Did the Sun shine after the campaign launch on 28 September 2010? No.
Have Tourism Whitsundays and Tourism Queensland any 'Incentives' to get more Business and Conference tourism to Queensland? For a couple of days they thought they did.
Tourism Queensland's ability to market this state appears to have failed again, and again we put up with it. Five important tourism marketing events have taken place over the past 12 months:
- 28 September 2010 : 'Where the Sun Shines'
- 8-16 December 2010 : Oprah visits Australia
- 19-22 January 2011 : Oprah shows air on USA TV
- 17 February 2011 : 'Queensland Incentives' campaign launched
- 9 March 2011 : 'Nothing Beats Queensland' campaign launched
Queensland Tourism Operators want results, and the best way to verify that a campaign is getting 'into peoples heads' (without disturbing their privacy) is to see what they searched for on Google.
The graph below displays how people around the World, over the past 12 months, searched for 'Travel / Destinations / Australia' for Port Douglas, Cairns, the Whitsundays, Great Barrier Reef, and Queensland. (The spike is due to TC Yasi).
The 'Queensland, where the sun shines' campaign seems to have been a big miss - interest in travelling to Queensland continued to drop from Day 1 of the launch.
More recently, the 'Queensland Incentives' campaign, aimed at Business Groups, was launched at AIME in Melbourne on 16 February. This project was 1 year in the making, with a expected life span of 5 years, however it was cancelled within three days (the QLD Tourism Minister resigned a week later).
I was quite surprised at the level of interest by the media over Oprah's visit - way overboard I thought,and so did a few other people. It is interesting to note that while Oprah was staying on Hamilton Island, 'Travel Interest' to Hayman Island exceeded Hamilton Island, a rare occurrence indeed - see the chart below. Was this a 'tall poppy syndrome' reaction?
Oprah visited here from 8 to 16 December 2010, and her shows about Australia were broadcast in the USA from 19 to 22 January 2011, and 140 or so other countries around the world.
This graph shows how many people in the USA looked for 'Travel Information / Destinations / Australia' on Google for the past 12 months.
This graph shows how many people in the USA did a 'Web Search' on Google over the past 12 months.
Worldwide, there seemed to be very little reaction to both Oprah's visit and her TV shows, however Tropical Cyclones Anthony and Yasi attracted worldwide attention. This graph shows people around the World compiling a 'Web Search' on Google over the past 12 months
This graph shows people around the World who looked for 'Travel Information / Destinations / Australia' on Google for the past four month.
While the QLD Floods (and later the cyclones) most definitely have had an influence on tourism now, we expected that while Oprah was here (2nd week of December) and when her shows were broadcast (19-22 January 2011) that there would have been a huge spike in interest in Australia, and Queensland.
Alas, this does not appear to be the case.
Spending more money on advertising is only going to have the same effect as it has for the past three years. It's like giving the CSIRO a billion dollars to build a better mousetrap.
It's Time for new people with new (and successful old) ideas to take charge of our Tourism Management and the running of its Promotion and to steer us away for the abyss.
Queensland, beautiful one day, a crappy slogan the next . . .
Sources:
Tourism Queensland
Daily Telegraph
Peter Lawlor MP - ex Minister for Tourism
Travel Blackboard
Queensland Incentives
2 comments:
Bad timing? There was severe flooding and a cyclone soon after these campaigns were aired, surely you should take that into account?
There were no floods or cyclones during the launch of the "Queensland, Where the Sun Shines in late September.
There were no floods or cyclones when Oprah visited during early to mid December.
When Oprah was on Hamilton Island, Hayman Island had a major increase in interest and scored more inquiries than Hamilton Island did.
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