WHO WE SHOULD BE TARGETING

The Esperance Tourism Strategy outlined the town’s strong alignment with four out of six of Tourism Western Australia’s domestic market profiles, being Escape & Connect, Off the Beaten Track, Relax & Unwind, and Family Fun. During stakeholder engagement undertaken by AHOY, the local industry was unanimous in its desire to create events that attract visitors with a high disposable income who spend money. There was a sentiment between locals that while tourism numbers were growing, there needed to be a growing percentage of those new visitors who contributed economically to the town.

Statistics show that visitors entering a region to experience an event have a higher daily spend than the average visitor. For example, Tourism WA puts a value of $123 (vs Esperance’s overnight visitor spend of $144 per day {Tourism Research Australia Local Government Area Profiles, 2019, Esperance (S), WA }) on an intrastate overnight visitor. This appears undervalued when compared to specific research undertaken by the South West Development Commission on overnight visitors attending ticketed events in regional WA, which puts a value of $235 on each visitor, almost double that of a regular overnight visitor.

This events strategy will reflect that desire through its recommendations. Some achievable areas which Esperance can target to encourage event visitation include:

• Members of sporting or special interest groups, like skateboarders, anglers, kite surfers, turf club members. Members of these groups are active in their respective communities and will to travel to other towns for events and competition rounds. Finding ways to increase their spend and length of stay will contribute economically to the town, especially if events are curated to encourage family members to attend with competitors.

How to reach them: through targeted social media campaigns, special interest groups on the web, fostering relationships with ambassadors in each special interest group who will be a trusted source of information for that audience.

• Kalgoorlie and Albany. With a combined target audience of 67,000 within a 5-hour radius of Esperance, these are two critical source markets for the town’s events. Ensuring some annual events appeal to these audiences is critical to the overnight visitation objective for events.

How to reach them: Traditional media (like local newspapers and radio) is strongly followed in regional communities and is a cheap and effective way to communicate with the target audience, geo-located social media campaigns, collaborations with talent in source markets (chefs, local personalities).

• Interstate visitors arriving across the Nullarbor, or WA road trip visitors – Australia’s closed borders as a result of COVID-19 have spiked interest in all forms of off road adventure, particularly caravans and motorhomes. Less than one year into the pandemic in November 2020, Avida Motorhomes and Caravans reported a 100% growth in sales year on year, while Gumtree searches for ‘Camper’ were up 52% and ‘Caravan’ up 39% from Q1 to Q3 2020 (Coronavirus pandemic drives Australian camper trailer, caravan and motorhome sales boom, carsguide.com.au). This trend is expected to continue upwards for a few years yet, as consumer confidence lags behind the easing of border restrictions (Only a quarter of Australians feel confident making travel plans, choice.com.au)

How to reach them: Information points on the entrance to town, truck stop banners, visitor centres, promotions in towns on either side of Esperance, through the local and regional tourism associations, through targeted ‘in town’ Facebook campaigns.

• Perth special interest groups

For events that have a niche industry or interest attached to them, marketing becomes more targeted and streamlined. For example, four wheel drive clubs, yachting enthusiasts, sporting associations, anglers or a genre of musicians.

How to reach them: Through digital platforms like Facebook groups, targeted Facebook advertising campaigns, themed magazines or newspaper lift outs, by contacting industry associations and collaborating with clubs and associations in the planning and development of events so they become advocates.