Sapphire Coast Tourism Update, December 2015 Partnership increases stake in South Coast award winning 'UNSPOILT' campaign. Contributions from local

Kayak-at-Marina sunset

Sapphire Coast Tourism Update, December 2015

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Partnership increases stake in South Coast award winning 'UNSPOILT' campaign.

Contributions from local tourism bodies, Sapphire Coast Tourism and Bega Valley Shire Council have enabled a $60,000 stake in the 2016 South Coast 'Unspoilt' campaign.
The South Coast 'Unspoilt' campaign, which won gold for destination marketing at last week's NSW Tourism Awards, is a whole of South Coast collaboration investing over $600,000 in joint marketing of the South Coast NSW.
The campaign drives huge traffic to VisitNSW and has delivered over 1 million leads to businesses listed on VisitNSW.

Yes your listings on VISITNSW (Get Connected) are now even more important
To maximise potential from the 'Unspoilt' campaign please re-visit your listing on the visitnsw.com.au website. To learn all about get connected, update your listing or create a new one visit Get Connected

South Coast Regional Tourism Organisation (SCRTO) Wins Prestigious Destination Marketing Category at NSW Tourism Awards

The South Coast Regional Tourism Organisation (South Coast RTO) has been awarded top honours for the ground-breaking ‘Unspoilt’ marketing campaign in the 2015 NSW Tourism Awards.

‘Unspoilt’ is the South Coast region’s first ever “whole-of-region” tourism marketing campaign, developed in partnership with Destination NSW (DNSW) . The South Coast RTO worked closely with DNSW’s marketing and digital teams to devise and execute the award-winning campaign.

South Coast RTO Chair, Ms. Catherine Shields, comments that this collaborative approach – both with Destination NSW and as a whole region - has certainly enabled a bigger impact than five small stand-alone campaigns, contributing to its now award-winning status.

“The ‘Unspoilt’ campaign is a breakthrough collaborative marketing campaign which saw the five Local Government Areas on the South Coast of New South Wales - Shellharbour, Kiama, Shoalhaven, Eurobodalla and Sapphire Coast/ Bega Valley - pool their resources to brand and promote the region as a whole.

In September, the South Coast RTO and DNSW revealed the ‘Unspoilt’ campaign contributed to record increases in domestic visitor numbers to the South Coast and more than 1 million leads to South Coast tourism businesses.

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Sapphire Coast 'The Film'

While the 3 minute film trailer was not designed specifically for Social Media, the long-form content still resonated powerfully on social media with locals and visitors alike.
The Facebook post which launched the 'The Film' on August 19 reached 130,000 people, with the video viewed near 60,000 times and post clicks of 11,800.

The Facebook post can be viewed here
Shorter versions designed specifically for digital media channels are currently being produced by both Destination NSW and Sapphire Coast Tourism.

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Journeys project goes digital

The very popular 'Journeys in Australia's Coastal Wilderness' brochures are now accompanied by a digital version, adding some flexibility in the delivery of our best stories and information to visitors.
The responsive design journey planner tool allows users to search for Nature, Heritage, Earth History, National Parks, itineraries and coastal experiences near them when in destination or when planning a trip.
The tool has over 100 sites already loaded; users can save favourites and share experiences via social media, email or text message.
The responsive design site can be shared here

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Marketing update

Eden Whale Festival - Flagship Funding

The predominantly digital campaign was actioned by SCT this year and included Google AdWords and remarketing, daily Facebook posts, branded historical and nature images, a suite of 30 second video, regular blogs, newsletter, a Wild About Whales partnership, radio campaign and (free) print mentions in the Daily Telegraph, Canberra Times, South Coast Style and features in East Gippsland Newspapers and NSW Trainlink Magazine.

Web highlights August 1 – November 7
55% increase in unique on 2014
35% increase in page visits on 2014
100% increase in time spent on site

Social media highlights
18k video views
490k story tellers
2677 new Facebook likes
1.1m reach on Facebook
1.5m impressions

Merimbula Spring Campaign

A mini Facebook campaign in September/October targeted ACT, regional NSW & Victorian visitors and invited them to visit the Merimbula website.

94,595 people saw the Merimbula Visitor Information branding on a Facebook ad (impressions).
5413 people took action on the posts, with 648 likes, 146 comments and 95 shares among page likes, photo views and web clicks.
1593 people read the 'Spring' blog and importantly 372 blog readers went to search for accommodation.

SCT Facebook & web for October

The spring surge in web visitation has hit, with numbers higher than the same time last year by around 20 per cent and looking more like last year’s peak season stats.

Popular content is the accommodation finder, pet friendly holidays, Merimbula town, market calendar, Tathra, Eden, whale watching, fishing and activities.

800k Google search impression (ex. Eden Whale Festival)
100k pages viewed
31k unique visitors
110k reached through Facebook
9k people engaged and sharing positive stories on social media

If you have a web listing with us, please review it and send any updates to schenhall@sapphirecoast.com.au

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Cruise Season off to a flyer

After a few months working on guide recruitment, shore experience planning, program funding, and a full revamp of cruise collateral the real business got underway with two ships in Eden port on the 20th and 24th November.

The Volendam, with American and Australian passengers, enjoyed tours to Haycock Point, Potoroo Palace, Eden Killer Whale Museum, Wheelers and around the town of Eden. The passengers’ only complaint was that they couldn’t stay longer as they loved the town of Eden and Sapphire Coast!
Pacific Dawn, was also a great success with 1,755 passengers and crew disembarking for the day. Six shore tours ran including Pambula and Merimbula, Eden, Ben Boyd and Davidson’s Whaling Station, Kayaking, seafood cooking classes and Eden; with all passenger feedback being very positive. This was the Pacific Dawn’s maiden voyage to Eden and following her visit here, she sailed directly into the 5 ship spectacular in Sydney Harbour!

The '15/'16 schedule

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Tips for a hot summer of social

People use up to 5 sources to research a destination, including Trip Advisor, Facebook & Instagram along with destination websites. Refresh your bios, cover photos and check your listings with SCT and Get Connected (Destination NSW).
Scribble social media post ideas to the office calendar. Include local & flagship events, fan and employee pics, posts from your local Visitor Information Centre or us along with posts about your business.
Scheduling posts over the busy Christmas New Year period will save you so much time and worry (give Sarah a call for any advice on 6495 7031).
Tourism Australia has recently released a new set of online resources for destination marketers. It’s designed to prep us all for the coastal & aquatic stage of the hugely successful ‘There’s nothing like Australia’ campaign, and will be regularly updated over the summer.
Check it out here

Our own summer schedule will include tips for in-destination visitors, promotion of summer and autumn flagship events, Instagram albums and shares, weekly blogs and a newsletter.

A small advertising budget will be used to grow our Facebook & Instagram audience with a Google AdWords remarketing campaign later in the season to promote autumn stays.

Tag us with #sapphirecoast and we'll see it and engage with you!

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New operator: On the Perch

We welcome a new attraction near Tathra - On the Perch Aviaries, Gifts and Café.
Owner operator Steve Sass and his family have developed a completely accessible experience that immerses you in the lives of over 40 species of native and exotic birds in big, walk-in aviaries.

Tathra and Kalaru locals have already made Café Brood a favourite coffee stop and this summer will see the launch of a holiday activity program (including keeper for a day along with guided day and night walks) to compliment existing conservation programs and daily meet the keeper talks.

Address: 343 Tathra Road, Kalaru (formerly Kangarutha Nursery)
Phone: 6494 1169
Opening hours: 10am to 4pm.
Also on Facebook and Instagram.

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Hand feeding an endangered Bush Stone Curlew.

 
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Free entry to the cafe, with Wild Rye coffee and snacks.

 
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Steve and Linda Sass with Darryl Kelland and Phil Martin who won a family pass at the recent Bega Parkrun.

YEAR ENDING JUNE '15 VISITOR NUMBERS

There were just over 500,000 domestic overnight visitors in the year ending June 2015. This is an almost identical estimate to the previous period last year.
1. The latest June result is the second highest year ending June estimate for the history of this monitor.
2. There were an estimated 2.4 million domestic visitor nights in the year ending June 2015 – the third highest nights' estimate of any period in the monitor.
3. The Sapphire Coast maintained its share of visitor nights volume across the whole of South Coast.
4. Visitor nights volume across Regional NSW has also increased. As with the Sub-Region, the Sapphire Coast successfully defended its market share
5. There were an estimated 363,000 domestic day visitors in the year ending June 2015. This is an increase of 7.9% compared to year ending June '14. Although not large enough to be considered statistically significant it is the fifth consecutive 12 month period-on-period increase.
6. Day visitor volume across Regional NSW has surged over the past year. Sapphire Coast has successfully defended its share of this broader market.
7. There were an estimated 121,000 international overnight visitor nights in the period ending June 2015. This is well above all other periods in the monitor.

Source: Estimates extracted from Tourism Research Australia’s National Visitor Survey and International Visitor Survey.

DNSW resources

Get Connected resources
* Link to sign up is here.
* FAQs section
* ATDW distributors can be viewed here

Other resources

Small Business Toolkit – offers a fantastic suite of resources and tutorials covering digital marketing, including social media training – to view their social-media specific modules, download here

Tourism Tribe – is the refreshed version of what used to be the ‘Tourism eKit’. They offer an excellent range of up-to-date online tutorials on digital and social media. Some webinars are free. The tutorials are offered at a cost of about $10 per month or $99 per annum.
View the full list of tutorials here

Tourism Research Australia – offer a social media resource for event planners which can be downloaded free here

Publish tips on how to engage with Tourism Australia via social media here

Tourism Australia publish a regular blog on social media which can be viewed here

Sapphire Coast Tourism LTD 02 6495 7031 sapphirecoasttourism@sapphirecoast.com.au

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