Regional New South Wales gets a 60 page brochure and Sydney Festival gets $1.2m UK campaign?

Outgoing New South Wales Minister for Tourism ventured out of Sydney recently, to launch a Heart of Country New South Wales campaign centred around a 60-page Holiday Planner featuring the latest “must do and see” experiences plus accommodation, attractions, activities and events in the Heart of Country NSW.

With tourism in Regional New South Wales in crisis, towns, experiences and events in Central NSW, New England North West, Upper Hunter, Riverina, Capital Country and the Murray all feature in the new Holiday Planner and its release is supported by a marketing campaign, including a 2-minute info-break running for three weeks on television in NSW, regional Victoria and regional Queensland, print advertising and PR activity. The spend on this campaign has not been released.

Tourism New South Wales says The Heart of Country NSW Holiday Planner has been designed to sit within the Tourism NSW – NSW there’s no place like it – regional brand campaign and the Holiday Planner is available at Visitor Information Centres at Town Hall, Martin Place, Circular Quay, The Rocks and Sydney Airport and can also be accessed at www.visitnsw.com.au  or copies can be ordered online or by calling the NSW consumer hotline on 13 14 52.

While launching the campaign, Minster Nori experienced Australia’s infamous regional flies first hand, with one fly deciding that it should investigate the Minster’s policies and decision making material a little closer, by heading straight up her nose right in the middle of a TV interview – thank you for the Mole “secret correspondent” in regional New South Wales for sending copy of the interview which can be seen by clicking on this link: – https://www.travelmole.com/DubboHoCPlannerlaunch.htm

At about the same time as launching this rather modest crisis bound regional NSW campaign Minister Nori has allocated what appears to be a rather disproportionate $1.2 million over three years to promote the Sydney Festival in the UK, in a partnership between the NSW Government and Times Newspapers Limited.

Minister Nori said, “The UK is an important international tourism market for NSW, and it makes sense to promote Sydney’s summer festival atmosphere when the Brits are looking to escape their winter”

“We recognise that there is currently a global trend favouring international travel, evident in the UK, Canada and New Zealand and we’re working to capture a larger slice of the international travel market for NSW.”

“This year, the Ashes series and the New Year’s Eve celebrations on Sydney Harbour will entice many Brits to our city and the Sydney Festival will give them a great excuse to extend their holiday and stay in Sydney even longer,” she said.

The Chairman of the NSW Major Events Board, Sir Nicholas Shehadie, said, “the Board is convinced that this event will become an international drawcard and January will be an exciting time to be in Sydney, this festival attracting more than 1.5 million Australians and we look forward to greeting many UK visitors,”.

Ms Nori said that 300,000 copies of a 36 page supplement on Sydney will appear in The Times on Saturday 11 November and the supplement being distributed to South East London residents and including information on Sydney, features on the Sydney Festival and travel packages from the UK to Sydney”.

“The funding from the Major Events Board enables Tourism NSW to run the largest international promotion this year, with News Corporations’ The Times, Sunday Times and Times Online.”

Industry commentators have responded by saying that this appears to be a very strange campaign for Tourism New South Wales to have chosen as cornerstone of its promotion to a relatively small part of the UK market, as not only is the UK highly competitive in this space, but the world is also awash with Festivals of this nature with the funds being much better spent elsewhere and potentially on a campaign to get Aussies to holiday in regional New South Wales.

Report by The Mole