We need you to ‘Get on Board’!
The national and international coverage of bushfires has impacted Australia’s reputation and threatens to have an ongoing impact on visitation to Australia over the next 12 -24 months. To mitigate the impact on the visitor economy of Australia, the Federal Government has committed $76m to Tourism Australia to boost their marketing and promotional efforts including an unprecedented campaign to encourage Australians to forgo their international holidays and holiday in Australia this year. The ‘Holiday Here This Year” campaign will be the catalyst for the marketing organisations of each of the States & Territories to ramp up their domestic marketing efforts, creating a more competitive domestic market. As a region we cannot afford to be complacent.
To underpin the Victorian message, Visit Victoria has launched, a tactical campaign “a Short Stay goes a long way” to encourage Melbourne and regional Victoria to continue to visit both fire-affected and non-affected areas in regional Victoria.
Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism is working collaboratively with both Visit Victoria and Tourism Australia to leverage these campaigns, but we need you as operators, on board to ensure the Great Ocean Road region has a strong consumer presence across all official tourism websites.
For a limited time, you can buy a business profile listing on ATDW, appearing on 3 official tourism websites for just $295 per year
(normally $545)
How do you get involved?
We are asking each and every business that services visitors to sign up. Let’s work together to showcase, stronger than ever before, the breadth and depth of products and experiences the Great Ocean Road region has to offer. Every retailer, café, restaurant, accommodation provider, activity and tour operator can play a part in showcasing that the Great Ocean Road region is welcoming visitors and offers a fabulous getaway or holiday any time of year.
What does it cost?
To encourage you to buy in now, Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism has reduced our 3 website buy from $545 to $295 p.a. This package will get your business listed in the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW) and appearing on visitvictoria.com, visitgreatoceanroad.org.au and on your relevant destination site. This multi-channel approach ensures your product is visible to consumers at all stages of their planning.
Why be listed on the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW)
The Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW) is the most comprehensive, quality-assured digital database and multi-channel distribution network for tourism data in Australia. ATDW is a collaboration between all the States & Territories and Tourism Australia. Being part of the ATDW database enables your business to be accessed by other online distributors, currently more than 250 distributors take the ATDW data feed.
Why be listed on visitvictoria.com?
visitvictoria.com – is the call to action that underpins all marketing and promotion of the State Tourism Organisation, Visit Victoria. Visitvictoria.com received 9.3m visitors in 2019 including more than 780k visitors to the Great Ocean Road pages. Listing your business here helps build your profile to visitors as they plan. Increasing the breadth of product and experiences within the Great Ocean Road region will help us stand out from other regions and inspire visitors to travel further, stay longer and do more on a visit to the Great Ocean Road region.
Why be listed on visitgreatoceanroad.org.au?
visitgreatoceanroad.org.au – is our primary channel for inspiring and informing visitors’ planning a journey to our region. Our website underpins and supports our marketing and promotional activity which aims to encourage visitors to stay longer, explore further, spend more and travel outside of peak seasons. Visitation to visitgreatoceanroad.org.au exceed 500,000 visitors p.a. in 2019
Why be listed on a destination site?
Our destination websites serve as a valuable resource for visitors both in planning and while visiting the region. They reflect each destination’s unique ‘brand’ and include more specific information on things to see and do while visiting.
What you need to do to get on board
- Purchase the Holiday Here this year package for $295 online now
- You will receive a code and instructions within one business day to set up your business profile on ATDW
- Your business listing will be live on 3 websites within 48 hours of completion.
Note: Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism works in partnership with over 11 local tourism and trader organisations. Our destination partnerships program ensures 20% of your investment with us will be spent on tourism initiatives or marketing for your own destination. The balance of your investment supports a regional approach to the marketing, development and management of the Great Ocean Road region.
What is GORRT doing?
GORRT is seeking to support having a regular and consistent message in the market over the next 3-6 months. We will increase our digital activity including digital advertising, search engine optimisation and search engine marketing as well as broaden our collaborative partnership with Visit Victoria to leverage their media partners. We will continue to build and distribute content that supports our brand and key messages and leverage media and distribution partners.
From an international perspective, we will continue our work with Great Southern Touring Route (GSTR). Through GSTR we will target messaging at both trade and consumers and drive tactical retail campaigns in key markets. With Melbourne hosting the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) this year we will increase our support of trade and media famils and leverage existing relationships to get the message out that we are welcoming visitors.
Already a partner, What can you do?
All operators need to make the most of this opportunity:
- Check your ATDW profile is up to date (add new photos, check opening times and pricing etc)
- Use the campaign tags and our hashtags and handles on your social posts to increase your exposure and leverage the activity of others. (tip: keep these saved somewhere so you can copy and paste to all your posts): #thisisvictoria #visitvictoria #holidayherethisyear #greatoceanroad #holidayherethisyearGOR #iamwherestoriesunfold @visitgreatoceanroad @australia @visitmelbourne
- Build retail offers to drive decisions and convert intent to travel. (If you are Bronze Preferred Partner or higher you can showcase your deal on your chosen destination website, visitgreatoceanroad.org.au and visitvictoria.com for no additional cost.
Submit your deal or package by completing this VIsit Victoria deals form in full and emailing to [email protected] with up to 10 landscape (quality) photos. Hint: you can send larger photo files using the free online file-share tool, wetransfer.com - Increase your social activity and include video in your mix
- Consider showcasing your neighboring businesses and tag and support their activity
- Review your brand toolkit and get some fresh ideas about what to feature and how to get your message out there.
- Ensure any events you are hosting are also added to ATDW for more coverage. It’s free to list events – ATDW event listing instructions
We look forward to collaboratively supporting tourism to the Great Ocean Road Region.
