8 minute read
A message from our Chair
A SUMMER AHEAD LIKE NO OTHER
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Normally at this time of year we would all be gearing up for another bumper Summer season.
For me, this means a busy December of chocolate and cheese sales leading up to Christmas, before the peak visitor season starts at the farm on Boxing Day. Usually we would also be busy planning staff rosters and stocktake for our stall at the ‘Taste’, while juggling our kids going to ‘Falls’. There is no better place to be in Australia than Tassie over Summer, and there is usually no busier time to be in tourism in Tasmania than over the next few months. This Summer is going to be very different. There is no ‘Taste’, or ‘Falls Festival’ to look forward to, and the projections indicate our visitor numbers are likely to be more like a normal Winter then the busy summers we have come to expect. Each of us is working out in our own way how we are going to sustain our businesses over the next few months and navigate these uncertain conditions. Deciding to employ or re-employ staff, budgeting out into 2021, and making decisions about where to spend scarce marketing dollars to maximum effect. While I am very optimistic about our tourism recovery there is no doubt the next 6-12 months will continue to challenge everyone in our industry. We need to continue to support one and other, and we need to work strategically through the challenges of a recovering visitor market. We can have confidence that we have the ear and support of government, and there will continue to be assistance provided to operators at all levels of industry. The new T21 Visitor Economy Action Plan clearly outlines our priorities over the next 12 months. • Restoring visitor demand and access to the State as quickly as possible; • Supporting businesses to keep their heads above water by reducing costs and providing targeted direct assistance to operators where its most needed; • Restore our events program in a post-COVID environment; • Keeping an eye firmly on the long-game and making decisions now that lay a path towards a very strong future for Tasmanian tourism over the next decade. From TICT’s perspective, we believe all our immediate efforts must go into restoring visitor demand as quickly and strongly as possible. Getting the visitor market back is critical as government assistance such as Job Keeper reduces.
This means restoring our aviation access into the State and making the most of our Spirit of Tasmania ships. Since COVID first emerged we have consistently called for an extension of the Australian Government’s Bass Strait Passenger Vehicle Equalisation Scheme to effectively make it free to bring your vehicle across Bass Strait. This is a quick-fire and effective way of filling the ships over the Summer and Autumn months to boost visitation into regional destinations. We have also proposed to Government a complimentary voucher initiative for long-term rental car hire for those more inclined to fly-drive. We know the domestic drive holiday market is likely to be one of the first visitor markets to recover once travel restrictions ease, and Tasmania must compete on price and ease of access with other regional destinations across Australia. We also have a responsibility as a tourism industry to host our visitors safely. Many Tasmanians are anxious about borders re-opening and fearing the worst. Some in our own industry have voiced concerns about the risks posed in welcoming visitors back into their communities. Applying COVID Safe Plans and new cleaning procedures, managing social distancing and contact tracing in our businesses, and staying on top of this every day, is all a part of being in tourism now. It is what our visitors expect and our community demands. If you need help in achieving this, please reach out and ask for it. There is support and advice on hand from the State Government, TICT and other industry bodies. If you are not taking the restrictions seriously, ask yourself why and consider the risks you are posing to yourself and your industry colleagues. Ultimately, we are all in this together, and one slip-up by one business could impact on us all. Don’t be the operator who let’s everyone else down. By doing what’s expected of us, and applying some effective tourism ‘Moneyball’ with good marketing, access and incentives to stimulate our most lucrative visitor markets as they do re-open, I believe we can head into the uncertainty of 2021 with confidence the worst might now be behind us.
Daniel Leesong Chairman Tourism Industry Council Tasmania
MARKETING OUR DESTINATION FOR RECOVERY
In such a fluid environment we have been closely monitoring the impacts of COVID on the travelling
On Sunday Australian market and our customers and how 11 October, we our destination is being launched the start of our biggest perceived. This will ensure our program is going to hit the mark and work ever marketing hard within a competitive program in the domestic travel landscape. interstate market. This program is Australian consumer sentiment has been impacted by lockdowns and second waves designed to put and the uncertainty that lies Tasmania firmly within the minds ahead. The feeling of trust and safety is at the forefront of our customer’s minds. Our most of travelling recent survey that monitors Australians to drive demand and our brand has shown we have built considerable trust as a destination with our audience convert this demand which will hold us in good stead into visitation. as borders open. Driving demand and supporting We know there is still a desire to travel and to reconnect with family and friends. For some restoring access to people travel will occur quickly the State are key priorities in the T21 while others will wait to see what happens once borders fully open up. The uncertainty recovery action plan with the opening and closing and are at the heart of our work. 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. 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.
MIND THE NEIGHBOURS THEY POO ON THE LAWN
Honestly, you can’t go anywhere on Maria Island without being surrounded by them. Wombats. Pademelons. Wallabies. It’s ridiculous. They’re everywhere. Suppose that’s what happens when you turn an entire island into a wildlife sanctuary. You can hear them too, rustling about, singing to each other, munching away next to you, while you’re just trying to take in the old historic convict buildings and the windswept landscapes.
It’s very distracting.
Our Unordinary Adventures program will also showcase our mountain bike, golf, fly fishing and walking experiences targeting people who travel to pursue their passion and adds depth and breadth to our destination offering and appeal. We are also looking to re-enter the New Zealand market which is likely to be the only international destination available to us at least in the first half of next year. Our program is designed to leverage the similarities we have with New Zealand and show our neighbours across the ditch that our culture, heritage, wildlife and perspective on life is well worth the trip.
Photo: Lisa Kuilenburg
Our intrastate campaign ‘Make yourself at home’ has been in market since June and has been well received by Tasmanians who have taken up the call to get and about and explore our beautiful State. This program will continue until June next year to support industry while interstate markets rebuild. While the world around us has changed, the fundamentals that make us such a special destination is our collective passion for this beautiful state and our close connection between people and place these remain core to our marketing program and the experience our visitors are seeking.
