Highest ever interstate holidaymakers in NT

So we’re not ALL ducking of overseas! What’s the NT doing right?

According to a Tourism Research Australia (TRA) survey there has been a 15.8% increase “(ie) 46,000 people, which means over 337,000 interstate holiday visitors came to the Territory (since last September)…”, says Tourism Minister Paul Henderson.

The increase of $10 million to Tourism NT’s base level funding has helped the ‘Share Our Story’ marketing campaign more than double the 6.8% national increase in interstate holidaymakers.

The challenge will be to continue to grow the market against competing factors such as cheap overseas holidays, rising interest rates and increased expenditure on luxury items at home says the Minister.

The survey also shows an increase in interstate holiday nights in the
Territory, up 18.9% or 460,000 nights when compared to the year ending September 2005, higher than the national increase of 5.7%.

Share our Story – Share our Territory – Marketing Campaign

The NT launched a new $2.7 million ‘refreshed brand’ campaign in March 06. It has been ‘rolled out’ in Australian and New Zealand over the past months. The aim was to clearly position the Territory as Australia’s leading nature and cultural tourism destination.

The refresh was the culmination of eight months work that included:

• extensive market research with interstate consumers;
• a comprehensive segmentation survey;
• detailed analysis of the media habits of our target markets.

With the rapid changes in the travel industry over the last few years it was seen as essential to review marketing strategies to become more responsive and relevant to shifts in market conditions.

At the same time a major investment in consumer research identified core target markets so as to:

• better understand how to communicate with them;
• what motivates their decision making;
• what sort of experiences they are interested in.

VERY INTERESTING

The research also identified that the type of travellers attracted to the are NOT characterised as either international or domestic. They share a state of mind rather than a geographical location, so it is important that marketing activities have a universal appeal. The strap line ‘Share our Story’ resonates with all cultures and languages and will also be used in the NTTC’s international marketing program.

New marketing tools have been tailored to each of the six priority destinations – Darwin, Kakadu, Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs and Uluru regions.

Campaign elements will include:

• Magazine advertising
• Pay television
• Online activities
• Promotions with media partners, including Fairfax, Australian Geographic and RM Williams Outback magazine
• Regional press activity

“Territory operators will also have increased opportunities to buy into interstate promotion activity with a range of cooperative advertising opportunities that offer bigger discounts and better exposure in key publications read by our target audiences,” says NT Tourist Commission MD, Maree Tetlow.

I suppose there are always always winners and losers in the marketplace. Well done to the NT but I can’t help thinking of the tourism destinations in the south that have suffered one of the worst ski seasons on record in 2006 and now are facing bushfires again, so soon after the devastating 2003 fires, AND we’ve hardly started summer!

The research figures were provided by Tourism Research Australia (TRA).