1. Introduction Tourism North East (TNE) is the regional tourism board for the High Country, charged with leading strategic supply and demand driven tourism initiatives that deliver strong outcomes to the local visitor economy. It operates across the key areas of regional marketing, industry development, infrastructure and product development, strategic planning, advocacy and research, and works collaboratively with a range of stakeholders to drive visitation, yield and dispersal throughout the High Country. At the end of each quarter, TNE produces a report that provides an overview of all the regional activities that Mansfield Shire Council invests in, and key deliverables within that period. Following is the report for the first quarter of the 2019/20 financial year. During this period, highlights have included the impressive results that have been associated with the finalisation of the 2018/19 Ride High Country marketing campaign, along with securing grant funding for a dedicated digital resource to work with operators to enhance their digital skill-set. Further information about these initiatives are included in the following report. 2. Ride High Country Campaign 2.1 Ride High Country 2018-19 Campaign Results TNE manages a four year, $4.4 million Ride High Country cycle tourism strategy and marketing campaign to lead cycle tourism efforts for Victoria’s High Country. Primarily funded by the Victorian State Government, the strategy identifies two key objectives to be achieved by the end of the four-year campaign: ● To double cycle tourism to the High Country (from 103k to 206k visitors). ● To increase cycle tourism yield by an additional $37million per annum (from a baseline of $49 million). The first year of the Ride High Country campaign was delivered in 2018/19. It focused on increasing brand awareness and positioning the High Country as ‘Australia’s premier cycling destination’. This approach has produced exceptional results with the effect of the campaign being felt immediately. Year one of the campaign has delivered an extra 40,000 cycling tourists to the High Country over the past year, producing an additional $31 million in visitor spend, immediately impacting the regional economy. Representing a growth of 41% in terms of cycling visitor numbers and a total yield of more than $81 million, High Country cycle tourism growth has outstripped the rate of both cycle tourism across the State and visitor growth to the North East Region more generally. Equally as TNE Activity Report – Mansfield Shire Council 2019-20 Q1
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1. Introduction Tourism North East (TNE) is the regional tourism board for the High Country, charged with leading strategic supply and demand driven tourism initiatives that deliver strong outcomes to the local visitor economy. It operates across the key areas of regional marketing, industry development, infrastructure and product development, strategic planning, advocacy and research, and works collaboratively with a range of stakeholders to drive visitation, yield and dispersal throughout the High Country. At the end of each quarter, TNE produces a report that provides an overview of all the regional activities that Mansfield Shire Council invests in, and key deliverables within that period. Following is the report for the first quarter of the 2019/20 financial year. During this period, highlights have included the impressive results that have been associated with the finalisation of the 2018/19 Ride High Country marketing campaign, along with securing grant funding for a dedicated digital resource to work with operators to enhance their digital skill-set. Further information about these initiatives are included in the following report.
2. Ride High Country Campaign 2.1 Ride High Country 2018-19 Campaign Results TNE manages a four year, $4.4 million Ride High Country cycle tourism strategy and marketing campaign to lead cycle tourism efforts for Victoria’s High Country. Primarily funded by the Victorian State Government, the strategy identifies two key objectives to be achieved by the end of the four-year campaign:
● To double cycle tourism to the High Country (from 103k to 206k visitors). ● To increase cycle tourism yield by an additional $37million per annum (from a baseline of
$49 million). The first year of the Ride High Country campaign was delivered in 2018/19. It focused on increasing brand awareness and positioning the High Country as ‘Australia’s premier cycling destination’. This approach has produced exceptional results with the effect of the campaign being felt immediately. Year one of the campaign has delivered an extra 40,000 cycling tourists to the High Country over the past year, producing an additional $31 million in visitor spend, immediately impacting the regional economy. Representing a growth of 41% in terms of cycling visitor numbers and a total yield of more than $81 million, High Country cycle tourism growth has outstripped the rate of both cycle tourism across the State and visitor growth to the North East Region more generally. Equally as
TNE Activity Report – Mansfield Shire Council 2019-20 Q1
impressive, it has been validated that Victoria’s High Country attracted a significantly higher number of cycling visitors than any of the key cycling regions nationally, thus establishing it as ‘Australia’s premier cycling destination’.
2.2 Campaign Overview 2019-20 Building on the foundations of success in 2018/19, the second year of the campaign in 2019/20 will focus on driving brand awareness. As such, it will primarily be an above the line execution that incorporates a range of mass media channels to stimulate brand recall and recognition. These marketing efforts will focus on the promotion of the hero products and competitive differentiators of the Ride High Country offering, showcasing the array of cycle products that establish the High Country’s ride experiences as being the best in Victoria. Telling the complete destination offering, as it relates to the cycle tourism experience, will be key in establishing the region as the leader in this space. Key components of the 2018/19 campaign are noted in the following, primarily targeting the core metropolitan Melbourne market:
a) Above the Line Media – mass market media channels for broad engagement
● Out of Home (OOH) – Premium ‘roadside’ (large and medium format billboards), bus shelters and bus backs in high-traffic, high-impact locations that have been geotargeted for maximum reach amongst core segments.
● Melbourne Airport Domination – an activation involving linked signage and vision throughout both the Qantas and Multi Airline Terminals that will allow Ride High Country to dominate the consumer journey of domestic and international travellers.
● TV - Ride High Country TV commercial to be aired across key programming including SBS’s coverage of Le Tour de France.
● Content Sponsorships – primarily with cycling publications to reach engaged audiences with high frequency via a combination of digital advertising and editorial.
● Digital Advertising – targeted digital advertising on key cycling, news, and entertainment sites, as well as advertising via Video on Demand channels.
● Print Advertising – advertising with limited cycle titles, particularly those with leverageable PR opportunities.
● Ride High Country Managed Digital – reaching consumers through the Ride High Country website and social media platforms, and also search engine marketing.
● Ride High Country Ambassador - Mount Beauty local and Mountain Bike World Champion, Paul van der Ploeg, will be appointed as a Ride High Country Ambassador and the face of the above the line campaign.
b) Below the Line Media – targeted and personalised engagement
● Ride High Country Guide - the production of a piece of collateral that inspires visitation to
the region, and assists with navigating the product once here. ● Events and Exhibitions – attending cycle events and expos enabling direct engagement
with high-value visitors to promote the regional ride offering and supporting tourism experiences.
● Visitor Study - including the design and reporting of the annual cycling visitation review. ● Database Acquisition and Communication – growing current cycle tourism databases and
communicating in a direct and meaningful manner with both awareness and conversion in mind.
● Public Relations – PR via targeted media channels to influence consumer opinion and travel trends, and keep the regional cycle offering front of mind.
● Strategic Marketing Alliances – with brands in the cycle space that have strong profiles and presence within the cycling community, and can add credibility and reach to the campaign.
c) Cooperative Marketing Partnership – extending campaign reach and engagement TNE will use the cooperative marketing budget to work with other entities to deliver mutually beneficial cooperative promotional activities. Primary consideration in this space will be given to opportunities that support and leverage broader State marketing initiatives delivered by Visit Victoria. Confirmed activities include:
● Ride High Country TV Report - running for 12 weeks over the summer months, on both Metropolitan Melbourne and Regional Victoria TV.
● Jayco Herald Sun Tour - advertising to drive awareness and visitation.
New Ride High Country assets will be captured to bring this campaign to life, including dedicated Ride High Country photo and vision shoots, asset development via partnerships and user generated content. ‘Australia’s premier cycling destination’ will be utilised across all creative as the campaign positioning statement while ridehighcountry.com.au will act as the primary call to action.
2.3 Ride High Country Digital Assets a) Website The Ride High Country website - ridehighcountry.com.au - is the central call to action for the cycle tourism marketing campaign. The Ride High Country website performed very strongly in the first quarter, servicing 22.4k sessions, up 41% compared to the same time last year. Editorial content achieved 45.6k pageviews spread relatively evenly across the Road, Rail Trail and Mountain Bike disciplines. During the quarter, Organic Search was the largest source of traffic to the Ride High Country website (54%) and continues to reinforce the benefits of multi-year marketing activities.
b) Social Channels Ride High Country continued to perform very strongly across Facebook and Instagram, with the majority of content derived from the new Ride High Country Hero Video that was featured as part of the television commercial during the SBS coverage of the Tour de France. The 6 minute video has now been repurposed for various content uses across Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network ads. Overall engagement versus reach has increased since the first half of 2019 due to the use of Facebook's Lookalike and Retargeting audience features to target content at more engaged people across Victoria based on data collected during the 2018/19 year. Paid content was minimal during quarter one, being the ‘off-season’ for cycling, but still achieved 143k views and resulted in over 52k engagement actions and 1723 link clicks to the website. Organic engagement this quarter had 9.9k engagements actions across 37 posts.
FACEBOOK
Objectives Metric KPI ACTUAL
Brand advocacy Engagement rate 4.0% 4.7%
Fan acquisition New pages likes increase 5.2% 5.2% Instagram engagement remains high. Content activity was again targeted at strong channel growth. The aim is to achieve 10k followers in order to unlock the level of functionality (analytics, post and story links, discover channel placement, etc.) that will make Instagram a more effective marketing and engagement channel. This should now be achieved by quarter three of 2019/20, six months earlier than anticipated. In quarter one, Instagram content was seen by over 245k people and resulted in 10k engagement actions.
INSTAGRAM
Objectives Metric KPI ACTUAL
Brand advocacy Engagement rate 2.2% 6.3%
Fan acquisition New followers 2.3% 6.3%
RIDE HIGH COUNTRY FACEBOOK PAID CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS:
In quarter one, Mansfield enjoyed exposure via the Ride High Country social channels through featuring in the new Ride High Country Hero video, showing Paul van der Ploeg’s epic cycling adventure through the region:
Mansfield was also featured on both the Ride High Country Facebook and Instagram channels during quarter one with road cycling content linked to the SBS Tour de France campaign.
Content Highlights:
3. Ride High Country Guide
December 2019 marks two years since the distribution of the first Ride High Country Guide, a fresh take on the previous North East Victoria Cycle Guide. To ensure this Guide remains timely and relevant with a rapidly evolving cycle market, the next edition of the Guide will be ready for distribution in December 2019, before this year’s busy Christmas period. Over 55,000 copies will be distributed across the region, Victoria and more widely over a two year period.
With a rich library of images on-hand, the Ride High Country Guide will have a fresh look along with new editorial and destination content produced by professional copywriters, ensuring continued appeal to target markets.
At the time of writing this report, the Guide is at artwork proofing stage and is on-track for a December delivery.
4. Feast High Country Campaigns
4.1 Feast High Country Overview The Feast High Country brand represents the region’s food/drinks pillar, effectively unifying a strong and diverse industry. The long-term objective of the Feast High Country brand is to raise awareness of the High Country’s breadth of food and drink tourism experiences, and help position the region as a ‘must-visit’ destination for associated target segments. The 2019/20 Feast High Country marketing will draw on the creative approach from last year’s ‘Join our table’ campaign, leveraging the brand awareness and recognition that this program generated. This concept celebrates the people that capture the essence of High Country’s food/drink offering, and conveys the welcoming feel and authentic spirit that is alive and well in the region. It features portrait-style imagery of the region’s industry personalities with copy that depicts their impressive credentials, history and connection with the region. 4.2 Wine Enthusiast Campaign TNE has secured funding under the Wine Growth Fund (round three) via Regional Development Victoria to contribute to a product development and marketing campaign targeting the ‘Wine Enthusiast’ segment. This initiative is being overseen by a project steering group consisting of representatives from the relevant LGAs and vignerons associations throughout the region. Wine Enthusiasts are the highest yielding of the winery tourism segments, and committed to travelling for targeted experiences. With this in mind, TNE has initiated a ‘Kickstart’ product
development program to work with wineries to create/tailor experiences for this market. The Kickstart project has commenced with a request for expressions of interest from operators interested in working in this space. These applications will be reviewed to determine which ones will be supported through development and taken to market via the campaign. The campaign will be in market in mid-autumn, with the aim of raising awareness and driving consideration for a visit to the High Country during the traditionally soft winter period. It will consist of two key content partnerships with Gourmet Traveller and Broadsheet, incorporating editorial, imagery/video, digital display/video and social media. In addition to these content partnerships, there will also be further digital video placements on SBS on Demand, as well as a targeted social media campaign via the Feast High Country Facebook page. 4.3 Brewery Campaign TNE is currently working on a brewery tourism marketing program with the craft breweries of the High Country Brewery Trail. There are now nine breweries that make up the trail - with newcomers this year including Mitta Mitta Brewing Company, Billson’s Brewery and Malt Shed - all added to the website and collateral. The Feast High Country brewery campaign will have a slightly different look and feel to the other Feast campaigns, reflective of its highly targeted nature. The ‘And Beer’ campaign video from last year’s campaign will be used again in relevant digital placements, whilst the breweries and brewers themselves will be highlighted in other relevant executions (e.g. content partnerships), in line with the welcoming feel and authenticity conveyed in the food/wine campaigns. The brewery campaign will commence in late-spring, with the following planned to promote brewery tourism via the trail:
● Content partnership via Broadsheet (consisting of editorial, imagery/video, EDM inclusion, digital display and social media.
● Solus EDM to Visit Victoria’s email database of 60,000 (dedicated High Country Brewery Trail content)
● Social media campaign via the Feast High Country Facebook page. TNE is also currently developing a new fold-out guide, which will be in-market mid-to-late October, coinciding with the launch of the group’s latest collaborative brew under the brand Rule 47. The brochure has been redesigned to be a useful map and detailed guide to the Brewery Trail and its venues, as well as highlighting a number of ‘hidden gems’ identified by the brewers themselves including things to see, do, eat and drink across the region.
4.4 Feast High Country Festival - New Strategic Approach The Feast High Country Festival (previously High Country Harvest) has just completed its 8th year as the signature food/drinks event for the region. The first Festival took place in May 2012 and involved around 20 business curating just over a dozen events. The Festival has been successfully delivered each May since that time, growing from a 10-day offering to the current 16-day program that now involves 102 individual High Country food and wine businesses and up to 50 individual events. When the Festival was first developed, it was contemporary and market leading, unlike anything else offered in regional Victoria. While the Festival has continued to move from strength to strength in terms of participation and broader regional visitation and spend, it is no longer driving innovation in this sector, and has become one of many food/drink festivals offered throughout regional Victoria. As a result, the food and drinks event space has become very cluttered and the 2019 Festival was plagued by later booking patterns and difficulties in achieving cut through in the over-serviced events space. Within this context, TNE is looking to commission an events strategy that will create a new signature event for the High Country, evolving the Feast High Country Festival into a new and bold offering that may extend beyond the food/drinks space and work in a complementary way with other regional product pillars. TNE is currently liaising with Visit Victoria to understand key opportunities in this regard. As such, the Feast High Country Festival event will not progress in 2020 while the strategy is under development. However, TNE will work with signature food/drinks events in each LGA in the High Country to provide elevated event support during this transition period, ensuring that hero experiences are still effective in driving food/drinks tourism. Additionally this process will maintain the momentum of industry development around food/drink events with operators that has been a major focus of the Feast High Country Festival to date. 4.5 Feast High Country Digital Assets
a) Website The Feast High Country website is the primary call to action for all Feast marketing campaigns. In quarter one, the Feast High Country website saw growth in visitation compared to the same time last year, however this was off a low base given the start-up nature of the Feast High Country brand. The site saw 3,400 visitors during the quarter who viewed a total of 6,830 pages. During the quarter, 18 new pieces of editorial content were curated with content covering each of the five sub-pillars - Food, Wine, Craft Beer, Cider and Distilled and Produce and Farm Gates. Most of these pieces were as a result of one on one interviews with growers and producers.
Mansfield featured in two of these articles - Gourmet Grand Final and Thaw From The Core. Gourmet Grand Final centred around the AFL Grand Final long weekend, offering a selection of High Country beer and produce people might consider for their grand final party spread. Thaw From The Core was about Winter wines - the best big reds and creamy chardonnays in the High Country. Businesses included were The Produce Store, Social Bandit, Wrong Side Brewing and Delatite Winery.
b) Social Channels In the last quarter (quarter four of 2018/19) there was significant paid content associated with the Feast High Country Festival. However, in quarter one of the new financial year, there were no Feast campaigns in market so no paid content. As expected, the total reach and number of engagements were down on the previous quarter, however the reach and engagement were very healthy for organic-only activity, engaging more of the audience it reached.
FEAST HIGH COUNTRY FACEBOOK
Metric KPI ACTUAL
Brand advocacy Engagement rate 2.4% 7.9%
Fan acquisition New pages likes
increase 4.0% 8.5%
FEAST HIGH COUNTRY INSTAGRAM
Objectives Metric KPI ACTUAL
Brand advocacy Engagement rate 2.23% 7.5%
Fan acquisition New followers 2.27% 4.8%
Mansfield featured across a range of posts on Feast this quarter, covering Howes Creek Farm, Delatite Wines, The Produce Store, winter wines and produce for a gourmet AFL Grand Final spread, with two of these posts linking back to stories on the Feast website. The highest ranking post for engagement on Facebook was a slideshow pointing to Howes Creek Farm, achieving a rate of 8.06%. For Instagram, a post on Delatite Wines’ new schnapps products achieved a rate of 4.18%, which was also strong.
5. Walk High Country Campaign 5.1 Campaign Overview The Walk High Country brand leads regional marketing efforts in the nature-based tourism pillar, representing a product that has widespread appeal across key market segments. Walking constantly ranks as the number one ‘alternate/extra’ activity of those who have travelled to the High Country to experience other activity options (including cycling, snowsports and food & wine), and integrates well with all other products/attributes that the High Country is known for.
The first campaign execution for this pillar was successfully executed throughout summer and spring of 2019. The second year of this campaign will look to build on these foundations to raise awareness of the High Country walk offering amongst key target markets whilst positioning the High Country as a ‘must walk’ destination.
5.2 Marketing Program The 2019/20 Walk High Country marketing campaign will be designed to target two high value priority segments: Destination Explorers and Committed Hikers, residing in Victoria. To capitalise on cooler weather and opportunity for immediate impact (with 6 x public holidays in close succession), the primary campaign activation will take place in February and March of 2020. This campaign is still in strategic planning, but likely to include a range of high impact creative across several integrated channels including: out of home, digital advertising, content sponsorships, PR, TNE managed digital channels and Visit Victoria co-funded marketing channels. 5.3 Walk High Country Digital Assets
a) Website The Walk High Country website saw strong winter quarter visitation with 12.8k visitors, viewing a total of 35.9k pages. Comparisons to the same time last year do not yield any actionable insights given the ‘just launched’ nature of that time.
b) Social Channels Walk High Country social channels continued to experience high organic engagement (5.24%) and strong growth (+18%). While the majority of the region’s hero Walk High Country activities were dormant during this quarter due to winter, the social channels continued to perform well and above industry benchmarks. The quarter finished with a significant spike in reach and growth due to the Festival of Short Walks paid campaign during September.
Mansfield was strongly represented on Walk High Country social channels, given the diversity and visual appeal of its walk offerings at altitude, as well as a very strong pool of User Generated Content posted by visitors to the region. Mansfield region nature assets have strong appeal to the Walk High Country social audiences. Facebook and Instagram content highlights:
6. Industry and Product Development While significant efforts are dedicated to driving demand for the High Country offering, it is essential that a commensurate effort is committed to diversifying and enhancing the supply side of the tourism equation. TNE delivers on this need through the provision of a broad range of industry and product development services that are focused on providing a high-quality tourism experience. 6.1 Industry Development TNE supports existing High Country tourism operators in optimising their businesses and the experiences they offer visitors. This work includes up-skilling industry through mentoring and briefing sessions, identifying and working with businesses to fill gaps in the regional tourism offering, managing industry communication efforts, and driving ongoing industry and product innovation. It also involves facilitating relationships and tourism efforts between industry, Government organisations, tourism associations and other public and private entities to drive regional collaboration and growth. Throughout the first quarter of 2019-20, TNE has delivered a range of initiatives in this space for Mansfield Shire including:
● The delivery of 6 individual business development sessions to address the trends, issues and opportunities of most relevance to Mansfield Shire businesses. For the quarter, the most popular topics covered were food/drinks and digital.
● The delivery of a Data Smackdown workshop that included Mansfield operator representation. This session is a summary of TNE’s research and top-line findings across all pillars, providing insights into many of the key market segments currently visiting the High Country.
● Facilitating or being involved in a range of meetings and sessions focused on developing
tourism experiences and opportunities for Mansfield Shire, including:
○ Meeting with GTR events to discuss the proposed route for the 2020 Jayco Herald Sun Tour and town activation opportunities, including Mansfield Shire opportunities.
○ Meeting with Rolling Wheel events to discuss possible MTB Stage Race event options in-region, including Mansfield-Mt Buller opportunities.
○ Presenting the Great Victorian Rail Trail Strategic Development Plan to Mitchell and Murrindindi Shire Councils, as partners with Mansfield in owning and implementing the Plan.
○ Meeting with the Friends of the Great Victorian Rail Trail to discuss the aforementioned strategy and receive input prior to finalisation.
○ Meeting with Creative Victoria to discuss the concept of artistic installations on the Great Victorian Rail Trail and opportunities for funding.
○ Presenting the findings of the Lake Eildon economic impact assessment to Council with Urban Enterprise.
○ Meeting with new head of the Mansfield Chamber of Commerce to provide insights into tourism opportunities relevant to Mansfield, and strategic guidance for the effective formation of the organisation.
○ Growing the Ride High Country Preferred Business offering, with 125 accredited businesses in the region, including Mansfield Shire membership.
● Attending or being involved in a range of meetings/sessions relevant to Mansfield Shire and its strategic tourism direction including:
○ Facilitating and presenting at quarterly Visitor Information Centre meetings. ○ Working with key wine GIs to investigate emerging wine tourism opportunities,
including reviewing associated focus group recordings.
● Strategic engagement with other associations and organisations to progress Mansfield Shire tourism priorities including Regional Development Australia, Regional Development Victoria, Ovens Murray Regional Partnership, and Visit Victoria.
6.2 Product Development In the product development space, TNE works across the region to deliver tourism projects of scale, most of which are supported by grant funding. TNE is instrumental in securing this funding, leveraging its reputation with Government for developing and delivering significant and strategic projects that have the potential to be regional gamechangers. TNE also work directly with its public and private sector partners to assist them in delivering new products and experiences that have the ability to enhance the destination offering, and diversify the broader regional landscape. In quarter one, the projects that TNE has been working on in this space relevant to Mansfield Shire are as follows: a) Human Capital Review Project Attracting and retaining quality tourism staff in the High Country is increasingly one of the key challenges facing local tourism businesses. Workforce issues are impacting current tourism operations, as well as limiting the industry's ability to diversify and grow. In 2018/19, TNE
initiated a Human Capital Review to define this issue, including qualifying existing staffing shortfalls and quantifying the value of future demand for services and staff. In quarter one, TNE completed this project with key findings including:
● Recruitment issues: 72% of businesses have faced recruitment issues, which is the
most common staffing problem reported by employers. This problem is largely seen to be the result of low regional unemployment, and is exacerbated by the fact that hospitality is not seen as a profession.
● Urgent chef shortage: The most consistent and concerning issue in recruitment is the
attraction, appointment and retention of chefs and other kitchen staff. The quality and reputation of the employer is irrelevant - hatted restaurants face the same workforce challenges as non-hatted businesses. Unlike other tourism professions, most positions offered in the kitchen are full-time and offering well above award wages. The loss of the 457 visa was highlighted as a major issue in this space.
● Not a career: 66% of employees felt that their current job is not in their chosen
career. This lack of personal investment in jobs is leading to high staff turnover, adding to the instability of an already fragile market.
● Poor/inadequate training: Staff training is not a priority. Most businesses deliver very
little training, despite the fact that this lack of training causes other business problems. However, 46% of employees stated that training and development was highly motivating to them. Training delivered by TAFE and education providers is seen as ineffective at meeting staff and business needs.
● Workforce casualisation - Casualisation causes issues for both employers and
employees. For employees, it leads to a lack of commitment to the employer as they search for higher job security and more reliable income. With lack of commitment comes less motivation to give up weekends and public holidays for work. Employers need staff to be available when they require, in particular for all the unsocial hours, however in return cannot offer reliable hours.
● Lack of suitable accommodation: While this has been a long-standing issue for snow
resorts it is now prevalent across the industry. In Bright, Rutherglen and Mansfield the rise of the popularity of AirBnb over longer term rental models and increasing property prices are causing issues across the board, but in particular with lower paid staff.
● Visa issues: Over 30% of employers have employees on visas: ○ Visas for permanent staff - The removal of the 457 skilled migration visa was
seen as detrimental to the industry’s capacity to deliver. In particular the lack of qualified kitchen staff is holding back the progress of the businesses and the region.
○ Visas for casual/seasonal staff - Casual staff employed on a working holiday visa are seen as a great way of finding motivated, skilled employees to assist with seasonal highs in business. As these periods often last for 3-4 months there is a desire to see the timeframe for visas extended from 88 - 120 days.
● Centrelink Benefits: Employers report that when employing staff also on Centrelink
benefits, the hours staff are prepared to work is impacted by the maximum hours permitted by Centrelink before benefits are reduced. The sentiment is that this group of staff is unwilling to accept additional hours during busy periods as it detrimentally affects their Centrelink payments.
● HR Management - The research also highlighted gaps in awareness of current Human
Resource and Payroll best practices among small business owners, which TNE will seek to address through the annual presentation of a workshop by Human Resource professionals in the region.
TNE will now look to work with other entities on collective resolutions to these issues.
b) Ride High Country Signage Strategy TNE has secured a $50k grant from the Australian Government’s Building Better Regions Fund towards the development of a $100k regional cycle tourism signage strategy. Funding will support engaging a consultant to deliver a strategy for consistent cycle tourism signage throughout the region and across each of the High Country’s key cycle tourism disciplines. This will ensure that cyclists engage with a common cycle experience that is easy to navigate, no matter which High Country destination they are riding in. It will address some serious gaps in the region’s cycle wayfinding signage, and also allow for a truly collaborative regional cycle tourism offering. In the first quarter, Wayfound - part of WA-based Tangelo Creative - was appointed to deliver this project, commencing the project with an inception meeting hosted in-region in September. Wayfound plans to return to the High Country in late October to complete an audit of all cycle signage with support from asset databases provided by the respective RMB/LGA. This information will aid the creation of the draft signage strategy to be delivered early in the new year.
c) Lake Eildon Masterplan The delivery of the Activating Lake Eildon project was being managed by Goulburn Valley River Tourism on behalf of Mansfield Shire Council, Murrindindi Shire Council, Goulburn Murray Water and Regional Development Victoria. During the fourth quarter, Goulburn River Valley Tourism was dissolved, so TNE has assumed responsibility for the project to support the tourism needs of Mansfield Shire Council as one of its partner LGAs. This project looks to establish a strategic way forward for activating Lake Eildon, and consists of two key components:
● Economic Analysis Report: The development of a detailed economic analysis report that provides an understanding of the current tourism visitation and recreational value of Lake Eildon.
● Masterplan and Business Case: The development of a masterplan that establishes a
shared vision for the activation of Lake Eildon, identifying priority tourism and recreation developments that optimise economic outcomes for the destination. The priority projects will then be supported by a business case that can be used to drive public and private sector investment in key recommendations. This blueprint for Lake Eildon will deliver an evidenced based, whole of Lake approach to development, which leverages the economic opportunities of this key resource whilst maintaining its natural values and attributes.
The first phase, delivered by consultant Urban Enterprise, has now been completed and the second phase commenced. Four submissions were received from the Request For Quote for the Masterplan and Business Case. Following an evaluation process by the Project Steering Group, consultancy Urban Enterprise was appointed to develop the masterplan. Urban Enterprise has extensive experience in tourism and economic development in the region and will be supported by leading ‘blue-sky thinking’ tourism architects, Cumulus Studio, and regionally based community engagement experts Twin Prism. In the initial phase of the Masterplan development, Urban Enterprise will complete a review of current strategic documents to understand the key development projects already identified on and around the Lake. Consultation and engagement activities will be undertaken to identify the short to long term tourism and recreation priorities of the community and stakeholders. One-on-one meetings are underway with identified stakeholder groups and in-house workshops planned with relevant Mansfield and Murrindindi Shire staff, and Goulburn Murray Water personnel. Four community consultation sessions are scheduled across the Mansfield and Murrindindi Shires.
A range of communication channels have been activated to promote the project and the community sessions, including local print through a media release and paid public notices, social media, the Mansfield Shire Council website and email and mail directly to ratepayers. This project is scheduled for completion in May 2020. d) Great Victorian Rail Trail Strategic Development Plan The Great Victorian Rail Trail is one of the longest trails of its kind in the country, and has the potential to become a signature cycle product for the region. However, strategic guidance is required to develop, activate and promote the offering in a way that establishes it as an engaging tourism experience. To this effect , TNE is leading the delivery of the Great Victorian Rail Trail Strategic Development Plan that looks to address the trail’s weaknesses, leverages its strengths and provides a clear framework for strategic and sustained growth. TNE is delivering this work on behalf of Mansfield, Murrindindi and Mitchell Shire councils, to ensure a collective response to this joint asset. In the first quarter, TNE delivered a draft strategy for review by the Project Steering Group, and has incorporated feedback from representatives into subsequent drafts. The key recommendations of the strategy were then reviewed by Urban Enterprise to provide high-level costings and forecast return on investment in terms of increased visitation and yield. The strategy will be finalised at the start of the second quarter, including being dropped into a professional design lay-out.
7. Digital 7.1 Digital Upskilling Project In the first quarter, TNE was advised that it has been successful in securing $243k over a three-year period to appoint a full-time industry development resource, dedicated to improving the digital skill-set of industry. The High Country aspires to achieve digital excellence, setting industry best practice for the use of digital technologies in all aspects of the region’s tourism offering. However, the current skill-set of the region’s tourism industry is poor, which is limiting opportunities to communicate, engage and transact with customers in an online space. TNE hopes to address this problem via this program, providing industry partners with personalised training supported by sustained digital assistance to ensure that they have the skills required to optimise online opportunities for both their business and the broader region. The program will encompass three key deliverables:
● Group training sessions – these will be used to teach and workshop digital fundamentals to groups of tourism operators. Some of these sessions will be theoretical, while others will be ‘hands on’.
● Individual digital upskilling sessions – the real value of this program will be the one-on-one mentoring that industry will receive. While they can learn digital fundamentals in a group environment, applying these learnings to their individual business can be challenging. The digital contractor will guide them through this process, providing them with the skills and tools they need to negotiate and leverage the digital environment. These sessions will be delivered face-to-face, and will be delivered directly in response to operator needs.
● Helpdesk service - ongoing support is critical to ensuring that this upskilling program delivers optimal outcomes. While the individual upskilling sessions will allow for a deep dive into specific digital needs, an ongoing helpdesk service will be available to manage smaller queries and tasks as they arise.
A core strength of the program is its ability to provide operators with a flexible learning offering that can be tailored to meet their specific needs, delivered at a time that suits them, which can often be challenging in the tourism industry, particularly for smaller operators. Importantly, the contractor engaged to deliver the program will be supported by the TNE team, which will ensure that they can access information about the latest tourism trends and occurrences impacting both the digital and local tourism landscape – a knowledge that is ever-evolving and difficult to replicate amongst education entities working outside of the tourism space.
TNE is currently recruiting for the contractor who will deliver this program, which will commence in the second quarter. 7.2 Destination Websites
a) Mansfield Mt Buller The easy to reference dashboard reporting for the Mansfield-Mt Buller site is as follows:
Sessions
25.9K 7.3%
Audience and Engagement (compared to previous year)
mobiledesktoptablet
35.7% 56%
Sessions by device type
Pageviews
59.1K 6.3%
Pages / Session
2.3 -0.9%
Digital Dashboard - Q1 2019-20mans�eldmtbuller.com.au
Page Views by page type(compared to previous year)
Page Title Pageviews
1. Mans�eld Mt Buller, Victoria - O�cial Tourism … 13,334
2. Search accommodation in Mans�eld Mt Buller,… 1,960
3. Search festivals and events in Mans�eld Mt Bu… 1,896
4. Craig's Hut - Mans�eld Mt Buller 1,832
5. Craig's Hut - Mans�eld Mt Buller, Victoria 1,797
6. Hiking & Walking - Mans�eld Mt Buller, Victoria 1,721
7. Camping - Mans�eld Mt Buller, Victoria 1,626
8. Getting here by bus - Mans�eld Mt Buller, Victo… 1,390
9. High Country Huts - Mans�eld Mt Buller, Victor… 1,133
10. Search things to do in Mans�eld Mt Buller, Vict… 1,086
The Mansfield Mt Buller website is consistently monitored and updated in order to remain relevant and seasonally engaging, most notably on the homepage. This quarter saw the homepage banner change to a Spring image linking through to the Mt Stirling page where ‘Summer action’ now appears at the top, rather than ‘Winter Wonderland’. Top events were added and removed to the homepage as needed, including the Spring In Festival guide which appears in multiple areas of the site.
One of the larger updates across the site came from running a heatmap analysis, which shows how people engage with specific pages. The analysis concluded that visitors were disengaging on mobile at the top of the page, most likely due to page subheadings being overlaid on top of the imagery, resulting in a loss of visual appeal. Across the site all subheadings were removed in a bid to increase engagement. (Below left - heatmap analysis, below right new mobile view).
b) Great Victorian Rail Trail The easy to reference dashboard reporting for the Great Victorian Rail Trail (GVRT) site is as follows:
Sessions
8.6K 5.8%
Audience and Engagement (compared to previous year)
mobiledesktoptablet
13.5%
34.8%51.6%
Sessions by device type
Pageviews
23.1K -1.6%
Pages / Session
2.7 -7.0%
Digital Dashboard - Q 2019-20greatvictorianrailtrail.com.au
Page Views by page type(compared to previous year)
Page Title Pageviews
1. Trail Map, Distance and Gradient - Great Victor… 4,345
2. Home - Great Victorian Rail Trail 4,160
3. Cycling the Trail - Great Victorian Rail Trail 2,297
4. Accommodation Search - Great Victorian Rail … 1,922
5. Popular Short Rides - Great Victorian Rail Trail 993
6. Cheviot Tunnel - Great Victorian Rail Trail 758
7. Walking the Trail - Great Victorian Rail Trail 659
8. Yea - Great Victorian Rail Trail 489
9. See & Do Search - Great Victorian Rail Trail 414
10. Alexandra - Great Victorian Rail Trail 369
▼
Top 10 pages
Page Title Pageviews
1. Cheviot Tunnel - Great Victorian Rail Trail 758
2. Rotary Club of Yea Open Garden Weekend - Gr… 147
3. Tallarook Farmers' Market - Great Victorian Rai… 121
4. Cheviot Glen Cottages - Great Victorian Rail Tr… 119
5. All Terrain Cycle Tours - Great Victorian Rail Tr… 118
6. Molesworth Recreation Reserve and Caravan … 111
7. Tallarook Station - Great Victorian Rail Trail 98
8. Yea Riverside Caravan Park - Great Victorian R… 98
9. Yea Peppercorn Hotel - Great Victorian Rail Trail 97
10. Yea Station - Great Victorian Rail Trail 90
▼
Top 10 listings
Which channels are driving visitation?Goal: Engaged Users
Sessions Pageviews
0 5K 10K 15K 20K
Organic Search
Direct
Social
Referral
Home
4,125 -11.1%
Editorial
15,158 1.2%
Listings
3,681 1.9%
Search Engine Terms Ranked 1 to 5
Sessions Pageviews
0 2K 4K 6K 8K 10K 12K
mobile
desktop
tablet
Which devices are driving visitation?Goal: Engaged Users
In July it was observed that the GVRT Search Engine ranking was slipping, so an analysis of search terms was conducted in order to more tightly differentiate the GVRT experience from other rail trails. To achieve this, a series of back-end changes were made to the GVRT website in order to bolster search engine performance of the website. In total all 38 pages had their Search Engine Titles and Descriptions updated to more clearly define the offer and bring these in line with evolving SEO standards. 7.3 Destination Social Channels
a) Visit Mansfield Mt Buller The Visit Mansfield Mt Buller Facebook Page continued to perform very well, with above average engagement of 8.1%, up from 6.7% during the last quarter. Page followers grew by 18.8%, highlighting the high and growing appeal of Mansfield Mt Buller with the Facebook audience. Page content was viewed more than 47,200 times (from 27,300 in the last quarter). The best performing content showcase the region’s changing seasons and spectacular landscapes. The @visitmansfieldmtbuller Instagram account has now overtaken Facebook in achieving the larger following in terms of both reach and engagement for Mansfield tourism social content. The account has a 10.04% average engagement on reach per post (which is very high for Instagram), reaching over 60,500 users. Instagram & Facebook content highlights:
b) GVRT The GVRT Facebook Page also had an extremely strong quarter of engagement, showcasing the most shared content across all TNE managed social accounts. The total reach of Facebook activity was over 79k users (up from 64k last quarter), and received 8520 post engagements (up 34% from quarter four) delivering a very strong engagement rate result of 8.54% (up from 7.7% last quarter), well above the Facebook benchmark. GVRT Facebook Highlights - Q1:
7.4 See High Country Mansfield was also well represented on the See High Country social platforms this quarter, with some key content highlights as follows:
8. PR PR activity during quarter one focused primarily on developing seasonal publicity strategies based on new High Country tourism product and experiences across each of the region’s marketing pillars. This formed the basis of a major annual new product presentation to the communications and marketing teams at Visit Victoria.
A seasonal media release highlighting new Spring tourism experiences was developed and distributed to regional, metropolitan and national media titles, both print and digital, as well as specialist lifestyle, cycle, walk, food & wine & beer and general travel editors, journalists and freelancers. Follow up face-to-face visits were made with a number of key titles during August in Melbourne and Sydney including editors at inflight magazine, Qantas, the Weekend Australian magazine, Travel & Indulgence liftout, Cyclist magazine, Body & Soul, Good Food and Traveller. Cyclist Australia/NZ magazine published a cover story in July - Goulburn River Gold - a multi-page feature including riding experiences at Bonnie Doon, Eildon and Jamieson.
