Tourism development for a rural destination

CLIFTON, QLD

Clifton is a smal rural town of 1,500 residents that lies a few minutes off the main highway 45 minutes south of Toowoomba (population 120,000) and 30 minutes north of Warwick (population 20,000).

The undulating farming land around Clifton has expansive fields of broadacre crops, including sunflowers, a hugely popular hook for summer visitation (although currently not developed as a tourism experience).

Nearby to Clifton are the popular attractions of the Darling Downs Zoo, two National Parks, and the Leyburn Sprints car racing event which attracts huge numbers of attendees, as well as other small towns with interesting connections such as to Steele Rudd of Dad and Dave fame, and the author of Mary Poppins.

Clifton’s attractions include a new museum, a railway station which welcomes regular steam trains, and an Irish pub with regular quirky Irish events.

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SECURING FUNDING

Toowomba Regional Council’s Regional Economic Development Officer and Tilma Group wrote a successful Building Better Regions Fund grant application to secure $20,000 (with no matching funding) to write

1. A three-year tourism development strategy

2. A plan for a new event

3. A 12-month marketing plan (to be updated annually)

CONSULTATION & RESEARCH

Tilma Group reviewed relevant strategic plans and visitor statistics of the region, and developed an audit of Clifton’s tourism products.

Consultation consisted of face to face and phone meetings with a broad variety of stakeholders, including Clifton’s community groups, business owners and tourism operators, a pop-up consultation day at the local café, tourism staff of two Councils, the regional and state tourism organisations, and Queensland Museums. The engagement was used to discuss the town’s challenges and opportunities.

TOURISM DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Tilma Group distilled the findings and developed a pragmatic and realistic plan which identified three priority projects to realise over the coming three years:

• Build the capacity of businesses and community groups to work collaboratively to offer quality experiences to visitors

• Activate existing assets for tourism purposes, and develop new tourism products and experiences

• Increase awareness of the region through marketing

The plan looks beyond Clifton to recommend a new destination brand for the rural region that lies between Toowoomba and Warwick, to position it as a sunflower destination, and activate this positioning with a region-wide sunflower festival.

A model for a new tourism collective has been put forward to drive the establishment and activation of this destination brand.

NEW EVENT DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Based on an assessment of the kinds of events that the Clifton community already do well, Tilma Group developed a comprehensive plan for a new ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’-themed event.

The program will include existing events such as

• A fly-in

• Steam train rides from neighbouring Warwick

• A show n shine, and visits from car and motorbike clubs

• Ute and boot markets

...and will include new events that suit the theme, such as

• Hot air balloon rides

• Model plane, train and car activities

• A cycling event from Toowoomba to Clifton

• An activity to showcase Clifton as an RV hub

• STEAM activities for children (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths)

• Workshops e.g. bike maintenance

• A world record attempt of driving motorbikes though a museum (!)

• Transport-themed films in Clifton’s historic theatre

The purpose of the event is to

• attract day-trip visitors with their associated financial benefits for local businesses

• increase awareness of the destination to inspire year-round day-trip and overnight visitation

• support collaboration amongst community groups and businesses on a common purpose.

MARKETING PLAN

Tilma Group developed a 12-month marketing plan focused on identified target markets (principally weekend day-trip visitors from nearby Toowoomba and Warwick).

While the plan recommends the community apply for grant funding to develop a tourism website, and for 12 months of paid advertising and to hire a marketing agency to implement the plan, the content-focused plan identifies multiple tactics that can be implemented with little to no budget such as

• Ensuring all of Clifton’s attractions and events are listed on the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse and TripAdvisor

• Quarterly seasonal newsletters promoting events and things to do appropriate to the season

• Activating Clifton’s public toilets with destination information on the backs of toilet doors such as café and pub menus and upcoming events (to leverage tea and wee stops and playground stops)

• Direct marketing to car and motorbike clubs

• Leveraging events

The key marketing activities to promote Clifton will be:

• Content creation (blog articles, stories, photos and videos)

• ‘Always on’ social media activity and an informative tourism website to support year-round weekend visitation

• Direct marketing

• Seasonal event campaigns

• School holiday campaigns targeting families

• Campaigns to encourage locals to invite their family and friends to visit

• Media releases

The plan also includes

• key messages and themes for social media

• ideas for blog articles and media releases

• a checklist of tasks to activate the marketing plan at the beginning of each season

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OUTCOMES

• Some of Clifton’s community groups have chosen to simplify administration and increase their collaboration by banding together as a new entity, Advance Clifton.

• Tilma Group secured another $20,000 from the Building Better Regions Fund to enable Clifton to realise their new event by hiring an event organiser/marketer to coordinate the community groups and businesses who will run parts of the event.

• Tilma Group secured funding from Council for three projects: a three-month destination marketing campaign, a business development program to teach business owners how to improve the visitor experience they offer, and a placemaking project to beautify the Main Street to encourage visitors to stop. Professional consultants were hired to implement these projects.

• A community group secured funding for a mural about the region's mega fauna to add vibrancy to the main street.

• Two community meetings will soon be held across the region to discuss sunflower tourism development – solutions to challenges around it, and ways to leverage the opportunity.