Victoria Stone-Meadows

Tourism Port Douglas and Daintree has been busy the last few months spruiking the region in the face of a recent downtown in tourism numbers.

The organisation has launched a slew of new marketing initiatives in 2019 to encourage visitors to experince the region year-round.

Executive officer of TPDD, Tara Bennett, said the main message has been centred on dispelling myths surrounding the tropics in the wet season. 

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“It is more important than ever we showcase our stunning destination and depth of wonderful activities that people can experience while they are here,” she said.

“North Queensland has received a lot of coverage in the media recently, incorrectly giving a perception that experiences are off limits.”

The projects and campaigns underway include a partnership with online travel booking agency, Expedia, that targets travellers in Victoria and New South Wales. 

Ms Bennett said so far the campaign has been a success and she is expecting to return a positive report when it concludes at the end of the month.

“The Expedia campaign, to date, has achieved $20 in sales per dollar spent on advertising which is a fantastic result for the operators participating,” she said.

A team of delegates from TPDD recently travelled to New Zealand for the Helloworld Roadshow where Ms Bennett said they were very well received.

“The New Zealand mission was a huge success from my perspective and the feedback from the operators who attended has been excellent,” she said.

“We trained 141 trade ranging from novices to key Australian sellers as well as 10 business events specialists and meetings with key product managers.”

Douglas Chamber of Commerce president Liz Ross said every business should get behind the push to draw more people to the region.

“As a business owner myself, I think it is incumbent on all of us to ensure that we look at every possible option to help our own individual business,” she said.

“To rely on one entity to drive tourism and promote the region is one way, but we should be making or creating opportunities additionally for ourselves.

“Advertising, promoting, looking for opportunities to create business - sitting on your hands and saying ‘woe is me’ is not helpful, especially to yourself and others.” 

Ms Ross said the recent dip in tourism numbers could be seen as an opportunity for business to assess their practices and find new ways to promote the region.

“If the weather was great, not a true wet season like we are having, and we also had no cyclones, a booming economy, and not a major federal election coming, we would not question what was being done, it would most probably be business as usual,” she said.

“But it isn’t, so we need to ask ourselves what can we do as a collective to improve our circumstances?

“This is a good opportunity for us to reflect, look at what we are doing, seeing what we can do differently, create partnerships and/or look for opportunities, and work with the local tourism body and others to brainstorm, identify practical solutions.”

Along with the Expedia campaign, TPDD is running a ‘show me your paradise’ campaign, a wedding destination competition, a Port Douglas Carnivale holiday competition, and have produced a glossy 48-page magazine promoting the destination called ‘Discover Paradise’ which will be included in the Weekend Australian newspaper in April.

There are also ads for the region running in Qantas Magazine and Tropical North Queensland magazine as well as a Queensland-wide television campaign to drive visitation to Port Douglas Carnivale in May.