Call to review tourist campaign
A Baw Baw Shire councillor has called for council to review the Visit Baw Baw tourist campaign.
Cr Michael Leaney called for a report into council’s tourism commitments late last year.
After receiving the report, Cr Leaney moved a separate motion requesting an external peer review of the Visit Baw Baw campaign and the campaign’s outcomes.
Cr Leaney said the report from officers raised a number of questions regarding comparisons to other municipalities.
“We need to ascertain whether we are getting good value out of what we are doing.
“This is a process that I think we should go through to see if what’s being delivered is in the industry’s best interest,” he said.
Cr Leaney said the state government had recognised the visiting economy was one of the six pillars going forward so it was important Baw Baw Shire could tap into that. “This is basically benchmarking,” he said. Cr Danny Goss said tourism provided a big economic boost to this region.
But, he said it was important for council to look at how well the money had been spent in the past, what could be done to improve it and what were the key performance indicators of the campaign.
“What I want to know is what this campaign is about and how our money will be spent,” he said.
Officers reported that council has adopted two key strategic documents and one sub-plan relating to tourism, including its economic development strategy, destination branding strategy and tourism development plan.
The report said the destination branding strategy was adopted to provide vision and leadership for the tourism industry and provide strategic marketing.
Council’s tourism development plan was adopted to provide clarity in the roles and responsibilities of those within the tourism industry and to provide priorities in the delivery of marketing and infrastructure.
Since July 2014, council has spent almost $350,000 on implementation of the destination branding strategy and tourism development plan.
This included $30,000 annual membership of Destination Gippsland for each financial year; printing of visitor guides and significant media promotions and marketing expenses.
Officers said the main goal of the strategy and plan and associated advertising was three fold.
“First Visit Baw Baw was to provide a unified brand that set Baw Baw apart from Gippsland under which council could advertise the region and all operators could use in their advertising.
“Second to create awareness and recognition of the Visit Baw Baw brand and the region it represents in the eyes of consumers and engaging with the brand via the website and social media channels, and third to encourage people to visit the region which would create increased revenue for businesses in the municipality,” the report said.
Officers said the outcomes contained both fors and againsts but said implementation of the strategies and associated advertising had increased the overall reach and traffic on both the Visit Baw Baw webpage and the Visit Baw Baw social media platforms.
“Notwithstanding the challenges, the Visit Baw Baw campaign has resulted in increased traffic and interest with visitation to the website increasing from zero (as a brand new website) to in excess of 40,000 visitors in addition to the increasing engagement with the social media platforms,” the report said.
Analytical data showed the top three areas of interest searched on the website were accommodation, attractions and walking and cycling.
“Whilst the promotion has been successful in terms of gaining brand exposure to a wider market, the direct benefit has been difficult to quantify due to the product offering and the business and tourism engagement with the brand as well as data collection tools on the Visit Baw Baw website.
“In 2016/17 a key focus of the economic development team is to undertake a review of the Visit Baw Baw website. This review is to ensure that it is more accessible and responsive to the user and has the ability to operate as a full online visitor information centre with the ability to consider online booking of accommodation and ticketing to venues.
“This will ensure that all future campaigns are able to be measured more accurately when there is a call to action.
“Moving forward there is a need for a more planned approach to advertising campaigns for the Visit Baw Baw brand where there is potentially a marketing strategy and the opportunity for operators to buy into various campaigns,” officers said.