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Introduction.

AWC was situated in the Sackville community in eastern North America. It had marsh
and good habitat for Ecotourism and through the alliance of Ducks Unlimited
Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Service, Mount Allison University and the New
Brunswick government established the Sackville Waterfowl Park which entailed a 55-
acre sanctuary of wetlands at the edge of the town heart. The sanctuary was created
to develop a celebration event-themed waterfowl that will get people to come to the
town to celebrate and appreciate the natural birds’ ecosystems. This was organized
every year to showcase the art, sell futuristic paintings, carvings, waterfowl pictures,
and the environment, (Fullerton, 1995).  

Identification of the fundamental problems of the case.

The Atlantic Waterfowl Celebration (AWC) was characterized by several

organizational and financing issues that repeatedly made it operate in a negative
income statement. This is attested by the fact that Lew Clarke, newly appointed Chair
of the Board of Directors of the AWC alluded that the organization was not
successful as they had wished in 1994 though not collapsed. The AWC badly needed
a good number of committed, strong, and willing volunteers and there was a need to
rejuvenate the organization and reduce much time spent on assessment and analysis,
but exert more effort in planning for the 1995 AWC. The organization had
constrained resources despite growing in size and structure, and depended largely
on external funding, from unreliable government funding. The over-ambitious
promotional activities had huge costs that resulted in a very slight profit for the AWC.
There was a turnover of senior employees and volunteers who preferred other
community organizations over AWC and celebrations were left to the new directors
who were not conversant with the celebrations preparations and implementations
plans. And the organizational structure was also a problem to the AWC and it
contributed to the challenges affecting the organization, (Fullerton, 1995).  

Diagnosis of the core, the underlying cause(s) that explain all of the AWC
failures.

When planning for every AWC event, this was undertaken with a lot of challenges.
The organization had constrained resources despite growing in size and structure,
and it depended largely on external funding, from unreliable and risky government
funding. It continued to make losses of over $13,000 in 1994. The 1992-1994 income
statements and balance sheets were not favorable for business continuity. There was
a huge cost accrued from the marketing activities that made AWC realize a very slim
profit. It is important to know that the AWC events were always without challenges
and the managing director and the executive committee members solicited both
external funding, from the government and corporate sponsors and organized for
individual events to get funds for the organization. The organization depended
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largely on the support of the volunteer committees, executive committee, and Board
committees to enable them to realize any success in the organizations of the events
and their implementation. There was a disintegration of the committee structure and
Carol did not put a good effort in coordinating the activities of the volunteer
committees and she focused on advice given by only a few five-person active
committees that were committed to the AWC. Several employees and volunteers
have had to leave the AWC in preference to working with other communities and on
many occasions, the AWC events were left to the new directors who were not
conversant with the celebrations preparations and implementations plans, (Fullerton,
1995).  

The AWC structure has not been meeting regularly to discuss the AWC events plans
and it is like a deliberate effort was made to work only with a few members of the
executive committee. The Board did not give sufficient time to oversee the AWC
events plans and get to know the issues in the volunteer committee and executive
committees since it was contented with the executive running the show and also the
executive committee felt happy to run the AWC without the valuable information or
input from the broader group. The AWC had accumulative debt of about $31,000
which came as a result of the AWC managing director formally being on the payroll
of the town of Sackville. The arrangement involved the town paying the employee
and reimbursement to the town to be done by the AWC. All this started at the
inception stages of the AWC when it was housed at the back of the town hall. The
ambitious corporate sponsorship program was not successful because out of the
anticipated $30,000 only $6000 was raised, it also expected to raise $10,000 from the
individual event sponsorship rather raised $ 7350, (Fullerton, 1995).  

Prescription of possible alternatives: available structural, and non-structural

alternatives available.

Yes, the alternatives are non-structural; organizational, and operational and they
were aimed at ensuring that AWC is financially sound despite the numerous
challenges it had experienced over time. It was paramount for the AWC to have a
serious marketing strategy for promoting its AWC events in the region. For it to
address the faced marketing challenges in the past years it contracted a local
advertising agency to create a poster for its celebration in 1991. The poster was
devised around the strong visual image that represented well the celebration and
some of its pillars. Several hundred such posters were produced and circulated to the
retail stores, motels, bed and breakfasts, and tourists' information centers in New
Brunswick. They produced and shared every year 10,000 brochures to the provincial
and Community Tourist Information Center, and later secured the listing of the
events in the large New Brunswick tourist information guide. It also used the radio
communication medium to promote its celebration events in the region. This
undertaking included the use of the local radios to increase the reach out; AWC
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bought time on stations in Halifax (C-100, CJCH), Truro (CKTO), Antigonish (CJFX) as
well as Amherst (CKDH) in Nova Scotia, and Moncton (CKCW, CFQM), Saint John(C-
98) and Fredericton (CIHI) in New Brunswick. It purchased some air time on CHMA,
the campus radio station at Mount Allison. It also used signage widely along the
highways that were nearby the Sackville exits and in the town a few weeks to the
event, (Fullerton, 1995).  

AWC events funding was essential in ensuring that the celebrations are made
successful. Therefore it was paramount to come up with a funding plan to minimize
the organization's dependence on government funding and commit to creating a
stronger corporate business and personal sponsorship program. For the business
funding, this was to be gotten from the large regional businesses by approaching
them as corporate sponsors and the small local businesses determined and
recognized as potential event sponsors; Irving Oil, Atlantic Wholesalers, and Pizza
Delight, and the event sponsors included a local grocery store and an auto
dealership. AWC committee structure was established to help it govern and direct
the activities of the AWC to enable it to achieve the self-supporting organization in
the region. It was assumed that the organizational structure will work without any
issues. However, the leadership style employed in coordinating the work of the
volunteer committee and only soliciting opinions from the five executive committee
members was in itself a disintegration of unity that was not envisioned by the AWC
Bylaws, (Fullerton, 1995).  

Other available non-structural alternatives for strengthening the tourists' celebration

events at AWC will include defining the distinctive selling points, target audience and
market, utilization of data for analytics, branding the organization destination,
involvement of stakeholders, developing a wonderful destination website, developing
and maintaining search engine optimization, have marketing experience, undertake
video and virtual reality marketing, use social media strategies, accommodate
influencers, promotion of destination on travel websites, use online advertising, and
undertake offline promotional strategies,( Revfine.com., 2021).

Recommendation of a plan of action (decision/implementation).

The AWC should undertake to hire a sufficient number of employees who will be
required to be obligated to execute the planning and prepare the implementation of
the celebration event and will be accountable to the AWC. Recruit and develop
strategies for retaining committed volunteers to support the Events celebrations. The
AWC management should establish strong structure coordination and ensure the
involvement of the executive and volunteer committees and the Board in the
planning and the operational issues. The AWC should need to have internally
dependable funding resources and reduce considerably the external funding
dependence. The organization will need to establish money-generating ventures to
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support internal resource mobilization efforts, (Fullerton, 1995).  Structurally, this will
include the establishment of tourists facilities such as hotels and enticing
entertainment facilities. Establish tourists celebration events distinctive selling points,
identify target audience and market, use data for analytics, brand the organization
destination, identify and involve stakeholders, develop destination website, develop
and maintain search engine optimization, establish video and virtual reality
marketing, select and use appropriate social media, use travel websites to promote
the destination, utilize online advertising,( Revfine.com., 2021). Yes, the response
changed because of the ever-growing AWC celebration events, and the responses
are skewed to the type and the size, and structure of the organization.

The importance and relevance of the case to the study of business.

The case is important and relevant to the study of business because it offers insight
into how tourists' events celebrations are organized. This is also relevant to SMPs
business management and students studying business-related fields will benefit from
the knowledge earned to start and grow a business.

Conclusion.

AWC experienced heavy financial and human constrained resources as it increased in

size and structure. It drew huge marketing costs from its promotional activities
resulting in a very slim profit. It also experienced employees' turnover especially from
the senior managers and volunteers leaving for other communities, and
organizational structure was a big challenge since it hugely contributed to the
organizational problems, (Fullerton, 1995).  

Reference.

Fullerton, G.L. (1995).   Atlantic waterfowl celebration.  Acadia Institute of Case Studies.
Acadia University. School of Business Administration. 

Revfine.com. (2021).14 Destination marketing strategies to attract more

visitors.https://www.revfine.com/destination-marketing/