Issue 263 - 10 March 2009

Marketing Tasmania

Tourism Tasmania recently launched its autumn marketing campaign, with an estimated media value of more than $2.9 million from a joint industry - Tourism Tasmania investment of $1.5million. The campaign is one of the biggest seasonal tourism marketing campaigns undertaken in a number of years and has been achieved through a strong partnership between Tourism Tasmania and the tourism industry.

The first phase of the campaign started in early February with the release of five new Zone Holiday Planners. More than 3,400 individual planners were ordered from the Launceston contact centre in the first three weeks after the launch. During the same period, more than 4,000 were downloaded from the discovertasmania.com website.

The release of the Holiday Planners is supported by a number of other marketing activities including a 30-second television advertisement which ran during primetime on SBS nationally, followed by 10 weeks of 15 second specific zone commercials. The shorter advertisements commenced on Sunday 1 March and will run until the 8th of May.

Phase Two of the campaign takes advantage of Tourism Tasmania’s strong partnership with Fairfax Media. A broad range of media will be used to promote Tasmania.

Phase Three of the campaign is the screening of a new 10-week series of the highly successful Discover Tasmania Television program, produced in conjunction with Southern Cross Television. Over six million viewers nationally enjoyed the first series. Southern Cross Tasmania will commence screening the series on Thursday 23 April 2009 at 7.30pm.

Network 7 has also confirmed the series will be broadcast nationally with the network and its affiliates, commencing 27 July.

Full details of the many marketing opportunities can be found on Tourism Tasmania's Marketing Together website at http://industry.tourismtasmania.com.au/mtg/home

Some Welcome Industry Support

While it is often inappropriate for Tourism Tasmania to respond publicly to public criticism, it is great to hear positive feedback when we do hit the mark. Recently, you may have seen a widely circulated paper criticising our strategies and activities. As a counterbalance to that we thought it may be useful to reproduce, with the permission of the author (a respected Tasmanian tourism industry operator), a copy of their unsolicited email.

“Dear all,

As a short response to Norm White’s Paper, let me just point out some things that may not have occurred to everyone.

The new Tourism Tas ‘Zone’ campaign is mimicking hugely successful campaigns in Victoria and NSW (eg ‘You’ll love every piece of Victoria’). If Norm White did his research, he would note that Tourism Tas is taking a contemporary, industry-led approach attempting to gain the biggest ‘bang for buck’ with a diminutive tourism budget. 

In his wisdom, he should also have seen that Tasmania is by no stretch of the imagination comparable to Queensland as a tourist destination. We have a completely different product and aim for different markets. We do not attract customers with giant pineapples and prawns, or a barrier reef. Unlike Queensland, Tasmania has a miniscule tourism budget, which the new Tourism Tas is cleverly working to its best advantage in these tough times.

The head of marketing in Tourism Tas, Jan Ross, used to be the marketing director for Sydney; we couldn’t hope for anyone more passionate and experienced. I think, and I know many in the industry who agree, that Tourism Tas is doing more whole-of-state marketing than they have in decades; thanks mainly to the creative approaches of Jan Ross and Felicia Mariani. 

We would all remember the Dark Days of Tourism Tas in the 90s when all anyone ever heard about was Federal Hotels and Cradle Mountain. I am not a Tourism Tas rep. I am not ‘buddy-buddy’ with anyone important. 

All I know is that I have been fortunate to be in a position on the Northwest Zone Marketing Group and I am extremely impressed by the efforts of Tourism Tas. Believe me, they are experienced and professional staff and researchers all working hard with our best interests in mind.

I think that if Norm White’s remarks had credibility they would have been published. Neither this paper or the previous have been published in any reputable media. 

This is hardly constructive literature to circulate, when we all know the trouble the tourism industry is in. We should be positive and support each other.” 

Thank you for your support. It’s great to hear that the work Tourism Tasmania undertakes on behalf of, and in partnership with, the entire industry, does not go unrecognised.

Blooming Tasmania Guide Open For Advertising

Blooming Tasmania, a not-for-profit industry group representing the interests of garden tourism operators, invites garden operators and other related tourism operators to advertise their product in the 2009-2010 edition of the Blooming Tasmania Guide.

Blooming Tasmania Association’s major marketing activity each year is the production of the annual ‘Blooming Tasmania’ booklet, a quality A5 full-colour guide to Tasmania’s garden experiences. The guide is launched in August in time for spring promotion.

The success of the ‘Blooming Tasmania’ guide has been achieved through targeted distribution, with copies going directly to visitors interested in garden experiences.

A total of 150,000 copies will be printed for 2009-2010 with copies distributed at targeted consumer events such as the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show in April.

Gardening Australia magazine, distributed nationally, will also include an insert copy of the ‘Blooming Tasmania’ guide in their September spring edition.

Bookings for placements must be lodged by 31 March.

Details will be available on the Blooming Tasmania website or for more information contact Neil Jordan on (03) 6435 1298 or e-mail neil.jordan@gotalk.net.au

The guide is available through visitor information centres, Tourism Tasmania’s call centre and on the discovertasmania.com website.

Industry Briefings

Tourism Tasmania is holding a series of industry briefings across the State later this month to introduce the tourism industry to its exciting new online distribution initiative. The full program is listed below:

All operators who have not previously received notice of the event are invited to attend.

Please respond by Thursday 12 March 2009 to Janet Woollan at Janet.Woollan@tourism.tas.gov.au or call 03 6230 8235 and nominate a briefing location.

Launceston: 16 March 2009
Tailrace Centre, 1 Waterfront Drive, Riverside
2.00-4.00pm

Scottsdale: 17 March 2009
Anabel’s, 46 King Street
10.30am-12.30pm

St Helens: 17 March 2009
Tidal Waters Resort, 1 Quail Street
3.00-5.00pm

Swansea: 18 March 2009
Waterloo Inn, 1 Franklin Street
10.30am-12.30pm

Hobart: 19 March 2009
Bahá'í Centre, 1 Tasman Highway
10.00am-12.00pm

Port Arthur: 19 March 2009
Fox and Hounds, 6789 Arthur Highway
3.00-5.00pm

Oatlands: 20 March 2009
The Stables, 85 High Street
10.30am-12.30pm

Queenstown: 23 March 2009
Mountain View Hotel, 1 Penghana Road
3.00-5.00pm

Stanley 24 March 2009
Stanley Seaview Inn, 58 Dovecote Road
2.00-4.00pm

Devonport: 25 March 2009
Devonport Entertainment & Convention Centre, 145-151 Rooke Street
10.30am-12.30pm

Do you know about web strategy?

Do you have a website that will keep you ahead of your competitors? If you are already web savvy, have you considered what dynamic elements should you include on your website?

If not, then take a look at Web Strategy: Assessment and Components [PDF 230KB] in the new Tourism e-kit on the Tourism Tasmania corporate website. The Tourism e-kit is a tourism-specific online marketing resource that helps operators benefit from online marketing opportunities in order to stay competitive. It contains up to date information on e-marketing, search engine optimisation, website strategy and much more. 

The e-kit can help operators save time and money, with modules developed by consultants specifically for tourism operators. The Tourism e-kit can be downloaded from the Tourism Tasmania corporate website free of charge as separate tutorials or as an entire document.

For more information contact:

• Rebecca.King@tourism.tas.gov.au (North)
• Wayne.Bolton@tourism.tas.gov.au (North-West)
• Dan.Sapier@tourism.tas.gov.au (South)

Tigertour Update

Here are the latest additions to the TigerTOUR database.

Accommodation

• Manfield, Bruny Island.
• Driftwood Cottages – The Peninsula Tas

Attractions

• Edge Of The World Locations, Stanley.

Tourism Tasmania’s Product Consultants can assist you to update your business details, email: TigerTOUR@tourism.tas.gov.au or phone: (03) 6230 8229.