Tourism Tasmania Report JOHN FITZGERALD CEO, Tourism Tasmania
Even though this might seem to be slightly old news now, I can’t pass up the opportunity to again highlight the record visitor numbers we announced just over a month ago. Not only did we set more new visitor records for Tasmania in a twelve month period, but the Tasmanian Visitor Survey (TVS) again delivered some history-making news in the 12 months to March 2017. For starters, we reached 1.26 million visitors, seven per cent more than the same time a year earlier. And those visitors spent a total of $2.23 billion, or 11 per cent more than 12 months ago. Importantly, the survey also showed that 66 per cent or two thirds of the 10.88 million nights they stayed in Tasmania were outside Hobart city. When combined with the extra spending, this must be benefitting our regions, which all recorded growth in visitor numbers compared with a year earlier. Our visitor survey and industry feedback does suggest that this growth has not been shared equally across all towns in a region or all tourism and hospitality businesses in a town. That’s why it is important for us to continue to work with the regional tourism organisations to profile their region, its communities and the visitor experiences they offer. But let me get back to the history-making news I mentioned earlier. In a new historic milestone for Tasmania’s southern region, we saw the latest visitor numbers to the region pass the one million visitor mark for the first time in history. It wasn’t that long ago that we were celebrating this milestone for Tasmania, and now one of our regions can claim this statistic for itself. The latest International Visitor Survey results also showed that a record quarter of a million international visitors came to Tasmania during the 12 months to March 2017, which was 16 per cent more than the same period last year. This was the highest rate of international growth of any Australian state and territory. In the last edition of this magazine, I spoke briefly about how we were re- examining our international marketing approach, and mentioned that we would be publishing more information about this. Although we recently did this, I thought I’d give you a quick snapshot of what we plan to do over the next few years in the international marketing area. International visitors currently make up about 16 per cent of all visitors coming to Tasmania. Our long-term goal is to increase this to more than 20 per cent of total visitor numbers. This will not only support the Government and industry’s T21 visitor economy goals, but it will help to ‘future proof’ the Tasmanian tourism industry by reducing our reliance on the interstate market and the local economic conditions that influence it. Our new approach to growing international visitor demand came after a six-month review of our international marketing operations, including an analysis of market priorities. A new international marketing approach
The review identified the best markets to concentrate on and the approach that will be taken in each of these markets to generate more travel demand and bookings. This was very timely, with the Tasmanian Government recently announcing a $2 million a year increase in our marketing budget from 2017-18. The review confirmed that Tassie’s highest priority leisure markets included the USA, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Germany. It also identified new ways for us to work in those markets to increase Tasmania’s profile and generate more travel business for the state. This included the need to employ individual in-market representatives for China, Hong Kong and Singapore rather than a single contracted supplier in Asia, to maximise the opportunity to raise Tasmania’s profile in each market. It also included an innovative employment model for North America and Continental Europe, partnering with Tourism Australia to employ Tasmania-specific marketing managers in their Germany and USA offices. As a result, we recently commenced the recruitment of representatives for our key international markets, and we expect to have all of these in place, ready to begin work for us from the end of September. The review acknowledged that we attract a large number of visitors from other international markets like the UK and New Zealand. However it concluded that our future marketing in these countries would be pursued through alternate partnership approaches with airlines, Tourism Australia and other in-market travel partners. The review also confirmed the need to broaden the focus of our in- market representatives to encompass content development, digital, social, PR, trade marketing and other media opportunities, tailored for each market. This means the mix of marketing activities required to raise our destination profile, create brand awareness and generate more travel business for Tasmania can vary in each market, based on the specific needs of the trade, consumers and marketing partners. When we have our team in place, the next step will be to work with them to determine the ideal mix of trade and consumer-based marketing in each of our key source markets. And to support the new international marketing approach, our locally- based team will also align its resources and activities to support the new in-market representatives. For anyone who is interested, an overview of our new International Marketing Approach is available at www.tourismtasmania.com.au Back home on the domestic front, our latest Go Behind the Scenery campaign will shortly be getting underway. At the time of writing this column, the campaign content was still under development. However we know this style of campaign has been doing an excellent job of connecting people emotionally with Tasmania and engaging them with our destination. Stay tuned for more information about the latest campaign as we get closer to the start date. Wishing you all a busy and successful season ahead.
August 2017 www.australianhotels.asn.au
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