The British Airways London eye is one of the UK’s most spectacular tourist attractions and the world’s largest observation wheel. Since its opening in March 2000 the London eye has become an iconic landmark and a symbol of the modern Britain. It has become the most popular tourist attraction site, visited by over 3.5 million visitors annually. It is a breath taking piece of architecture, engineering and design. Passengers in the London eye capsule can see up to 40km in all directions. Design Objectives (Hollinshead 271).
The British Airways London Eye is designed based on the certain requirements and specifications so that it can become successful. When talking about the design objectives, there are five main factors are usually covered which are quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost. In this section, we are going to cover the most two important areas which are quality and speed.
Quality
Far-reaching the distance of 135 meters, the London Eye is the world’s largest surveillance wheel in history. It is a unique accomplishment of design and engineering, which offers aerial view of the capital for over 35 kilometers in every direction. By the design itself, the London Eye ensures to deliver its products and service to its customers with the most satisfactions. By the unique designs of the cabins, the frames the cables and hub, the London Eye modestly but strongly locates next to the River Thames.
London Eye utilizes the most advanced technology to ensure top security for the visitors. By using the highly advanced weather proof glass window, the cabin is resisted to the strongest wind and always provides its passengers with a 4D view of the London city. The cabins are designed to prevent the cabins from vibrating, due to weather conditions; visitors feel the comforts being inside the cabins. In case of failure of the systems, there is always a backup system which ensures that the affected cabin is brought to ground in the shortest time period, so that customers do not have to worry about any unexpected situation in the air (Sharpley 377). With that unique design of the observation wheels, the London Eye brings aerial view to a whole new level. With the most up to date technology, well- maintenance and well-trained staffs to react in most of the situations, the London Eye surely tries its best to deliver the best service to its customers.
Speed
Although it took seven years and the expertise of professionals from five European countries to turn the London Eye project into a reality, the London eye serves its customers with speed. By keeping the revolutions going on continuously, the London Eye does not have to stop anytime for disembarking or boarding. The London eye stops only in special occasions when it is disabled for safety issues, which minimizes the waiting times for customers at the queue. With the cabins designed to accommodate 25 people each, the waiting time for the customers has been reduced. With the management of the London eye website customers may book advance tickets which help in reducing the processing time of the visitors. Customers have the chance to speed up the wait by buying the tickets in advance and come to the wheels at the time given (Terkenli).
What to expect from the London eye?
Dependability- London eye is highly dependable due to the fact the admit anyone who has a ticket. A visitor can purchase a ticket but pay a visit at its own time. Due to the facts that the London eye receives both international and local tourist they operate a website www.londoneye.com where international tourist can purchase their tickets online. Although the services delivered tend to differ to the indifference of people visiting the site, this is much attributed by the people coming during their convenient time causing congestion on the queue. It’s advised that the visitors should be there at least thirty minutes so as to wait for their turn.
Flexibility- in terms of flexibility the project is not stipulated complex ways of doing business. In terms of flexibility, London eye is much flexible in its operating hours, they are much accommodative.
Cost- London eye tickets are much consistent through all the periods of the year. This is so because the profitability of the project is very vital for the organization. Although there should be price fluctuations for better revenues of the company, the prices should be based according to the season. During winter season the demand is lower than during summer season. The company should strategize by reducing the prices during winter so they can attract more visitors, eliminating the effects of fewer tourists and compensating for the time period.
Explain the quantity gaps situation diagram followed by the explanation
Gap analysis compares companies’ current situation with the future state that the company wants to achieve once the intended project is complete. By conducting a gap analysis, the company can identify what it needs to do to bridge the gap between the situations and make the project successful. In order to carry out gap analysis, it is best to identify project objectives. After establishing the companies’ objectives, the company can analyze the current situation making sure they gather information from the right sources. There are four dimensions that can measure the achievement of the project by identifying four scopes of the plan. These dimensions include; influence on the consumer, project effectiveness, trade and direct accomplishment and finally organizing for the forthcoming.
Project efficiency- this type of aspect measures the competence of the venture to decide whether it has achieved its main objective or not under restraints, which include budget and time. This dimension shows how thriving the project was organized. This dimension has a negative view in that it cannot forecast the long term triumph of the plan. The dimension can only tell how the project was instigated and achieved but not the triumph of the project at the end. This aspect can be tested immediately the project is completed or gauged during the execution point. The London eye attained the phase target; however, the implementation cost seemed to get beyond the stipulated cost. In conclusion, the project was not accomplished impeccably in with regard to efficacy (Jordan 297).
Impact on client- the ultimate goal for any business is to get better services to satisfy the customer. The contentment of a customer is a very fundamental factor in determining the viability of the business. This is measured by gathering the statistics of the visitors. After the opening of the London eye, they had forecast a maximum of over 2 million visitors annually, but after its opening the number of visitors hit 3.5 million targets, indicating 45% increase from the original number. The number of visitors has always been above the minimum number expected and up to date it still remains. According to the popular magazine The Guardian in 2007, which revealed a survey results conducted by Trip Advisor, the London eye had attracted more than 3.5 million visitors being the most paid tourist destination in United Kingdom. From analysis of the results, the London eye become, more preferred than the Eiffel Tower, which proves that London eye project is an abundant accomplishment with clients (Laing and Crouch 138).
Trade and direct accomplishment- this particular dimension measure the straight impact of the project to the organization, such as market share and the profit. Success of the business is depicted by the profit that the organization has generated due to the project. The London eye attracts over 3.5 million guests in a year, but despite this fact, it doesn’t generate profit due to high interest paid as loan to the British Airways. It is estimated that the London eye loaned out more than £ 68.5 million from the British Airways to finance the project, although it is has the ability to produce enough profit but the money is drained in settling the loan. Even though the London eye generates revenue, it assists the London eye to raise its market stake. The London eye is ran by Merlin Entertainment Group Ltd that owns multiple tourist destinations and is among the major shareholders. Merlin entertainment can give tickets merging different attraction coupons at a distinctive price thereby increasing the market share of tourist by gaining from the cooperation of its tourist’s attractions. London eye has not yet succeeded in footings of direct business paybacks (Gibson 470).
Getting ready for the future- is includes long term decision of the organization. It aspires for the forthcoming profits of the organization including future innovations or ides and opportunities. It is speculated that the London eye produces upcoming profits for the organization which the project team have been able to develop. The development team has improved in areas of strategy and construction of the project. It is noted that the engineers of the project made substantial incomes in form of the required resources for extra defies in the days to come.
Pulling of resources for the London eye has been a famous issue. The sponsors of the project, who were the British Airways, asserted that the plan had to be finalized by the beginning of the millennium when the project had remained 16 months to completion. The supply chain played a great role in making sure that the project was finished on the due date. Collaboration of different stakeholders was certainly important because they provided the needed resources such as architects and handful of engineers from different locations of the world.
Capacity Analysis
Theoretical 24 hour design capacity:
Daily: 24 hours/day * 1600 passengers 38,400 passengers/day
Weekly: 38,400 passengers/day * 7 days/week 268,800 passengers/week
Yearly: 268,800 passengers/week * 52 weeks/ year 13,977,600 passengers/year
Forecast data:
Average rate of 6,000 revolutions per year compare to the annual number of revolutions calculated: 6,000 / 7,168 * 100% 83.70%
Capacity Utilization
The forecasts anticipated that 2.2 million passengers would fly the London Eye in 2000.
Capacity Utilization = Expected capacity / Design Capacity * 100%
= 2,200,000 / 5,152,000 *100%
= 42.7%
Balanced score card concept, by what measures could the London eye be assessed
The balanced score card is a strategic planning and management system that is used by business organizations to align business activities to the strategy and vision of the organization and monitor organization performance, improve internal and external communications. The scorecard suggests that the organization from four perceptive. They may include learning and growth perspective, business process, customer and financial perspectives.
Learning and growth perspective- in this position it includes corporate cultural attitudes and employee training. In this time period, it’s necessary for the workers to be on a continuous learning mode so as to make sure they are equipped with the necessary knowledge.
Customer perspective- recent research has shown that there is need for customer satisfaction and focus in any business. This means that the company should analyze the kind of customers and how they provide their services for the customer satisfaction.
Business process perspective- in this view it refers to internal business process. It is used by managers who need to know how well the business is progressing and how the services offered conform to customer requirements (Terkenli 344).
Financial perspective- timely and accurate funding data will always be an important factor in the running of the business. Managers of the company will always do whatever necessary to provide the needed finances.
Ratios to use from the balance score card to measure the performance of the London Eye Operational- London eye should use business process perceptive. This method allows the managers to see how the business is progressing and whether the services offered is what the customers expect. The managers can use this method to gauge how they are responding to the needs of the visitors.
Development- the directors and managers should employ learning and growth perspective. Through this method the managers can tell whether they are managing their staff and how they are developing their staff personnel. This is possible because learning and growth perspective entails employee training and corporate attitudes which are related to corporate and individual self-improvement. The managers can use the metric put in place to guide them in disbursing the training funds.
External- The London eye can employ customer perspective. Through this perspective the organization can analyze the trends of the customers and the types of services that they are not happy about. From the study the managers can get to understand the complaints. If the customers are not satisfied by the services offered they will file a complaint due to factors that did not meet their expectation.
Financial- the company may employ financial perspective. The main stakeholders of London eye include tourists (customers), suppliers (shareholders) and Londoners (residents). The company has positive effects on the stakeholders; first the project boosts London’s economy. The London eye can generate 1.5% of London’s tourism income. The project has generated job opportunities for the residents, who have established business around the London eye site.
Capacity
The London eye is the world’s largest observation wheel. The wheel in it contains 32 passenger capsules which they are all fixed on the perimeter of the 135 metre diameter rim. Each capsule has a capacity to hold approximately 25 people. The wheel is always on a constant motion moving at a speed of 0.26 metre per second. For a complete circle, the wheel takes 30 minutes. The London eye opens every day except on Christmas day. They start admitting people from 10.00 am to 9.30 pm during winter and during summer time the closing hours are extended to 10.00 pm and on winter season the admissions begin from 10.00 am and last admissions are from 5.30 to 6.00pm (Hamnett and Shoval 49).
Works Cited
Gibson, Chris. “Tourism.” The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Cultural Geography. Ed. Nuala C. Johnson, Richard H. Schein, & Jamie Winders. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2013. 465–477. Wiley Online Library. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.
Hamnett, Chris, and Noam Shoval. “Museums as Flagships of Urban Development.” Cities and Visitors. Ed. Lily M. Hoffman, Susan S. Fainstein, & Dennis R. Judd. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2008. 219–236. Wiley Online Library. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.
Hollinshead, Keith. “Tourism as Public Culture: Horne’s Ideological Commentary on the Legerdemain of Tourism.” International Journal of Tourism Research 1.4 (1999): 267–292. Wiley Online Library. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.
Jordan, Fiona. “Performing Tourism: Exploring the Productive Consumption of Tourism in Enclavic Spaces.” International Journal of Tourism Research 10.4 (2008): 293–304. Wiley Online Library. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.
Laing, Jennifer H., and Geoffrey I. Crouch. “Myth, Adventure and Fantasy at the Frontier: Metaphors and Imagery Behind an Extraordinary Travel Experience.” International Journal of Tourism Research 11.2 (2009): 127–141. Wiley Online Library. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.
Sharpley, Richard. “Tourism and the Countryside.” A Companion to Tourism. Ed. Alan A. Lew, C. Michael Hall, & Allan M. Williams. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2008. 374–386. Wiley Online Library. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.
Terkenli, Theano S. “Tourism and Landscape.” A Companion to Tourism. Ed. Alan A. Lew, C. Michael Hall, & Allan M. Williams. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2008. 337–348. Wiley Online Library. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.
