‘It is important to create a recall value for the destination’
Melbourne and Victoria is a perfect playground for adventurers and wildlife lovers, foodies and road trippers. Wherever you go, you’re never far from spectacular nature and fabulous food and wine. Tourism promotions and marketing are crucial during the time of pandemic when the appetite to travel is low. It is important to create a recall value for the destination. Visit Victoria is keeping the interest in the destinations alive during the time of the pandemic so that consumers have a desire to travel once the restrictions are lifted. We are doing this through PR, social media and working with the travel trade. The current lockdown has given Visit Victoria an opportunity to train and educate a large number of travel companies and updating them on tourism products/attractions/services at Victoria.
Digital platforms have turned out to be an effective and influential way of promoting a destination during the pandemic. Since people are stuck at home and; digital and social media usage has gone up significantly (1.4 per cent increase), this is the right time to get people’s attention and get them to dream about visiting Melbourne and Victoria. Travellers can be inspired to travel once the situation is back to normal.
Visit Victoria is active on various online platforms and promoting the destination through social media. Many of Victoria’s iconic attractions including museums, art galleries, sanctuaries and zoos are offering virtual walkthroughs, tours and talks. To encourage virtual family fun, many of Melbourne’s family-friendly attractions have offered fun and also educational experiences for children such as Melbourne Legoland, science-based programs for kids over the radio, and online by Museums Victoria.
Visit Victoria has also launched a free-book – ‘Where in the World is Melbourne?’ designed for families to enjoy together which highlights many of the states iconic attractions including Melbourne’s Laneways, the 12 Apostles, and of course Aussie animals in the wild.
To promote World Penguin Day we had garnered an opportunity with a consumer travel magazine, Travel + Leisure India on their official Instagram account through a static post and a story. The stories highlighted the charm of cute waddling penguins on #WorldPenguinDay. It talks about how researchers at Phillip Island Nature Parks (@ phillipislandnp) have started tests to future-proof the adorable animals against climate change. For this, they have created artificial burrow designs, to assist the penguins in coping with increasing temperatures, especially during their moult in late summer and autumn.