Halloween, and the castle guides have reported that things have felt strange. They have reported a chill down the back in an otherwise warm room, odd noises in an otherwise empty building.” (The Scotsman 2016, p. 1) My group and I wanted to create a children’s book competition where the NTS Crathes Castle would partner up with local Primary Schools in the Aberdeenshire area and the children

would write a story about the ‘Green Lady’. Beforehand, the classes would visit the castle to gain a hands-on experience of the castle and to find out information about the ‘Green Lady'. Okazaki (2008) recalls the work of Connell (1997) and says,

“participation is ‘not only about achieving the more efficient and more equitable distribution of material resources: it is also about the sharing of knowledge and the transformation of the process of learning itself in the service of people's self-development.” Armed with this new knowledge, they would then go back to school and write their stories as groups or individuals. Once all entries have been received the staff members at Crathes could narrow down their top 10 finalists and invite them to a ceremony held at the castle where the finalists’ stories would be recited aloud to the attendees and finally the winner would be announced and published in the onsite gift shop.

For the NTS to make this new visitor experience successful they must look some varying factors which include Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Together these make up what is called a SWOT analysis. In a SWOT analysis, Strengths and Weaknesses are factors which are internal to the organisation. Whereas, Opportunities and Threats are external and allow the organisation to analyse what can come from a new product/service & what could possibly hinder it. Overall the SWOT analysis allows for developers to look at the proposed idea from a wider perspective to cover each positive and negative aspect in order to have economic value (Mind Tools 2017). In this case for the NTS, one opportunity which could come from this idea is that Crathes could potentially link up with partnering NTS estates to run these fun events and make a ‘book trail’ similar to the already existing ‘castle trail’ which the NTS offer customers.

In terms of our idea, in order for the NTS to consider any new visitor experience they would have to ensure that the idea proposed met their values and objectives as a charity. Our group pitched our idea on the core purpose to raise awareness for the NTS which would hopefully help to bring in donations and endowments in the future. The prospect of having a book which has been made by the surrounding community may persuade more local people to engage with the NTS. However, in order for this to be carried out effectively, the NTS staff would need to ensure they have the basic ‘Management Skills'. "Management Skills are identifiable sets of actions that individuals perform to produce an outcome they value.” Boddy (2017 P 6). By training staff on this theory, they will be more capable in

We believed that this idea would have positive implications on Crathes Castle due to it strengthening the bond between the NTS and the local community. We also believed that due to this the NTS would have a better opportunity at raising donations due to such a high number of guests attending the ceremony and also using the facilities such as the café. The National Trust for Scotland indicates in their annual report 2016-17 that the gross fundraising income from donations dropped from £2.7 million to £2.1 million in that financial year alone. We believe that our idea inviting ten classes of around thirty pupils as well as all their teachers, families, friends. The NTS should be able to raise funds through food and drink, car park facilities and donations.

The plausible negative factors of our group found were that the idea not would necessarily guarantee any profits to be made due to the NTS having to pay for the book to be published. We believed it would be a risk to estimate how many units would need to be published and how many would later be sold also, that there is high risk of potential losses. However, with possible sponsorship this could be reduced. The managers also felt that it would be a risk because it is a very specific target market and not knowing if this would be the sort of product which other NTS members, visitors and tourists would invest in. However, this could be combatted by questioning their current members. Other negative implications which were analysed the management team at Crathes and raised their concern that this type of operation could possibly cost the NTS too much due to having to invite the children out, feed them and give them the materials they need to write their stories. This is also backed by Gray (1985) who asserts that local residents need to gain the capacity to participate and the means to doing this often falls with local government or groups such as the NTS. However, the NTS would not necessarily need to feed them as the charity could ask the school to help in providing meals for the children.

I would say my team was effective because we worked as a team to ensure a high standard. One of the factors that may have contributed to this may have been the fact that our group seemed to be smaller and according to Boddy (2017 P 543) “More than 12 people find it hard to operate as a coherent team. It becomes harder to agree on a common purpose and the practicalities of where and when to meet become tricky." In terms of our group, we managed

to hear everyone's ideas and work together as efficiently as possible as could agree on common grounds. To originally create our team played a game of ‘Personality Poker’ which in theory creates teams based on various skill sets and character traits. Whilst most of us found it fun to play we did find that in the end it got a bit confusing and we ended up working with friends. However, a positive aspect of this teambuilding exercise is that it is an alternative option to picking team members ‘the old-fashioned way'.

During the development of this idea our group had to ensure every individual had a role play within the team. According to Belbin’s (2017) team role description I would have been the ‘Co-ordinator’ due to me being confident in a position of responsibility where I can set out the focus of objectives and delegate the work as appropriate.

According to Mintzberg’s ten management roles Boddy (2017, p17) states that there are three categories each with individual roles be implemented. One is Interpersonal roles which “arise directly from a managers’ formal authority and status, and shape relationships within and beyond the organisation.” As team leader, I was able to use my authority to direct my team and change roles where necessary. Furthermore, one of the roles Mintzberg has in this category would be a ‘Leader’ which is about being “direct” but also to “motivate subordinates”. This style of management is most relatable to what I had to do at Crathes Castle.

My group offered a new idea for a visitor experience which is unique and has the capabilities to grow from something more than a one-off event. It has the capabilities to become an annual event with different schools and could grow into something which the NTS could offer nationally at all their estates. It also has possibilities build revenue on a long-term basis and provide a sustainable amount of income but the NTS must also take into account their current resources. To make this event effective they must ensure they take the appropriate actions set out by a SWOT analysis to drive in a younger audience visiting Crathes Castle. Word Count: 1649

Academic References Belbin, 2017. The nine Belbin Team Roles. [Online]. Belbin. Available from: http://libguides.rgu.ac.uk/c.php?g=650852 [Accessed 07/12/2017] Boddy, D. 2017. Management: an introduction. 7 edition. Harlow, England: Pearson. th

Gray, B. 1985. Conditions facilitating interorganizational collaboration. Human Relations, 38(10): 911–936. Mind Tools, 2017. SWOT Analysis. [Online]. Mind Tools Website. Mind Tools Content Team. Available from: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm [Accessed 16/12/2017] Nackerman., 2017.Aberdeenshire SMR - NO79NW0005 - CRATHES CASTLE. [Online]. Aberdeenshire Council. Available from: https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/smrpub/master/detail.aspx?redirect=y&refno=NO79NW0005 [Accessed 07/12/2017] Okazaki, E., 2008. A Community-Based Tourism Model: Its Conception and Use. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 16 (5), P. 1. Shapiro, 2017. Discover the key to High Performing Innovation Within Your Teams with Personality Poker® [Online]. Orlando, FL: Stephen Shapiro. Available from: http://stephenshapiro.com/personality-poker/ [Accessed 08/12/2017] The National Trust for Scotland, 2017. Annual Review 2016/17. Aberdeen: The National Trust for Scotland. The National Trust for Scotland, 2017. Crathes Castle. [Online]. The National Trust for Scotland. Available from: https://www.nts.org.uk/Visit/Crathes-Castle/ The National Trust for Scotland,2017. Corporate Custom Page. [Online]. The National Trust for Scotland. Available from: https://www.nts.org.uk/corporate/custom-page.php?path=OurWork/About-the-Trust/ [Accessed 07/12/2017] The Scotsman,2016. Is this Crathes Castle’s ‘Green Lady’ ghost?. [Online]. The Scotsman. 28/11/2016. Available from: https://www.scotsman.com/news/is-this-crathes-castle-s-green-ladyghost-1-4303007 [Accessed 07/12/2017]...