November 29, 2013
The South Burnett’s five Visitor Information Centres could face a shake-up as part of a reorganisation of the region’s tourism marketing, if ideas discussed at a forum in Kingaroy on Thursday become a reality.
One option put forward was to privatise the centres so they became responsible for covering their own operating costs through accommodation and event booking commissions, souvenir sales, and charging fees to stock brochures for tourism operators.
The idea was one of many that was floated at the tourism forum, which was organised by South Burnett Directions at Kingaroy Town Hall on Thursday.
The aim of the forum was to develop ideas that could form the basis of a new regional tourism strategy.
The all-day event was attended by representatives from the South Burnett Tourism Association, South Burnett Wine Industry Association, Southern Queensland Country Tourism, Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council, local tourism operators, event organisers as well as South Burnett councillors.
It was opened by South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann who stressed the importance of the need to develop a unified approach if the area hoped to attract funds for future tourism projects from the State Government.
The Mayor said tourism was already a significant contributor to the local economy but he believed it had the potential to grow even further if it were properly managed.
The audience was shown a video from Southern Queensland Country Tourism which explained the Regional Tourism Organisation’s goal to lift tourism revenues in the South Burnett, Toowoomba, Southern Downs, Granite Belt and Western Country from under half a billion dollars a year to more than $1 billion by 2020.
The video also briefly outlined some major changes impacting on the State’s tourism, including the growth in tourism from Asia and the changing tastes of domestic tourists coming into Southern Queensland Country from Brisbane, other parts of Queensland and interstate.
The forum was also addressed by guest speaker Shane O’Reilly, managing director of O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat and O’Reilly’s Canungra Valley Vineyards.
Reflecting back on the previous five years, Mr O’Reilly said his business had learned many valuable lessons from having to battle against the combined effects of the GFC, natural disasters and the high Australian dollar
The tourism market had been “quite difficult”, he said, but astute operators who were willing to improve their product offerings and business practices while keeping a tight rein on costs could still survive and prosper.
Forum participants were asked to contribute ideas focussing on regional events; local tourism industry development; regional marketing; and the development of internal and external partnerships.
At the end of the day, they were then asked to vote for what they thought was the most important item in each of the four categories so that these ideas could by worked on by South Burnett Directions to help formulate a regional tourism strategy.
- In the area of development, participants rated improving customer service as a top priority, followed by the development of good quality signage – both inside and outside the South Burnett.
- For events, the development of a regional events database that could be accessed by event organisers and tourism operators received the most votes, followed by support for the expansion of the recent South Burnett & Cherbourg On Show long weekend festival.
- In the areas of marketing and partnerships, the idea of working together as a region rather than parochially as individual towns drew top marks, followed by encouraging support for the widespread use of the region’s logo. Leveraging RTO marketing activities and reviewing the operations of the region’s visitor information centres were secondary choices.
Wrapping up the meeting, Mayor Wayne Kratzmann thanked everyone for taking six hours out of their day to attend and praised the many ideas that had been put forward.
He said they would all be considered but the ones most attendees had agreed on would have the highest priority.
“This won’t be a talkfest that never gets acted on,” he said.
Mayor Kratzmann then announced two tourism initiatives the Council would be undertaking while South Burnett Directions carried out their work.
These included removing “Kingaroy &” from the region’s marketing slogan “Kingaroy & The South Burnett”; and working with the South Burnett Wine Industry Association to see if the region’s logo could be added to all the screw-caps of locally produced wines and liqueurs.
