Takeaways from Local Government NSW’s Destination and Visitor Economy Conference

Last week Linda attended Local Government NSW’s Destination & Visitor Economy Conference hosted by Wagga Wagga City Council, Coolamon Shire Council and Junee Shire Council - back where Tilma Group began 16 years ago! Here Linda shares some of her key takeaways from the sessions she attended.

P.S. Stay tuned for our takeaways from the upcoming

• Global Sustainable Tourism Summit (attended by Kushla this week)

• WA Tourism Conference (where Linda will present next week)

• South Australian Tourism Conference (where Cath from our sister business, Australian Centre for Regional Events, previously called rEVENTS Academy, will present this week)

Images: Linda back where she started in tourism at the Wagga Wagga Visitor Information Centre, Linda presenting on the power of regional events, one of the breakout sessions.

The power of regional events

Linda presented with an events panel including:

Emma Corbett, Events Officer, Wagga Wagga City Council and Festival of W - Council’s largest destination event held in the depths of Winter

Cath Peachey, Chair, Narooma Rocks and Narooma Oyster Festival

• Events are facing strong headwinds such as rising costs and changes in consumer behaviour (e.g. last minute ticket sales) and volunteering behaviour

• Councils should get clear on their role/s with events: enable, leverage, support, deliver?

• This should align with how events support Council’s organisational objectives ​

• Rather than support all events, Councils should be strategic with their limited resources – which events are the best fit events for your community and objectives, considering things like your venues/infrastructure.

• ​Be bold – pick your winners to stand out from the crowd by focusing on quality over volume!

• If you take the approach that everyone gets a prize, you will miss opportunities, and possibly fail to realise the potential of your key events

 Learn how Tilma Group helps Councils leverage the power of events:

Creating agritourism experiences

Adriana Biuk Product Manager, Agritourism and Culinary Tourism | Destination NSW

Kate Shilling, Project Manager, Agritourism, Tourism Australia

Angie Armstrong, Co-director of Callubri Station

• Agritourism is a growing sector

• The potential in experience development is exciting - immersive and authentic experiences are key.

• There is an opportunity to build on what we are famous for in regional areas

Key factors to consider when creating an agritourism experience

• Tourism is a resilience strategy for farmers.

• Visitors want to feel connected – connect visitors to the land, farm and farmer.

• Ensure your offering is immersive and authentic – authenticity needs to stay at core of what we do

• Take the everyday of what you do on the farm and add a twist and elevate it – for example, moonlight bathing

• Have a hook to grab attention, and then when you have their attention you can share your broader story

• Each region needs to sing their own song and a collective approach within a region is key.

• Agritourism for commodity crops – telling the story of broad acre farming provides an opportunity to draw people into more remote locations - collaboration on this front is very important for this type of remote agritourism

• Work with the state tourism organization - don’t be scared to ask for support and network

• The NSW First Program online tourism business development training is a great support

Trends in agritourism

• Sustainability

• Bookability

• Meet the farmer

• Immersion in farm life

Callubri Station is an inspiring example of best practice agritourism development. Angie attributes her success to leveraging all the programs and support available from Destination NSW and embracing opportunities.

We love her value-add experiences – how fabulous does moon bathing sound!!

Minister’s Address: Minister for the Arts, Music and the Night-time Economy, and Jobs and Tourism

The Hon John Graham MLC

• The tourism industry’s recovery is positive, but it is still patchy.

• The state is supporting operators with funding and regulatory support.

• Programs are focused on local precincts, town centres, activations, empowering Councils and communities.

• Passionate about strengthening creative communities, so there is a new Creative Industries Policy

• Community Improvement Districts are a new policy to make it easier for Community Improvement Districts (formerly Business Improvement Districts) to be set up in NSW, which is the pilot state before it is rolled out across Australia

• Open Streets Program provides funding of up to $150,000 to temporarily close streets to vehicles and open them on a day, or series of days, for placemaking activations for people.

• Permit, Plug, Play Program helps Councils cut the cost of street closures

• Regional Event Fund - there was strong feedback from Councils about the importance of this fund, and 282 applications in the most recent round.

Images: Presentation on Sculpture by the Sea, presentation on marketing to Gen Z, welcome from Local Government NSW.

International market update

Dominic Mehling, Tourism Australia

• 50% of all markets use word of mouth recommendations as motivation and inspiration for travel ideas

• Destinations and experiences need to be meaningful

• 32% of people use a travel agent to plan a holiday – face to face is still a significant way in which people communicate when planning

 What’s on the mind of consumers?

• Indigenous experiences

• Premium redefined

• Distribution

• Agritourism

• Storytelling

• Cruise & self-drive  (self-drive leads to great dispersal for regions!!)

 Shift 20 Initiative

• Aims to helps brands create marketing communications with diverse audiences in mind

• Nearly 20% of Australians live with a disability, yet representation in mainstream media sits at less than 1%

• Launched by the Dylan Alcott Foundation in 2023 with a campaign of 13 of Australia’s biggest brands including people with disabilities in their ads.

• Brands have wanted to include people with disabilities in their campaigns but were nervous about getting it wrong. The Initiative equips brands with the confidence to include people with disabilities in their communications.

Resource: A quick guide for communicating your accessible tourism offering online

Growing NSW’s economic and social value through a vibrant visitor economy

Steve Cox, CEO, Destination NSW

• The opening of Western Sydney airport will really accelerate NSW visitor economy

• Regional NSW is the drawcard for domestic visitor expenditure

The top 3 domestic drivers for state visitation are:

1. World class beaches

2. Events

3. Great place to relax and unwind

 Images: Shift 20 recommends showing the 20% of travellers who have disability in marketing, Sculpture By The Sea, moon bathing at Callubri Station.

Engaging Gen Z with marketing

Hannah Stratham, CEO, Media Mortar

• By 2026 Gen Z will be largest generation in the workforce.

• We now have an attention span of 8 seconds, which is lower than that of a goldfish!!

• How can you keep attention in a brief destination video beyond 8 seconds? Keep videos very brief and use short video distribution such as Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts

• Gen Z hate advertising! They tune out. So use authentic content on social media instead of advertising.

• TikTok is the 7th most used social media platform, and users stay on the platform for a long time.  

Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail: Sculpture by the Sea

David Handley AM, Founder

This project is a great case study on the power of arts and tourism to support disaster recovery in regional communities. David reinforced the importance of quality arts projects in regions, and not simply creating more ‘big things’. His presentation supported comments by many other presenters about ensuring you offer meaningful experiences and quality over quantity.

How Tilma Group can help your destination

Tilma Group helps Councils identify how to maximise benefits from the visitor economy through strategic planning and capacity building.