Andy's Travel

People travel thousands of miles to see the world’s top tourist attractions. When they arrive they are hardly likely to be deterred by an overpriced entrance ticket. With this in mind, is it reasonable for tourism chiefs to charge any amount they can get away with, or is there any benefit in providing a good deal to visitors who will probably never come back? Let’s look at a couple of examples:

Romance on the cheap 

If you’re after an example of a value for money day out, look no further than the German town of Rudesheim, the unsophisticated, unabashed tourist hotspot on the Rhine. It’s a popular place for river cruise boats to moor up for a day or two, so it might seem natural for local businesses to hike up their prices to cash in on the passing visitors. When the lady in the tourist office tried to sell us the Romantic Tour package I expected, with the scepticism of experience, to be offered an overpriced tour of the type I’d normally pay to avoid. And yet…

For only €14 we enjoyed the following:

A 15 minute cable car ride up to the Niederwald monument (a panoramic viewpoint over the town and the Rhine valley)

An hour’s walk along a section of the Rheinsteig, a long-distance path, with wonderful views along the river and beyond (ok, this bit is always free)

The 20 minute chair lift ride down to Assmannshausen (a chocolate-box German village)

A boat across the river to Castle Rheinstein and entry to the castle (well worth a visit)

The 50 minute trip by boat along the Rhine from the castle back to Rudesheim.

Boat rides, chair lift, cable car and a castle, all done at our own pace and all for €14. A pretty good deal in anyone’s book and it tended to follow a trend that we found across Germany (away from the circus of Neuschwanstein Castle at least).

Squeeze them until the pips squeak

In a previous post I wrote about the entrance fees for visiting the world’s most famous sites (Entrance fees to the 7 Wonders of the World) – it’s clear that the pricing policies adopted in different nations pay little attention to supply and demand, running costs or anything else you might get taught at business school. Some bean counters (the folks at Petra appear to be a good example) like to find that ‘sweet point’ – a cynical approach that translates as hurting people till they squeal too loudly. They look at the highest price they can charge before enough people walk away to hurt their overall revenue.

I suspect the Shard in London is another case in point. The £25 fee to access the panoramic platform appears way too high – beyond the ‘sweet spot’ their money men have estimated and I would make a bet that the price will come down quickly (or there will be so many 2 for 1 offers that only the most unsuspecting victims will pay the full ticket price).

There’s more to it than profit

Other tourism officials, such as the folks in Rudesheim, seem to have no interest in raking in the profits and are offering tourist prices in western Europe that wouldn’t feel out of place in SE Asia. Perhaps there are subsidies involved, I don’t know and it’s not really my concern. As a tourist I consumed the experience on offer and am passing judgement on whether it represented a good deal for me.

Not only did we have an enjoyable day out and see parts of the local area that we wouldn’t otherwise have seen, but our experience had a positive impact on our overall impression of Germany as a whole and made us more inclined to return. How much is that worth?