Has the 'World's Best Job' campaign been successful for the Whitsundays?

There has been a lot of talk lately putting dollar values on the latest tourism campaign; "the World's Best Job" (WBJ), and how successful it has been for the Whitsundays.

To quote AAP: "Tourism Queensland says the global response to the (WBJ) promotion has generated around $100 million worth of publicity . . . ."

This now gives us a reference to compare how much good and bad publicity has affected the Whitsundays region over the past 5 years, and to help gauge the performance of our Tourism organizations.

In this article, we will use Google to compare from around the world, the amount of news articles, and the amount of people searching for information about the Whitsundays, since 2004.


News Articles about the Whitsundays / Whitsunday

The following graph shows how many news stories about the Whitsundays / Whitsunday appeared around the world. Note that we have valued the WBJ promotion as 100, and is marked as D: (news articles statistics are only available from 2008):

A: Feb 2008: Value: 145 - 30 backpackers rescued off Hook Island.
B: May 2008: Value: 200 - Divers left out at sea
C: June 2008: Value: 110 - Sydney to Proserpine flights cancelled
D: Jan 2009: Value: 100 - Worlds Best Job
E: Mar 2009: Value: 70 - Cyclone Hamish


People searching for Whitsundays / Whitsunday

The following graph shows how many people around the world searched for Whitsundays / Whitsunday. Note that we have valued the WBJ promotion as 100, and is marked as D:


A: Feb 2008: Value: 85 - 30 backpackers rescued off Hook Island.
B: May 2008: Value 75 - Divers left out at sea.
C: June 2008: Value: 70 - Sydney to Proserpine flights cancelled.
D: Jan 2009: Value: 100 - Worlds Best Job.
E: Mar 2009: Value: 60 - Cyclone Hamish.
F: Feb 2004: Value: 110 - Candidate dumped over alleged Nazi links.
G: May 2004: Value: 130 - Cessna crash lands near Laguna Whitsundays resort.
H: Jan 2005: Value:105 - Pilot denies culpability in Whitsundays crash.
I: June 2006: Value 120 - Christian religious festival known as Whitsunday.
J: May 2007: Value: 95 - 3 crew missing from catamaran, KAZ II.

As you can see from the 2 graphs, there is a difference in between how many articles are written about the Whitsundays / Whitsunday, compared to how many people searched for Whitsundays / Whitsunday at Google, however, the spikes are consistent.

Interestingly, there is always a 'lack of interest' at the end of every year, and a 'spike' of interest at the beginning of every year searching for Whitsundays / Whitsunday at Google, so the WBJ campaign may not be the whole reason for the 'reader interest' in the Whitsundays, however it appears the WBJ campaign can take credit for the increase in news articles.

How does interest in the Whitsundays compare today

If you look at the next graph, you will note that searching interest in the Whitsundays / Whitsunday has been waning, most notably increasing in decline since 2006. I have shaded the area of reader interest at below the same level as at the peak of the WBJ campaign.
You could make many assumptions from these graphs, including:
+ The current (WBJ) campaign achieved half the media penetration compared to when 2 UK divers were lost 12 months previously, which values that incident at $200 million in bad publicity.
+ The WBJ campaign has produced a spike of curiosity in the Whitsundays, however, interest is still less than the usual seasonal spike in the years before 2006.
+ The Whitsundays appears to have lost $100's of millions in publicity (and therefore millions of tourist dollars) since mid 2006;
+ What happened to Tourism promotion of the Whitsundays from 2006?

Articles that may be relevant:
Oct 14, 2005 - Cummins & Partners picks up Whitsundays business
Dec 8, 2005 - Jellyfish stings signal nasty season ahead
Jan 24, 2006 - Good and bad in Whitsunday development
Feb 7, 2006 - Whitsundays’ resort rebuts claims made on A Current Affair
Feb 26, 2006 - Rooms for improvement - Whitsunday resort warned
Mar 26, 2006 - Industry fears tourism slump amid cyclone disaster
Sep 22, 2006 - Ivana project fails to come up trumps
Oct 20, 2006 - Asia-Pacific competition blamed for dive firm
Nov 12, 2006 - Whitsundays start to groan
Dec 20, 2006 - Hope for new film to boost Whitsundays movie making

Important note: The World's Greatest Job, while located in the Whitsundays, which has its own RTO, is being conducted by Tourism Queensland.