By CEO Rick Hamilton
APRIL had a lot happening behind the scenes at Tourism Whitsundays, we’ve been putting together our collateral and members’ collateral for the second spike in our current campaign ‘Perfect’.
This campaign is generating significant interest from our key markets, with our social media ads reaching millions of people.
These ads consist of iconic Whitsundays images and operator-specific creative that highlights the amazing places and experiences we have in the Whitsundays.
While we are preparing to launch spike two, in early May, there’s still time to join in.
If you are a member of Tourism Whitsundays and would like to be involved, reach out to us on info@tourismwhitsundays.com.au.
Looking forward, we are well and truly into budget season. For the last few years, we’ve secured Federal and State funding, due primarily to the lack of international visitation due to the pandemic.
This additional funding gave us the ability to contribute to record visitation and spend from the domestic market.
Looking ahead, numbers are slowing as expected, as well as seasonal fluctuations that occurred pre COVID. Cost of living pressures have hit us all and we are not immune to reduced resources.
Tourism is important in the region; every business directly or indirectly is in tourism. Armed with the right resources, we can continue to enhance the value to a region that creates one in three jobs.
Also happening in the background are our trade focused activities – the Whitsundays Roadshow to Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Gold Coast and Brisbane, and the Australian Tourism Exchange held this month, in Melbourne.
Both of these events put our brand and our operators in front of domestic and international travel arrangers, giving us the best possible chance at hitting our pre-COVID international traveller numbers.
To the end of December 2023, those numbers are already back to 156,000 visitors – only 30 per cent lower than the same period in 2019.
This cements for us the strength of the Whitsundays brand in international markets and the importance of all of our industry maintaining the relationships with international travel arrangers.
