Last week I was invited to visit a student field trip to the Tower of London. Once I had found my way through the 100s of tourists, it took me some time to be allowed in – the guards were very suspicious but eventually allowed me past the drawbridge. It then took me time to find the MA Marketing communications and MA Marketing management students who were busy working on their integrated marketing projects based on tourism activities in the Tower.
Their day had started with a talk from the marketing director and the students (and staff) were free to roam this iconic tourism attraction before starting work on their group marketing projects. I arrived just as they were putting the final touches to their presentations. So, I had a quick wander around the attraction and saw beefeaters, animal sculptures (elephants and lions), the ravens (sadly in pens) as well as the outside of the various historic buildings. Tourists from all around the world filled the open spaces but, as I quickly learnt from the students, tourism at the Tower of London had dropped by about 26% during the Olympics.
I was only able to listen to three of the group presentations and they were fascinating and also very impressive as they shared their ideas about increasing the income of the this important visitors attraction. I left with ideas about grisly events, bonfires, son et lumiere events, children’s activities including puppets, dressing up and getting involved in some of the scary history of the Tower of London. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and I could see that all the students were having a great (and very unique) opportunity to put their marketing theories into practice in a world-class venue.
