Tourism Tasmania
Sarah Kingston
After launching earlier than ever in February this year, our Off Season campaign has finally wrapped up. Our creative advertisements, placed in our key markets around Australia, performed really well across all metrics. In fact, ‘There’s no place like Dome’ and ‘Meet Devils up close’ (pictured) were among the top 30 per cent most effective ads for consumers when compared to thousands of others across Australia [Source: Kantar]. Off Season special offers and events received around 30,000 clicks on the Discover Tasmania website, and our brand activation ‘Winternships’ had more than 337 million views from 366 earned articles and social media. I am happy to say that our market insights show that we achieved what we set out to do: convince Australians that Tasmania offers a winter holiday like no other.
of work to strengthen our key international visitor markets. Most recently, we travelled to India to attend the Australia Marketplace event by Tourism Australia. India is in the top five largest tourist markets for Australia and is an emerging market for Tasmania, so this is the first time Tourism Tasmania has attended a Marketplace India event. The visit allowed us to establish lasting relationships with in-market travel agents and partners, with the aim of capturing future bookings from high-value travellers for our tourism industry. Back home, Tourism Tasmania was proud to partner with Gourmet Traveller to bring their annual Restaurant Awards to our state for the first time. Over 100 of Australia’s top chefs, restaurateurs and industry leaders attended the event on 18 August, with quality Tasmanian produce highlighted in a menu created by Rodney Dunn and Séverine Demanet (The Agrarian Kitchen), Federica Andrisani and Oskar Rossi (Fico), and Lachlan Colwill and Sophie Pope (Omotenashi). Congratulations to our Tassie finalists: Best new restaurant – Scholé, Bar of the year – Institut Polaire, Best Destination Dining – The Agrarian Kitchen and Reader’s Choice Icon Awards – Stillwater Restaurant. Finally, as we move into the shoulder season, Tourism Tasmania will be hosting a series of marketing masterclasses for industry throughout September, October and November. Taking place all around the state and online, the masterclasses will cover ‘Messaging and Markets’, ‘Digital tools and data intelligence’, and ‘Off Season 2025’. These will be great opportunities to help you or your team increase your tourism marketing knowledge, so please come along if you can. Keep an eye on our industry newsletter and website www.tourismtasmania.com.au for dates and more details on how to register. Before I sign off, just a quick note to say that I have officially changed my last name to my married name Sarah Kingston. I can confirm that the CEO of Tourism Tasmania hasn’t changed!
Back in July, I spoke at the Tasmanian Tourism Conference about the strong momentum Tasmania is experiencing. Awareness of Tasmania as a holiday destination is at a four-year high, and while the tourism marketplace is competitive and we can’t outspend the big states in terms of marketing budgets, we have proven effective at being creative, authentic and memorable. After a record summer and strong Autumn, we’re on track to have winter visitation up on last year, and our outlook coming into spring is positive. With our next Come Down For Air campaign launching soon, we will engage in new ways to get people considering a holiday to Tasmania, encouraging them to visit all areas of the state.
Since my last update, we have undertaken a lot
51 Tasmanian Hospitality Review August/September Edition
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