MARKETING OUR DESTINATION FOR RECOVERY Like most businesses we have also planned our program around a range of scenarios. It’s a flexible program that will enable us to turn elements on and off and swap out our creative assets to ensure we can optimise the market opportunity that is available to us and to enable us to respond to changing sentiment and conditions. It’s exciting to be back out in market with our new brand platform ‘Come down for Air’ that we launched in October last year. This received a great response from industry and the market. Our brand is perfectly placed, it positions Tasmania as the antidote to the straitjacket of modern life which particularly for our audiences in Melbourne and Sydney has never been so tight. The next phase of this work is to show the variety of experiences Tasmania has to offer tapping into the yearning to get out and about and experience something new. Road trips were starting to become more fashionable before COVID and with the flexibility, safety and an opportunity to revisit childhood memories of long family car trips they are very much back on the holiday list for many Australians. To tap into this growing demand we are launching a new self-drive touring program which includes three new drive journeys.
SPRING | 2020 | ISSUE 3
On Sunday 11 October, we launched the start of our biggest ever marketing program in the interstate market. This program is designed to put Tasmania firmly within the minds of travelling Australians to drive demand and convert this demand into visitation. Driving demand and supporting restoring access to the State are key priorities in the T21 recovery action plan and are at the heart of our work.
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n such a fluid environment we have been closely monitoring the impacts of COVID on the travelling Australian market and our customers and how our destination is being perceived. This will ensure our program is going to hit the mark and work hard within a competitive domestic travel landscape. Australian consumer sentiment has been impacted by lockdowns and second waves and the uncertainty that lies ahead. The feeling of trust and safety is at the forefront of our customer’s minds. Our most recent survey that monitors our brand has shown we have built considerable trust as a destination with our audience which will hold us in good stead as borders open. We know there is still a desire to travel and to reconnect with family and friends. For some people travel will occur quickly while others will wait to see what happens once borders fully open up. The uncertainty with the opening and closing of borders, being stranded, travel protocols and quarantine as well as potentially losing money through having to change and cancel plans are all weighing on people’s minds. It’s also leading to much shorter booking windows.
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