However, What makes this lake a unique experience in comparison to an 8-mile lake?

Case study 12.1 Long Lake, New York: small destinations and experiential differentiation - what to do? Dr Richard 'Rick M. Lagiewski, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA Long Lake is a small town (852 inhabitants) located in the centre of the Adirondack Park in the state of New York (see http://www.longlake-ny.com/). The town is appropriately named after its 14-mile-long lake. Tourism is a major industry there, but also in the entire Adirondack Park This has been the case since the 1950s when destinations in the Adirondack Park became easily accessible for family vacations due to the development of automobiles, a booming post-war economy, increased leisure time and income. This small town in the Adirondack Park was appealing to visitors since it offered them something different than the life in the city: private cottages, untouched nature, and numerous opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. Inevitably, however, the number of other destinations developing in the Adirondack Park that offered the same services kept increasing, and hence resulted in saturated supply. Visitors come to Long Lake to enjoy outdoor activities (bird-watching, biking, camping, canoeing, boating, cross-country skiing, fishing, hiking, hunting, snowmobiling, star gazing) as well as concerts, craft fairs, and other events. The town's current marketing efforts are focused essentially on activities that visitors can engage in while in Long Lake. However, all the activities and events found in Long Lake can also be found in many of the other Adirondack townships. Also, most towns offer the same type of accommodation and dining options, and for that matter the same tourism infrastructure in general. The situation can be summarised as follows: small towns (like Long Lake) in the Adirondack Park that have similar (if not the same) offering of activities, events, accommodation, and dining options (tourism product) as other lake destinations in the Adirondack Park, face the problem of commoditisation of their services. Hence, there is a need to find a way to diversity Long Lake from its competitors. Due to limited access to sources of capital, adding new physical infrastructure is not an option. Pine and Gilmore (1999) introduced the idea that goods and services are no longer enough for differentiating and therefore advocated experiences as a form of differentiation. They explained the shift from commodities to experiences and the need to create experiences competitors are to be differentiated from their rivals. In addition, Pine and Gilmore stated that experiences are intrinsically sensory. In other words, it does matter what one sees, hears, touches, smells, and tastes in shaping of impressions and consequently experiences. As they say (p.59): 'The more effectively an experience engages the senses, the more memorable it will be In working with Long Lake's DMO (a one-man office) the proposed idea of differentiating Long Lake through experiences is often hindered due to the persistence towards traditional marketing such as brochures. Often the concept of experiences is viewed as synonymous with a recreational activity. Again the issue is not seen as focusing on senses and emotions or feelings gained from an experience, but rather on some active participation in an outdoor activity. Also, there was still a tendency to identity and define a different physical characteristic that differentiated Long Lake from other lakes. For example, at 14 miles it was one of the