Growing the Regional Visitor Economy

This initial project formed the foundation analysis that all other projects built on. It involved a Product Audit and Gap Analysis of the current tourism products and experiences and illustrated how these relate to identified visitor experience themes from our Destination Management Plan, alongside their alignment with the Statewide DMP.

The resulting Audit was visualized in an online product map – View the Product Map Here. The map is not intended to be consumer-facing but guides our stakeholders on regional trends, product disbursement and gaps in the tourism offering. The map is updated seasonally.

Additionally, the Audit allowed us to design product dashboards for each of our LGAs. Each of these eight individual, dynamic dashboards not only list products, contact details and business social media activity but can also be used to show change over time to clearly illustrate trends in development and resulting closures from crisis.

The outcomes of this project have now been completed. A Tablelands Destination Development Plan has been developed to create a roadmap to guide the collaborative work of local, regional and state tourism stakeholders to grow, develop and promote the Tablelands region and its towns and villages as a distinct new, appealing and competitive tourism region in NSW.

Download the Tablelands Destination Development Plan here.

Five LGA Destination Action Plans (DAPs) have also been prepared that integrate with the priorities of the Tablelands Destination Development Plan providing specific local level priorities and associated actions for each of the LGAs to develop and grow their visitor economies.

Priorities for the next five years focus on establishing a sound collaborative delivery framework to lead and implement the actions of this Plan, as well as supporting the five LGAs and industry stakeholders to further develop tourism products, experiences and infrastructure to best position the region and grow local visitor economies.

The plans have recently been presented to Destination New South Wales and Visit Canberra who have offered their support to establish and promote the region. In addition, meetings have been held with senior executives of each of the five local government areas to present the plans and explain the implementation process.

A Sydney advertising agency, Bashful, has been engaged to undertake a brand strategy process to clearly articulate a brand identity and story for the region. This work is critical to launching the region on the regional tourism map and engaging visitors with a compelling reason to visit!

Working with the team at Destination Sydney Surrounds South, we undertook an opportunity analysis for “The Great South Coast Walk”, a walking trail concept that connects existing and proposed coastal walking tracks from Sydney to the Victorian border.

Download the Opportunity Analysis Report Here.

Being within close proximity to Canberra and situated between Sydney and Melbourne, visitors travel in and around the region along major routes; Hume Highway and the Princes Highway along the coast; the Barton, Kings and Monaro Highways into and out of the ACT; and other routes across all the sub-regions, making our region arguably the most reliant on a growing visitor economy.

Along with regional partners we supported the research into opportunities for self-driving and touring in Southern NSW.

The draft Southern NSW Drive Tourism Opportunities Assessment Report can be viewed here.

Working with Tourism Managers in our region we contribute to the DNSW Drive website content which feeds into the Tourism Australia roadtrip content.

This tourism partnership framework for the Destination Southern NSW Region and ACT aims to fully capture, grow and realise the full value of the Canberra market for our region. As well as develop a sustainable strategy and action plan to foster better collaboration to grow our visitor economy.

The resulting activities are guided by the six goals of

• Collaborative planning and decision making
• Demonstrating the value of collaboration
• Coordinating funding and projects
• A shared regional narrative
• Capacity building, training and skills
• Leveraging the whole region as a value proposition

Download the Full Canberra Framework Here

View the Condensed Version Here

Measuring the success of the region’s visitor economy is a challenge but there a range of tools that have been developed to collect data to make quantifiable decisions.

The DNSW Westpac Tourism Expenditure Model is designed to complement the National Visitor Survey, which is published quarterly by Tourism Research Australia. The Monitor data is reported by tourism region and provides top-level monthly reporting on tourism expenditure in NSW, including:

• The number of visitors to a region – defined as, those who reside greater than 50km from the region;
• The number of transactions undertaken by visitors; and
• The value of visitor spending.

By providing a greater understanding of tourism expenditure throughout NSW, this Monitor will be pivotal in benchmarking performance, identifying trends and highlighting opportunities for tourism growth.

Find the DNSW Westpac Tourism Expenditure Model here.