( Ross Hatton & Will Flamsteed)

Hi and welcome to the February Grampians Tourism Enews.  I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself and look forward to working with you all to promote and progress the Grampians as a destination and sustainable industry.

For those of you that don’t know, I have worked in the tourism industry for the past 16 years on a number of levels – as a small business owner and  operator (restaurants and wineries), as a regional tourism manager (the High Country) and from a destination perspective (Falls Creek).  I have worked with industry through two bushfires and also enjoyed seeing a destination grow post such events.

2012 will be an exciting year for the Grampians tourism region.  To start, I want to invite you all to join us at the inaugural Grampians Tourism Industry Conference in late March, where amongst a range of speakers, we will also launch the 2012-13 Industry Prospectus.

Over the next month I will be out and about exploring the region.  I’ll do my best to meet you and experience you products and destinations.  If you are in Halls Gap, please feel free to drop in for a chat.

So here’s to an exciting year of growth and development.

Regards

Will Flamsteed

Industry Development calendar

A variety of Industry Development workshops and mentoring opportunities are being offered to businesses between February and July 2012. All workshops and mentoring opportunities are now open for registrations.

Workshop topics include:

• Turning customers into ambassadors for your business
• Attracting  new customers to your business through packaging
• Selling online for your business
• International marketing

Following on from our successful social media workshops in 2011, some social media mentoring sessions are also available for businesses.

Click here to see the industry development calendar and to register.

Grampians Tourism Industry Leadership Program

The 2012 Grampians Tourism Industry Leadership Program is now open for applications. The 2012 leadership program has been expanded on the successful inaugural 2011 program to provide a great variety of new topics and quality speakers. The program will commence on 23 April and continue until 20 November with 6 full day workshops and two overnight residential (2 day) workshops.

Our vision is to develop tourism leaders from across the region; enhance individual leadership skills; encourage understanding, cooperation and partnerships between industry and government; provide practical learning opportunities for industry leaders and grow awareness and passion for tourism across the region.

Click here to find out more information and apply for the program.

Grampians Tourism Conference – save the date!

Hear from a variety of relevant tourism industry leaders and network with your tourism industry.  Final conference program will be forwarded to industry by mid-February.

Wednesday 21 March 2012

The Great Hall, Gum San Chinese Heritage Centre, Ararat

Victorian Tourism Awards

“Entering the awards has helped us identify our strengths and understand our goals more clearly.  It made us strive to be on top of our game both internally and in the market place.  Being recognised in this way has contributed to over 22% increase in our business after our first award.  I highly recommend it!”

George Josevski, Managing Director – Bunyip Tours

The RACV Victorian Tourism Awards 2012 program will launch in the week commencing Monday 20 February.  Tourism operators will have just over 5 months to complete a submission and upload a submission to an E-Awards website by 10 August 2012. If you would like to find out more information about the awards process or are interested in applying in 2012, please visit the Tourism Awards website at www.victoriantourismawards.com.au or contact Matt Jones on mjones@grampianstourism.com.au or 5361 4060.

Grampians Tourism will be offering workshops and mentoring opportunities to assist industry with their applications in 2012.

New halls Gap Video

Many thanks to the locals who helped out with modelling for the filming of a new high quaility Halls Gap/Grampians video (see who you can spot!) The video is available for you to use on your own sites and please send out thru your own networks as the more people who view, the better.

Click Here

Consumer Shows:

Grampians will be well represented at the upcoming Caravan & Camping Shows in Melbourne & Adelaide. With expected attendance of over (Leah can you fill in) visitors, having  a presence at these shows is a great way to influence holiday plans for this growing sector. Our Holiday Planner and Official Touring Map are the main pieces of collateral distributed as well as the “Grampians Hot deals” flyer which will be used as a teaser to all potential visitors.  Contact Kylie for more information.

Media Links

• Jetstar Inflight Magazine,  Click here

Great Southern Touring Route (GSTR)

• GSTR is the marketing force Grampians Tourism is part of that tackles the international markets. By partnering with our neighbouring regions of Great Ocean Road and Ballarat, GSTR present an enticing itinerary that has been a tourism market leader for over 20 years. Businesses are invited annually to participate in the program. The program has been designed for small businesses to be able to leverage off each other and the bigger players such as Sovereign Hill for example.

News you can use….

Informing travellers about bushfire safety

FREE Half Day Accessible Tourism Workshop Thursday 29 March 2012

• Christmas Get Together
• Smartourist
• Visiting Friends & Relatives
• Leadership Graduates
• Industry Planning for 2012
• Victoria Tourism Awards
• Industry Roadshows
• Media Update
• Trade Update
• wotIf Holiday Houses

Grampians Tourism Invites you to join us at our End of Year Get Together to Farewell CEO Chris Burchett

Date:               Wednesday 7^th December
Time:                4.00pm-6.00pm
Venue:             Halls Gap Valley Lodges
406-412 Grampians Road, Halls Gap
(Between Brambuk & Grampians Adventure Golf)
Drinks & Savouries provided
RSVP By Wednesday 30^th November to admin@grampianstourism.com.au 53614010

Smartphone access to your website

Have you ever Googled your own website from a smartphone? It probably looks very busy and with font sizes difficult to read.

New technology is now available that is able to recognize automatically an enquiry originating from a smartphone and divert such enquiries to your own smartphone-compatible “microsite”. These microsites will NOT replace your website, but they will enhance your web presence. They display an image, 50 introductory words, a call button, a locator map button, a capacity to translate the microsite into 5 or 6 the main non-English languages of our markets, as a well as a link back to your main website. In effect, they provide a consumer-friendly “signpost” for the huge number of travelers using their smartphones as an information tool when on the road.

GT has negotiated a 30% discount (down to $84) for those businesses registering before 9^th December. For further information visit www.smartourist.com.au and talk to Paul to find out more and to create your page. It takes 5 minutes and its simple to fill out the online form, add your picture and choose your colours. Just remember to fill out the Tourism Organisation Discount Code – Grampians Tourism to receive the discount.

Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR)

30 businesses have bought into our summer VFR campaign. 55,000 local households will each receive a full colour booklet featuring our regional holiday attractions. It will be mailed out in early December, in time to provide local families with ideas to entertain their Christmas visitors. The mail out will be supported with editorial features and inserts into local papers in Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Warrnambool and Mt Gambier and local radio

2011 Leadership Graduates

Congratulations to the first Grampians Tourism Leadership Graduates. Pictured Julie Kilpatrick, Abbey Grigg, Eda Williamson, Kylie Schurmann, Jason Cass, Dennis Flemming, Tammy Schoo, Debbie Bach, Megan Calabro, Sarah Guthrie.  Absent from photo Wil Hudson, Tara Veitch, Alana Burge. Graduates have participated in sessions based on topics such as leadership styles, public speaking, decision making as well as completing a tourism-based joint project. We are planning to run a course in 2012, so please let us know if you would like more information.

Industry Development planning for 2012

Grampians Tourism are currently undertaking a short survey of all businesses in the region to identify any industry development requirements and assist us with our 2012 planning.

The feedback received from this survey will allow us to ensure that all our activities will better suit business needs.

Please click on the below link to fill out the survey and help us, help you.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Industrydevelopment2012

Victorian Tourism Awards

Grampians region businesses won accolades at the 2011 RACV Victorian Tourism Awards, where more than 140 tourism operators competed in 27 business categories. Auswalk Walking Holidays won the Adventure Tourism category, the third win for the eco-certified luxury holiday operator in the past four years. Brambuk National Park and Cultural Centre won the Indigenous Tourism category for the third year running and have gone into the Victorian Tourism’s Hall of Fame.

Luxury property Boroka Downs and group accommodation Cave Hill Creek were awarded finalists in their categories.
Grampians Tourism was recognized for excellence in the Tourism Marketing category, by being named a finalist.

Matt Jones presenting to industry in Halls Gap
Thank you to everyone who has attended one of the 8 presentations completed that outlined GT’s Flood Recovery program and detailed commercial and cooperative opportunities to leverage off of the plans. $650,000 has been received and will be spent building resilience against such future crisis events, reinforcing our branding in the key markets of Melbourne, Regional Victoria and Adelaide and new Autumn and Winter marketing campaigns. Details can be seen at www.grampianstourism.com.au “Industry Roadshow Powerpoint Presentation”

Media Update

We have been hosting some great media familiarization tours lately. Melbourne commuter paper Mx visited and the story was published in late Oct (click here), we have also hosted  Australian Photography magazine, AAP media service and Australian Gourmet Traveller Look out for a feature in January edition of Jetstar inflight magazine resulting from a recent famil also. Click here to see accommodation reviews of 3 properties in current edition of ‘Slow’ magazine.

Trade Update
14 Inbound travel wholesale companies visited the region last week, as part of a Melbourne Adelaide famil. These wholesalers work across the UK/Europe, SE Asia, China, New Zealand and the US markets and are responsible for growing outbound travel to Australia from those countries. We also hosted a group of agents from the US whose work focused on a variety of markets.

wotIf Holiday Houses

Did you know that popular travel website Wotif are now featuring holiday houses? If you are interested click here for more info

• Spring is blooming!
  
• Matt Out n About
  
• Social Media – Workshop 7
  
• Business to Business Speed Networking
  
• Do you ‘like’ us?
  
• There’s nothing like Australia campaign
  
• Shipwreck Coast
  

Spring is blooming!     

The Spring into the Grampians media campaign has been rolling out steadily since July across Victoria and South Australia. Click here for a sample of Jane Edmanson on Radio 3AW talking about us and 3AW and 5AA continue promotions next month. A story was featured in the Escape liftout of the Herald Sun last week also – click here if you missed it. We mailed out a letter of invitation to over 1,100 seniors, probus, gardening, walking, photographic and botanic clubs, art societies, as well as 100s of regional coach companies as part of the campaign.

Our campaign-specific brochures, an events calendar and a wildflower guide have been widely circulated. If you need copies for your guests call into your local VIC for copies, or contact us at the office and we will post small quantities out.

Abbey Grigg, Southern Grampians Shire Visitor Information Centre officer reviewing the new Spring into the Grampians collateral

Matt Out n About

The Grampians Tourism Industry Development Manager, Matt Jones will be continuing to move around the region and is available to meet one-on-one with businesses. Recently Matt’s met with businesses to chat about social media, developing new packages and experiences and cost-effective marketing tips.

If you want to meet Matt to discuss any ideas or new opportunities, Matt will be available at the locations and dates below during September and October and would be happy to visit you at your business:

Hamilton/Coleraine and surrounds: Tuesday 4 October
Halls Gap and surrounds: Wednesday 5 October
Wartook/Laharum and surrounds: Thursday 6 October
Horsham/Natimuk and surrounds: Tuesday 11 October
Stawell/Dadswells Bridge/Great Western and surrounds: Wednesday 12 October
St Arnaud and surrounds: Tuesday 18 October
Ararat/Beaufort and surrounds: Thursday 19 October
Dunkeld and surrounds: Tuesday 25 October
Avoca/Moonambel and surrounds: Thursday 27 October

If the dates listed don’t suit you and your business, please contact Matt to organise an alternative date and time.

Please contact Matt directly in advance to schedule a time to meet with him at idm@grampianstourism.com.au or 0417 377 632.

Social Media – Workshop 7 

Time Management Tools for your Social Media and Online Presence
11, 12 & 13 October

Whether you attended just one of the social media workshops, or were a repeat participant, this last session for this round will be of great benefit. We often attend workshops and leave with good intention to implement some of the skills learnt, but then don’t always get around to it. This workshop will teach you how to ‘bring it all together’ in  an efficient way.
Participants attending this workshop will learn the following:

•             Learn important time management tools and techniques

•             Understand syndication, aggregation, integration and feeding content through multiple online platforms

•             Find time to go on a holiday and/or spend more time exploring our wonderful region!

Dates:

11 October
Halls Gap (9am – 12.30pm) Halls Gap Valley Lodges
Horsham (2.30pm – 6pm) Grains Innovation Park

12 October
Ararat (9am – 12.30pm) Astor Cinema
Hamilton (2.30pm – 6pm) Gilly’s Cafe

13 October
Avoca (9am – 12.30pm) Visitor Information Centre

For more information or to book your spot please email Leah admin@grampianstourism.com.au

The cost is again a heavily subsidised $33 (incl gst) per person but your fee will generate a 100% credit for your use against upcoming Grampians Tourism cooperative marketing programs.

Grampians Tourism Business to Business Speed Networking workshop

*Date to save for your calendar 16 November

It has been two years since the last speed-networking day. Time to bring regional attractions, tour operators, upcoming events and cellar doors into a room to provide briefings to the accommodation sector.

Planning will provide a series of appointments to update colleagues – new opening times, new attractions, new rates and inclusions. It is the day to ensure bed providers know all there is to know about the EXTRA reasons visitors come to the Grampians region.

Wednesday 16^th November – venue details out shortly.

Do you ‘like’ us?

For the many of you who have facebook pages, either personal or business, please follow us at ‘Visit Grampians’ . Feel free to post content, photos or even video. We have a program of scheduled posts aimed at Grampians locals as well as visitors, as well as posting interesting items they pop up. We also Tweet! Follow us @visitgrampians.

Australians invited to share their Australia for new tourism campaign

Tourism Australia has unveiled the next stage of its There’s nothing like Australia campaign – a domestic holiday push that invites Australians to share their Australian holiday experiences online. Over the coming weeks, Australians who share their favourite holiday place or experiences at www.nothinglikeaustralia.com.au will go in the running to win one of 16 luxury Aussie holidays.  For the first time, entrants can also nominate family members and friends to travel with them as part of their Holiday Dream Team. Spread the word and let’s get some Grampians experiences up there!

Shipwreck Coast

“While I know we are finally into the business end of the year, if you are able to find a couple of days to escape – our neighbours at the Shipwreck Coast sent us details of their springtime offer.  I have also asked that Shipwreck Coast share details of our www.springintothegrampians.com.au among their members.”

Spring into the Grampians Campaign update

With a bumper spring on our doorstep, our Spring into the Grampians campaign is perfectly situated to drive visitation over coming months. A range of events have partnered with GT, as well as businesses offering Spring themed deals. Our ads are appearing in Better Homes & Gardens and Your Garden, and on 3AW and Mix FM (Adelaide) radio. In the online world, we have featured on Yahoo7 Better Homes & Gardens site with a ‘homepage takeover’ – a second burst due in September, as well as rolling out other ads and our social media strategy. If you haven’t already, please consider offering a Spring Deal or Special. Contact us for more information.

Media Update

Our work with inviting and hosting media in the region has resulted in some coverage lately. Click here to see Australian Traveller’s ‘Nature’s Bounty’ story, Voyeur Virgin  Inflight Magazine story and Herald Sun ‘Stay at My Place’ review.

Winery Cellar Door Symposium 

50 people interested in the cellar door tourism experience, from across the Grampians region assembled at the Avoca Turf Club last week to consider ways to improve tourist’s awareness and use of the cellar doors of the region.  Grampians Tourism arranged for speakers from the Wine Federation of Australia, from the Barossa Valley and Tourism Victoria to explore strategies with the audience.

With over 1,600 cellar doors within 60+ wine regions, competition to attract the traveller was stiff. Consensus opinion agreed that the way forward was through collective activity, aiming to get travellers into the region first before pitching individual branding or cellar door experiences. There was recognition that travellers were generally looking for a range of experiences to make up their short-breaks – in a nature-based destination like the Grampians, the winery cellar-door needed to be packaged with other complementary neighbouring attractions that included sightseeing, arts/crafts, our stories and dining.

Research suggested that the dominant motivators for travellers were the search for relaxation, to entertain and be with family and/or friends, to gain some knowledge from the holiday experiences and specifically for cellar doors, to present wine tasting with attention to the setting and ambience, to have well-trained staff able to offer traveller information beyond their own property/experience and offering a value for money (not cheap) proposition.

Feedback underscored interest in continuing this style of day. A Packaging workshop will follow in October and a “speed networking” day for the accommodation and attraction businesses is scheduled for mid-November.

Social Media – Workshop 6 – Using social media in your marketing campaign – 13, 14 & 15 September (venues TBC)

By looking at some real life case studies, participants in this workshop will gain an understanding of the types of content that people online are sharing. Importantly, participants will learn techniques to find out what information people are looking to share so they can start to generate and share this content themselves.

Participants attending this workshop will learn the following:

• Understand how people share content online
• Understand what makes content shareable
• Learn to research the types of content being shared
• Plan a campaign that offers value and can spark fans into sharing mode

Dates:

13 September

• Halls Gap (9am – 12.30pm)
• Horsham (2.30pm – 6pm)

14 September

• Ararat (9am – 12.30pm)
• Hamilton (2.30pm – 6pm)

15 September

• Avoca (9am – 12.30pm)

Watch out for our round 7 workshop- mark this date in your diary!

Social Media – Workshop 7 – Time Management Tools for your Social Media and Online Presence – 11, 12 & 13 October (venues TBC)

‘Grampians Way’ Ring Road project

A funding application has gone forward to Regional Development Australia to develop the plans for a Grampians National Park ring road. Preliminary concepts see opportunities to link the existing sealed road network, together with the interpretation of sites of interest and the linkages into and through the National Park, as well as those road linkages from the ring road out across the region.

Grampians Tourism Business to Business Speed Networking workshop – 16 November *Date to save for your calendar

This full-day workshop will provide a fantastic opportunity for all accommodation providers, attractions, tour operators and cellar doors from across the Grampians Tourism region to come together for a day of speed business to business appointments to get to know other businesses and discuss collaborative opportunities to create compelling customer offers and optimise overall business success.

All details for this workshop will be provided in September.

Congratulations to Grampians entrants to the 2011 RACV Victorian Tourism Awards; Auswalk Walking Holidays, Boroka Downs, Cave Hill Creek, Brambuk – The National Park & Cultural Centre. The awards are announced on November 14. Good luck!

Spring into the Grampians poster  

We have produced an A2 (595mm x 420mm) Spring into the Grampians poster on 250gsm art quality matt paper, following many, many requests last year about purchase.

If you have an interest and opportunity to retail these, we have them available, complete with posting tubes at $5.50 (incl gst) each with a RRP of $9.90. A minimum order of 10 are available by contacting Leah Voigt, admin@grampianstourism.com.au

Welcome to Matt Jones

Matt Jones has been appointed to the newly created Industry Development Manager position (made possible by the generous assistance of Tourism Victoria as part of flood recovery funding). Matt comes to Grampians Tourism from the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and Cranbourne, where he has worked over the past 12 years – most recently as Tourism and Marketing Coordinator. Matt has worked across regional and metropolitan tourism over the past 13 years.

The Industry Development Manager’s role will be to assist industry wanting to develop their distribution capacities, to coordinate industry training, mentor those wanting to bundle up their experiences with other complementary experiences and to help link industry into the opportunities being created by Kylie Schurmann’s marketing activities.

Matt takes up his appointment Thursday 14^th July and will be located at the Halls Gap office. His contact details are: email: idm@grampianstourism.com.au; direct phone: 5361 4060.

Grampians Recent Media Coverage

Part of the marketing work undertaken by Grampians Tourism is to pitch story ideas to media, then work with journalists to develop an itinerary and assist with their visit.  This past month has seen 4 pages of coverage in Virgin Australia in flight magazine ‘Voyeur’ (click here to read article). Look out for Australian Traveller Magazine on sale 27th July for a beautiful Grampians cover shot and content inside the magazine . Fishing show Hook, Line & Sinker’s Grampians episode is due to air this weekend. We have also had a crew from Whats’ On DownUnder travel show filming in the region. See above Matt Jones & Kylie Schurmann from Grampians Tourism with hosts Frankie J Holden and Michelle Pettigrove.

VISITGRAMPIANS/VISITVICTORIA.COM UPDATE

A major redevelopment to our website will launch in July 2011 to leverage from new technologies, design and trends. The redevelopment will feature a completely new design with larger images, Youtube video integration and online booking availability and updated navigation. Google maps will be embedded throughout the site to improve locational planning and directions. The site will also leverage from links and feeds from Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels. Site content management will benefit from a new streamlined management system for editorial and business listings.

What do you need to do? Businesses who haven’t updated their profile will still be profiled on the new site however their image will appear as below (black space around image), if you have updated your profile it will appear as below (full image). See my.visitvictoria.com for more info, including a video tutorial to step you through the process.

VicRoads – Grampians National Park flood recovery update

Please click here to access the latest VicRoads information update on flood recovery works in the Grampians National Park.

Grampians Winery Tourism Symposium

Wine, tourism and marketing professionals from around Australia will be presenting at the Grampians Winery Tourism Symposium and encouraging business representatives to consider a range of marketing strategies aimed at delivering stronger returns to cellar doors in the region.

The day will explore the latest winery tourism trends, help distinguish the branding message from the tourism message, deliver eMarketing strategies and look at the whys and hows of packaging the cellar door experience with other complementary experiences.

Thursday 18th August  9am-4.30pm  Avoca Shire Turf Club

For more information click here

For registration form click here

Social Media Workshop 5

Mastering Web Video  to Promote your Business.

Participants will learn the skills necessary to record, edit and publish basic video using motion video and still photos. YouTube, the worlds biggest video sharing platform, will be used to publish the video to the web. Search Engine Optimisation techniques will be shown so that the video can appear in search engine results.

The cost is again a heavily subsidised $33 (incl gst) per person but your fee will generate a 100% credit for your use against upcoming Grampians Tourism cooperative marketing programs.

August 16th & 17th Locations & Venues to be advised.

Tourism Businesses to be exposed online.

With over 80% of consumers planning and booking their holidays online it is imperative for tourism businesses to have a website presence. For tourism businesses without a website, there is a great new opportunity for them to consider. The program called Getting Aussie Business Online was created by Google and MYOB and they are offering Australian businesses a free website for 1 year and a free domain for 2 years.

For more information click here

Call for Spring Deals and Packages

Our Spring into the Grampians campaign is gearing up, and it time to consider how you can leverage off the media we plan to use to promote visitation during Spring.

The current media plan includes coverage in ‘non-traditional’ travel media, leaning towards more lifestyle media, where the audience is the same but the completion less.  This includes:

• Radio spots on 3AW and Mixx in Adelaide, during Sat & Sun mornings
• Magazine ads in Your Garden and Better Homes & Garden
• Online with a ‘take over’ of Better Homes & Gardens website with ads across other Yahoo7 targeted sites.
• Social media component using twitter and facebook
• A consumer promotion with Messenger (similar to Leader newspapers in SA)
• PR support for Spring events  & packages that have signed up with the campaign

GT has also direct mailed Spring into the Grampians material to a database of approx 600 clubs and groups.

All ads will feature a dedicated URL springintothegrampians . This site will direct to the new visitgrampians/visitvictoria site that will be updated to tie in with the Spring into the Grampians campaign.

Anyone with an existing business profile on the site is eligible to take out a Deal & Package promotion. If you currently do not have a profile then please consider – see my.visitvictoria.com to see how. A 12 month profile is $250 or $100 for accredited businesses. A 3 month Deal & Package promotion is $227 (+GST). Contact us for more information.