Whitsunday Sea Eagles bid for Women’s team

Whitsunday Sea Eagles bid for Women’s team

Australian Football continues to grow across the region and in particular female football is in high demand across the Whitsunday Coast, leading the Whitsunday Sea Eagles AFC to bid to enter the AFL Mackay Women’s competition in 2017. 

Key introductory program’s in NAB AFL Auskick and School Program’s have rapidly increased in participation over the last 12months. From these program’s numerous youth girls and women’s athletes have enquired about opportunities to play Australian Football. The answer, bidding to enter the AFL Mackay Women’s competition for season 2017.

AFL Queensland staff met with Whitsunday Sea Eagles AFC officials recently to finalise the first step in entering a side, with the club set to host an Information and BBQ evening at Whitsunday Sports Park on Thursday 8^th December for anyone that is interested.

AFL Queensland Regional Manager for the Mackay region, Jeff Neumann was excited that Whitsunday Sea Eagles were wanting to enter a side next season.

“Whitsunday have been a powerhouse club across our junior, youth and senior competitions for many years and for them want to add a women’s team to their great club is a fantastic result that has many benefits,” Regional Manager Jeff Neumann said.

“We have a lot of water to go under the bridge so to speak, but as we discussed with the Sea Eagles we will take it one step at a time and the first step is holding an Information and BBQ evening at the footy club.

“This year we have increased are awareness and reach across the Whitsunday region and have already collated a list of enough names to fill a team of interested youth girls and women’s athletes that want to know more. Which is a great starting point” Neumann added.

The Whitsunday Sea Eagles invite any female down who is interested in knowing more. From never had played before to athletes from other sports, everyone is invited to the Whitsunday Sea Eagles home at Whitsunday Sports Park on Shute Harbour Road.

Whitsunday Sea Eagles, Vice-President Nicki Steel is excited by the opportunity and benefits of been a female-friendly football club.

“Not only will this bring more members, supporters, volunteers and players. But a women’s team will lead to a more diversified decision making, wider sponsorship and fundraising appeal and a more appealing social atmosphere which is great for any community club,” Sea Eagles Vice President Nicki Steel said.

“We are very excited by this opportunity and hope the Whitsunday community will get behind this bid,” Mrs. Steel said.

Whitsunday Sea Eagles Women’s Information & BBQ Evening

When: Thursday 8^th December

Where: Whitsunday Sports Park – AFL Oval (behind the PCYC)

Times: 4:30pm to 6:30pm

What: An opportunity to meet the Whitsunday Sea Eagles and AFL Queensland staff, along with hearing about information to bid for 2017 and requirements.

FREE BBQ as well.

For more information, go to the Whitsunday Sea Eagles AFC Facebook page; www.facebook.com/whitsundayAFC or to register your interest, send an email to Jeff.Neumann@afl.com.au. 

Hamilton Island next challenger for America's Cup

The New York Times is reporting that Hamilton Island Yacht Club has challenged the Golden Gate Yacht Club and Oracle Team USA for the America's Cup.

Christoper Clarey is reporting that the next challenger of record for the Cup is set to be the Hamilton Island Yacht Club. He notes that Hamilton Island  "would be a surprising choice and a welcome one, in that it would bring one of yachting’s leading nations back into the competition."

Australians were the first nation other than the United States to win the trophy, wresting it from the New York Yacht Club in 1983 with the help of an innovative winged keel, however it has been 13 years since an Australian team has challenged the Cup.

Vice commodore of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, Tom Ehman, would “neither confirm nor deny” that Hamilton Island Yacht Club was the next challenger and said that Golden Gate and Oracle Team USA would announce the challenger’s identity in due course.

Christoper Clarey quoted Tom Ehman: “What I can say is that G.G.Y.C. has received a challenge - I received it on the water on Wednesday immediately when our boat crossed the finish line and won. Commodore Norbert Bajurin was with me. We received and then we accepted the challenge, and I’m satisfied that it’s a bona fide yacht club under the deed of gift.”

Read the full two page article here.

Sources
New York Times - Christoper Clarey

Those in glass boats shouldn't throw stones

The original 'jd' - note the bandana
having a go at my recovery from
cancer.

Ex Director of Tourism Whitsundays, Mr John Nayler, has a gripe against me. So much so, that he is the main (now only) contributor to a hate site setup to attack myself, the editor of this blog.

The hate site was set up in September last year, two days before Mr Nayler didn't (or was told not too) re run for a seat on the board of Tourism Whitsundays, our local Regional Tourism Organization. The hate site can be found here.

I haven't requested Facebook to remove the site as it is used by myself and others to point out that its Friends are locals who have similar ethics, morals and standards. Most of the people who are friends on the Hate site know its true agenda, and they can be found here.

The list includes:
a Director of Tourism Whitsundays & owner of Boathaven Resort, Kelli Medford;
a Director of Enterprise Whitsundays & Whitsundays 'Australian of the Year', Lyn Gregson; (note: Lyn Gregson 'de-friended' shortly before the hate site was removed).
the ex President of Rotary Airlie Beach & 'The Computer Doctor', Mark ODonnell;
Cumberland Charter Yachts;
Anne McDonald, ReMax Real Estate, PRD Whitsundays Real Estate, Cannonvale;
Claire Hubert, Simply Systems . . . and around 20 more.

The Marketing staff of Tourism Whitsundays who were also linked to this hate site, 'de friended' this week.

We were given a bit of a clue four months ago as to why there is a vendetta against me - this was taken from the hate site on 10 October 2010:

Interesting point. I suspect 'the puppet' is talking about Mr Nayler here. Lets have a look at who, almost five years ago (and four years prior to the above comment), registered www.HamiltonIslandRaceWeek.com in direct competition to Hamilton Island's www.hamiltonislandraceweek.com.au:

Official Record

Hamilton Island own www.hamiltonislandraceweek.com.au
John Nayler registered www.hamiltonislandraceweek.com.

I wonder if Mr Nayler forgot that he registered Hamilton Islands premier event's website's exact name, way back in the first week of August, 2006? Hypocrisy at its best.

Further Reading: Where the Hate shines  How hate sites work

Sources
Enetica

'Hall of Fame' Tour operator goes public

'Captain Pete' Ryan, long time resident, owner / operator of Aviation Adventures, and Tourism Whitsundays "Hall of Famer" has joined several other notable locals and expressed his concerns about the direction of tourism management of the Whitsundays.

Here Captain Pete expresses his concerns on the Tourism Whitsundays Facebook site:

Captain Pete joins a growing group who are concerned about how tourism is managed in the Whitsundays. Here, ex Director of Tourism Whitsundays, John Nayler, expresses his concerns, which was also posted on Tourism Whitsundays Facebook site (but later removed, again):

And we have the ex General Manager of Daydream Island, Philip Batty, who has expressed deep concerns with not only the operation and management of Tourism Whitsundays, but has found almost countles errors with TW's marketing and websites, which could feasbly be contributing to this regions tourism downward spiral. His full email can be found here.

* The latest competition run by Tourism Whitsundays has been stuffed up again - we'll be coming out with another story about these massive 'marketing fails' soon.

* Being a team leader is important. You would think the CEO of a very important organization, like an RTO, who's Xmas Party theme is 'White', would lead by example? Or not?

Sources:
Tourism Whitsundays Facebook site

PLEASE - No More Stupid Mistakes

It appears that Tourism Whitsundays will have to redraw some of its prizes in its recent competition due to someone within TW giving out instructions contrary to the Official Rules.

TW  have had a chequered past when it comes to running competitions on the internet, and it seems they haven't learnt from their past experiences:

• Tourism Whitsundays competition turns into a farce
• It just gets worse
• Recent Tourism Whitsundays Competition

The current promotion by Tourism Whitsundays is the "Twelve Days of Christmas" - which incidentally runs for 16 days. It seems for six of those days, the competition losers have a right for a redraw on every draw that has been drawn between now and December 7, due to Tourism Whitsundays failing to abide by its own Official Rules, again.

Now, this blog is a bit of a stickler for making people who run online competitions from this region to abide by the rules. Competitions should be run by responsible organizations, by responsible people who are not impaired by drugs and/or alcohol, and strictly within the conditions they have set themselves earlier. A small mistake can turn into a big deal. Repeating the same small mistakes is stupidity.

"Bending the Rules" or "Changing the Goalposts" halfway during the promotion is not on. However, we have seen it happen again and again with TW competitions run on Facebook

In the rules section for this latest competition, Rule 2 states:

2. Method of entry: Entrants agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. To enter, entrants must respond to the question or challenge given in the specified time frame. Where the question is a question of fact, the answer must be correct. Where the question or challenge is a creative answer, a random winner will be drawn.
Entrants may submit more than one answer, but only the correct answer will be entered into the draw. Multiple entries are not required. An entrant may only win one of the prizes. Entrants must ‘like’ the Whitsundays facebook page (www.facebook.com/WhitsundaysQLD) in order to be eligible to enter. (extracted from Tourism Whitsundays 12 Days of Christmas Sweepstakes 'Official Rules' page).

On December 8 however, the person representing Tourism Whitsundays has encouraged people to break Rule 2 and said:

"You can enter every day Jasmine, even if you've already won a prize." - Tourism Whitsundays

The implications of TW's post saying it is OK for previous winners to re enter into the competition, has unbalanced the fairness of all draws and prizes since then. For example, would someone else have won the prize if the previous prize winners had not entered, as their chances would have increased?

Therefore, all prizes and draws since December 7 should be invalid  and redrawn with only the allowed people entering the competition, as per the Official Rules, otherwise all results for the rest of this competition from December 7 will be invalid and liable to be challenged by anyone who has entered the competition.

These repeated, stupid, silly mistakes are made by a person or persons who should not have these responsibilities, and it also shows continued poor supervision, execution and management of TW's brand awareness and its perception to the world.

It will be interesting to find who is actually running these competitions - should give them a TW Marketing Award.

Tourism Whitsundays - Marketing:
Tourism Whitsundays Marketing Service Manager - Danielle Seymour
Tourism Whitsundays Marketing Executive - Nicolette Romais
Marketing Communications Co-ordinator - Christina Unterwurzacher
2010 Tourism Marketing Award - Kelli Medford (also a director of Tourism Whitsundays)

UPDATE: Recent Tourism Whitsundays Competition.

I have spent most of the week going through all the legislation under the jurisdiction of the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing, part of the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation.

The OLGR monitor every type of competition, from Bingo, to Lucky Envelopes, to Online Gaming, EXCEPT Guessing competitions.

While the recent competition promoted by Tourism Whitsundays is a promotional (Category 4) competition, it is actually called a Guessing Competition, due to the nature of the way entries were received, and how they were judged.

The OLGR said all complaints for Guessing Competitions are to be lodged with the Queensland Department of Fair Trading (also a part of the QLD Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation). http://www.fairtrading.qld.gov.au/make-a-complaint.htm

While the person at OLGR said it was not his decision to judge if the complaint was valid or not, he was concerned that the winning entry picked was lodged over 5 hours after the 'Closure Time'.

It appears that the correspondence between yourselves and the promoters of the competition (Tourism Whitsundays), and your advice to me that you have not been compensated or approached by the promoters, fulfills the first 3 steps in the complaint handling at Fair Trading. You should be able to proceed straight to Step 4 and make an official complaint.

For your reference, here are the articles I wrote which will assist you with dates, times, rules etc. I am continuing to pursue this matter, however may I suggest that all involved in the recent competition consider making a complaint as well. I have concerns that the judgement of the competition may have been impaired by alcohol.

Your assistance in this matter will help our region get a responsible, smart team to manage the future of the Whitsundays tourism industry.

Make a complaint to Consumer Affairs, Department of Fair Trading.

Related Articles:
It just gets worse
Tourism Whitsundays competition turns into a farce

It just gets worse

Investigation: The latest competition to be run by Tourism Whitsundays has turned even more farcical.

We have received several comments about how Tourism Whitsundays' latest competition appeared to be mis-managed and concluded with very little professionalism, and even possibly fraud.

Fraud is a pretty strong word, which Tourism Whitsundays knows too well**. However, we believe that if a promoter of a competition does not abide by their own rules, then fraud is one of the many possible reasons for not abiding by the 'Terms and Conditions'. Many, many competitions in the past have been compromised for not obeying one rule.

So we decided to investigate.

Straight away we found a problem - It appears that 100% of the entries (120 - yes, all of them) entries in the competition were invalid before they were even posted.

The official promoter, Tourism Whitsundays, 'managed' this competition, called the "Tourism Whitsundays Facebook & Twitter Fan Page Promotions"  to be run between Thursday 15 July, and 11am Friday 30 July 2010.

The winner, Phoebe McGill, was decided at 17.15 (5.15pm) on Friday 30 July 2010; (it appears the decision was made under the influence of alcohol):

The winner (then withdrawn, then winner again), Phoebe McGill's was the winning entry, lodged at 16.14 (4.14pm - This appears to be over 5 hours after the "Closure Time")

There was some drama for Phoebe as her winning entry was withdrawn.

After many complaints, Tourism Whitsundays re-enlisted Phoebe as the winner, over 14 hours (and for the TW judge, a good sleep) later.

Unfortunately, we have discovered that Phoebe McGill can not be the winner, as she did not abide by the promoters' (Tourism Whitsundays) "Terms and Conditions", in particular, Rule 4:

4. Competition duration: The competition commences on Thursday 15 July, 2010 and closes at 11am (AEST) on Friday 30 July, 2010. ("Closure Time"). Entries received after the Closure Time will not be eligible. 
Phoebe's entry was over 5 hours after the "Closure Time". That is when we found out that every entry was invalid.

View all ineligible 120 entries here

View Terms and Conditions here. (link updated 14.45 Mon Aug 9 2010)

On further investigation, it appears that six people unknowingly posted messages which are actually eligible to win the major prize. Their comments were lodged between the announcement of the Grand Prize at 9.59am and "Closure Time" at 11.00am 30 July 2010.

Their comments appear to be the only posts that pass every "Term and Condition', and therefore are eligible to win the $2130+ prize of seven nights accommodation. They are:

Jen M Pascoe cant decide which 'at' hotel i like more, theyre all gorgeous!!!

30 July at 10:25 · 

Donna Bloedow Totally agree Jen. Being on a pension, Backpacker lodges are 'luxury' to me, so these are just divine!

30 July at 10:31 ·

Vanessa Bye Cool! I want to win this for Nick's parents visit in September!

30 July at 10:55 · 

Donna Bloedow WOW! Sounds super duper thrillingly luxurious.

30 July at 10:10 · 

Debra Cannon Yes Please!!!!!!!!!!!! Sounds absolutely splendid!

30 July at 10:37 ·

Linda Whitten Please!!!

30 July at 10:39 ·

Christen Klingenberg Meeeeeeeeeee plllleeeeeaaasee xx

30 July at 10:43 · 

The abuse of the closing time that has been so well known in advance can lead one to many conspiracy theories; lack of response or even fraud. Was this intentional, or was it the usual incompetence, or 'drinking on the job' that has really stuffed this competition up, again? Remember the Airlie Beach Apartment Giveaway flop?

The above six people deserve the same prize themselves for quietly sitting by and for putting up with another poor example of Tourism Whitsundays' online marketing abilities. They appear to be the only ones eligible for the prize taken from the posts that were submitted between 9.59am and 11.00am Friday 30 July 2010.

If the person responsible for this catastrophe was employed in private enterprise, they would have been sacked by now. And let's not stop there . . . .

We are a great region but we have been let down by our RTO. Let’s not give Tourism Whitsundays anymore chances that it does not deserve and that our region cannot afford. Let’s remove the responsibilities from this bad RTO before it can do any more damage. Let’s once more make the Whitsundays the great tourism destination it deserves to be.

* We invite anyone involved in the recent (and past) Tourism Whitsundays competition to pass on their their thoughts and comments here or on our Facebook page.
jd

** August is the first anniversary of the conviction of Tourism Whitsundays Chief Financial Officer for $350,000+ Fraud. She could be out in a year on parole.

Tourism Whitsundays competition turns into farce

Update Aug 6 2010
Our local paper, the Whitsunday Times, has in the past left out stories that were bad publicity for our local RTO, Tourism Whitsundays. It is believed they do this due to a commercial relationship between the two.
This poor tradition continued this week with the non-inclusion of this story.
Other similar instances can be found here:
Missing (on paper)
The Times they aren't a-Changin'
Do the Whitsundays deserve to hear both sides of the story?


Original Story - Sunday Aug 1 2010
Tourism Whitsundays has again shown that it's online services are detrimental to our region's tourism industry, by holding another competition, which has turned into a farce. 

Tourism Whitsundays' latest competition has seen a winner announced, to only be reversed a little later. The first winner was shamed publicly on Tourism Whitsundays' facebook site for not following the rules and that her win had been reversed.

That person again was re-awarded as being the winner, again, the next day, after many protests; (I wonder how many Tourism Whitsundays deleted). This was no gimmick prize - 7 nights accommodation for two.

It appears that alcohol being consumed in the workplace has contributed to this latest marketing disaster to hit the Whitsundays community by Tourism Whitsundays.

You would like to think that a responsible RTO, that has just been given $770,000 by the Labor State and  local governments would be hard at work.

Or maybe they were celebrating with the new Queensland taxpayers and Whitsundays ratepayers money.

It appears that Tourism Whitsundays condones 'drinking on the job' according to their Facebook page (left).

Any one with the tiniest bit of common and marketing sense knows that you don't PUI - "Post Under the Influence". Well, Tourism Whitsundays didn't just post, but it also appears that their judgement for the winner of the competition was impaired by alcohol, which has then resulted in this farce.

* Do some of the staff, management and/or directors have a problem with alcohol that they can't wait until after they have left work to start drinking?

OK, so if Tourism Whitsundays Management and 'Marketing Geniuses' who ran this flop do not blame alcohol for the farce, then it must be incompetence, again. Remember the Airlie Beach Apartment Give Away? Probably the biggest flop ever - read here for more on that episode.

This is gross irresponsibility and it has to stop now. Unfortunately, this pen is not that mighty, so its time to try the sword.

It's time to remove this incompetent RTO from any representative duties: they represent less than 5% of businesses in the region and it's time we stood up and stop them from destroying everyone's future.

It's time to do more that just talk like a pirate . . . .



Related stories
Wha? Ce n'est pas francais! Sacre bleu!
Whitsundays Super Best Friends - New member
Money for nothing
Tourism Whitsundays to spend $420,000 on website
War of the Wharves over?
Should TW be renamed Tourism Whitsunday Islands?
Ten resons I won't be joining TW
Same old, same old . . .
I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore
SS TW runs aground at Cannonvale Cove
Become a member of Tourism Whitsundays, again?
Desperate times call for desperate measures
Ill-informed cheap shots?
Airlie Beach Apartment give away competion collapses
Smoke and mirrors cover a region of broken dreams and promises
Whitsundays Tourism at "Crisis Point"
What? Another auction?
No Brian Burke or Graham Richardson here
Wrecked bid wrecks wrecks bid
Aussies visiting Whitsundays plummet 26%
Failed Airlie Beach eBay campaign
Tourism interest in Airlie Beach lowest in over 6 years
Still major disunity within Tourism Whitsundays?
Airlie Beach tourist numbers down 30%-40%?
Domestic tourism down again - this time 16%
Lack of entries in Tourism Awards leaves 8 trophies uncollected
Tourism Whitsundays director admits "Lack of unity"
Tourism Whitsundays Chairperson to resign mid term
Tourism numbers in the Whitsundays plunge 33% in just 2 years
Tourism Whitsundays Massive Fraud
Ben bashing? No. Exposing conerns - Yes
Conflict of interest at Tourism Whitsundays / Telstra ?
Tourism Whitsundays blames Telstra for poor reception for "World's Best Job"

Tourism Whitsundays to spend $420,000 on website

Tourism Whitsunday is to head a project that will see a single website, then cut and paste for 7 others, of around $420,000, for a project that already exists in many other forms, eg Queensland Online, Queensland Armchair Guide, Wotif, even Tourism Queensland.

Sigrid Brown from the ABC reported today:

"Tourism Queensland has allocated more than $420,000 to eight regional tourism organisations from coastal and southern Queensland to create the site. Tourism Whitsundays will be heading the project."

"[The website will] make it much more user-friendly and easily accessible - the information that you need to travel around Queensland." (full story)

As that means this will be one single project, and that the value of the single project is worth $420,000, I expect National, and even International companies will tender for the project.


So, why should the other Regional Tourism Organisations be concerned? Well, Tourism Whitsundays has some unusual ideas about marketing. Two years ago, when two UK divers were left out at the reef: "Tourism Whitsundays chief executive Peter O'Reilly said the spectacular headlines, particularly in UK newspapers, could reaffirm Australia as the place for adventure tourism, which was a huge drawcard for the European market."


Tourism numbers to the Whitsundays since that extraordinary statement  have plummeted over one third.


There have been many, many other issues concerning TW's ability to market and present itself, on the web, and in the media (see related articles below), that should raise concerns with the other RTO's. There are a number of stories of alleged 'bullying' by the established 'crowd' to new members of TW who's business competes with a existing director or member of TW.


We also have concerns about the amount of work that has been 'reimbursed' to businesses associated with the directors of Tourism Whitsundays. A good example was the highly spectacular failure of the Airle Beach Apartment Giveaway promotion, almost exclusively run by TW directors and their businesses.


Even calls by Tourism Whitsunday Chairman, Chris Jacobs, for the community to unite behind him have been exposed as contradictory due to his own company's (Cruise Whitsunday) tense relations with Fantasea Cruises.

The last thing a project of this magnitude will need is to have some inexperienced or unsuccessful internet consultant running it. All directors of Tourism Whitsundays and their companies should be excluded from the tender process so as there are no conflicts of interest and the whole process is transparent. This money is coming from Queensland taxpayers.

I expect tender papers will be available from Tourism Whitsundays office. The CEO is Mr Peter O'Reilly, and Destination Manager is Mr Marc Turner.

Phone 1300 717 407. Disclaimer. I maintain QueenslandOnline.Net.

Sources:
ABC Tropical
Brisbane Times

Coastal Queensland . . . . your future is in these hands:

Related stories:

War of the Wharves over?

Will Proserpine Airport survive?

Should TW be renamed 'Tourism Whitsunday Islands'?

Ten reasons I won't be joining TW

I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore

SS TW runs aground at Cannonvale Cove

Tourism Whitsundays - Comment by the Chair

Become a member of Tourism Whitsundays, again?

Desperate times call for desperate measures

Ill-informed cheap shots?

Airlie Beach Apartment give away competition collapses

Smoke and mirrors cover a region of broken dreams and promises

Whitsundays Tourism at "Crisis Point"

What? Another auction?

No Brian Burke or Graham Richardson here.

Wrecked bid wrecks wrecks bid

Aussies visiting Whitsundays plummet 26%

Best Job in the World - Most Awarded Lemon?

Failed Airlie Beach eBay campaign

Tourism interest in Airlie Beach lowest in over 6 years

Still major disunity within Tourism Whitsundays?

Airlie Beach tourist numbers down 30-40%?

Domestic Tourism down again - this time 16%

Disclosure Laws for Testimonials & Endorsements

Do the Whitsundays deserve to hear both sides of a story?

Worlds Best Job increased awareness in your region?

Even the 'Best Idea in the World' can fail

Airlie Beach Apartment give away competition collapses

The collapse of the very heavily promoted 'Whitsunday Treasure' marketing campaign (download prospectus here) highlights again the question of Tourism Whitsundays' ability to responsibly market and lobby on behalf of this beautiful region, who's once much envied tourism industry is now at "crisis point".

The "Whitsunday Treasure" campaign is the fourth major tourism marketing initiative by persons either employed or on the board of Tourism Whitsundays, to collapse in as many months.

The "Whitsunday Treasure" campaign was titled as: ‘Win the best address in the World’, and was to "best exploit the proven reliability of a loyalty campaign in tandem with innovative marketing and communications opportunities", and giving customers "the chance to win a $500,000 fully furnished luxury apartment package".

The project was a good idea, however the 'finger has been pointed' at Cyclone Ului as the main reason for its demise.

Maybe "the forest can not be seen because of the 'fallen' trees" - could the lack of support for the Whitsunday Treasure campaign be also the same reason for the small membership in Tourism Whitsundays?

The organizers of the Whitsunday Treasure project were:
Christie Leet - member, Tourism Whitsundays
Lyn Gregson - ex Chaiperson, Tourism Whitsundays
Mark Bell - ex Director, Tourism Whitsundays
John Nayler - Director, Tourism Whitsundays
Jackie Maxwell -investor & experienced fundraiser
Kelli Medford - Director, Tourism Whitsundays
Jo Sweeney - member, Tourism Whitsundays
Tracey Oates

The Chairman of Tourism Whitsundays said last year that there would be some 'cleaning out' within his organization, which gave some people hope, however this has not happened - from the 'outside', it seems to be 'more of the same'.

Maybe Mr Jacobs, and the community now see a pattern of recurring names and failed campaigns. A radical 'sweep out' within Tourism Whitsundays may see a radical change in membership numbers, support and a positive direction for this regions prosperity.



Footnote: People searching the internet for travel information about Airlie Beach hit a new all time low around 20 April.

Sources:
Article from Whitsunday Times
Whitsunday Treasure prospectus
Whitsundays Internet Tourism Trends 

info@whitsundaysonline.net

Airlie Beach tourist numbers down 30-40%?

The Blame Game continues . . .

The continuing slide downward in visitor numbers to the Whitsundays is now getting blamed on Wotif and the airlines, according to several directors of Tourism Whitsundays.

On the 7 January 2010, the Whitsunday Times published on its front page a story (no author attributed), headlined 'Flight costs cause concern'. It is interesting to note that the only people 'interviewed' in this 'major' article are all Directors on the Board of Tourism Whitsundays.

Firstly, to put this story in perspective, we should tell you that while Peter O'Reilly has disclosed that his occupation is the CEO of TW, the story does not reveal that Kelli Medford and Jeff Aquilina are also Directors on the Board of Tourism Whitsundays.

We do not know why the article fails to mention this, considering the GM of the Whitsunday Times (Jim Shervington) was a director of TW, until his very quiet resignation mid term last year (not announced in his own paper). While Mr Shervington was on the TW board, Jeff Aquilina was (and still is) the Treasurer of TW, even during the time an employee stole over $300,000 not so long ago.

In the article, Ms Medford complains about issues hampering her ability to raise her occupancy at her Boathaven Resort. The 'culprits' include Wotif; Too much competition; Virgin Blue; Jetstar and Qantas.

In the article, Ms Medford 'tried to book her own family members on a flight from Sydney to the Whitsundays and the cheapest return flight she could find for January was $500'. (I too tried on 18 December for a flight to Sydney for Xmas and one way tickets were quoted from $350, but this is usual at this time of year).

But hang on - Ari Sharp, who writes for the Travel sections of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age wrote a story just seven days later saying that Domestic Airfares are at a record low.

Of course airline tickets are expensive during the Christmas period - it's peak holiday time. (I have purchased a ticket from Proserpine to Sydney in late February and it cost less than $100). Considering Ms Medford has been in the Whitsundays Tourism industry for over 13 years, you would think she would know by now that Christmas is the most expensive period for air travel.

The airlines aren't the only one's to get a blasting by Ms Medford - she also blames Wotif, an accommodation search engine. Apparently everything was OK in Airlie Beach when Wotif only offered 30 accommodation houses, but now she says she is competing against 45 businesses*.

According to Peter O'Reilly, CEO of Tourism Whitsundays, another 700 rooms (an increase of 50%) will be available this year in an already over supplied Airlie Beach.

There are many more accommodation choices in the Whitsundays than there were a couple of years ago, however almost all this accommodation is 4.5-5 star, often out of reach for middle class families. A lot of Family and Backpacker accommodation in Airlie Beach disappeared in the last 3 years to:
Property development (now Ms Medford's new competition);
Purchased by building companies for staff accommodation;
Converted to 'Long Stay' for Contractors;
Now supplying to the shrinking Backpacker market.

Ms Medford has in the past put the blame on other factors on why tourism numbers to the Whitsundays are down - "drop in flight numbers, economy, massive weather patterns, lack of unity amongst operators" (full correspondence here).

I am not the only one in town who feels that the time to stop blaming someone else is now. In this weeks (14 Jan 2010) 'Letters to the Editor', Whitsunday Times, well known local Dennis Mundle wrote:

Blame Game

It is interesting to note that on the front page of last week's Whitsunday Times, the airlines are being blamed for, and expected to solve, the problem of the over supply of holiday accommodation in Airlie Beach even if it means losing them money.
If the passenger demand and commercial viability of flights to the Whitsundays warranted it, the airlines would have more flights here ASAP.
As usual there is always someone else to blame.

Dennis Mundle
JUBILEE POCKET


World's Best Hangover - Did the campaign focus too much on Hamilton Island?

Hamilton Island has done very well out of the World's Best Job campaign - while the mainland continues to see plummeting visitor numbers, Hamilton Island's CEO, Glenn Bourke says Hamilton Island has had its best 12 months ever - UK & Irish visitors up 19% compared to last November."

If Hamilton Island is getting record numbers, and overall numbers for the region are down 19%, then you've got to think that maybe Airlie Beach's visitor numbers could be down as much as 30% or even 40%.

Airlie Beach used to be the economical alternative to the islands. The lack of family and backpacking guests to Airlie Beach has not only affected the accommodation occupancy, but the flow on effects are hitting long time residents as well:
the local artists; food & beverage staff; deckhands, real estate agents, property owners, suppliers, maintenance firms . . .

When 'The Crowd' at Tourism Whitsundays (TW represents less than 10% of businesses registered in the Whitsundays) stops blaming others and starts to co-operate with the silent majority, instead of acting like a private club, then maybe, just maybe, the situation will improve.

Facts
Total tourism numbers down 33% in the Whitsundays 2 years ending July 2009.
Domestic tourism numbers down 16% in the Whitsundays year ending Sept 2009.
There are 3,321 businesses (2006) registered in the Whitsundays, and less than 250 members in TW.
*2 Jan 2010 Mackay Daily Mercury - Tourism Whitsundays CEO Peter O’Reilly said 700 new rooms were expected to come online in Airlie Beach this year, an increase of about 50 per cent.

Disclaimer
The writer part owns a resort on the NSW North Coast. Last year ending September, the occupancy year round was 92%, up from 86% the year prior. The closest airport serviced by Jetstar and Virgin Blue is over 1 hours drive away.

FOOTNOTE 17 February 2010. Peter O'Reilly confirmed that retail spending over the 2009/10 period dropped 21% - source Whitsunday Times

Sourced from
Channel Whitsunday
Whitsunday Times
Fairfax Travel
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Travel Daily UK
Mackay Daily Mercury

Domestic Tourism down again - this time 16%

Most of you would know that Hamilton Island has been the host of the winner of the 'Best Job in the World' competition, and those of you in Marketing and Social Media would know of the heavily awarded campaign that has been running over 11 months now.

Hamilton Island, Hayman, Daydream, South Molle, Lindeman, Brampton and Long Islands, Airlie Beach, Proserpine, Bowen and Collinsville (and the area between) make up the Whitsundays Region, between Mackay and Townsville, on the North Queensland coast, Australia.

Tourism numbers to the Whitsundays are still plummeting - there were 16% less Domestic tourists to the Whitsundays for the year ending September 2009. For the 2 years ending July 2009, total Tourism numbers have plummeted 33%.

Tourism numbers in the Whitsundays have been dropping (in a huge way) since 2006, and every time poor results are released, we hear a new excuse for the continuing decline in Visitors.

Here Are The Facts.

• Can't blame the World Financial Crisis - Fraser Coast's tourism numbers went up 14% while the Whitsundays dropped 16% (year to Sept 2009 - source Tourism Australia).
  
  
• Can't blame the Airlines and Flights - Extra daily flights to the Whitsundays were introduced (Virgin Blue introduced direct flights from Sydney on 4 July 2009).
  
  
• Can't blame the Cost of Fuel - Fuel prices dropped 20% over the period July 2008 to July 2009 (source QLD OESR).
  
  
• Can't blame the Weather - it has been 'Beautiful one day, and Perfect the next' almost every day (see BoM, ask any local, or request to view our WeatherCams archive).

Plus, we've had the 'World's Best Job' (WBJ) campaign running for almost a year now - sure, it's won heaps of awards, received lots of exposure, and visits to the website, but has it produced 'bums in beds' for the rest of the Whitsundays? No according to Tourism Australia .

Has the almost 1 year old campaign been successful for villages, regions, areas, and in particular, the "600+ Islands of the Great Barrier Reef"? Except for the privately owned Hamilton Island, it doesn't look like it.

Earlier this week, Tourism Queensland boss, Anthony Hayes, explained the objectives and achievements behind the campaign to mUmBRELLA, as well as providing some numbers about the WBJ campaign.

Some of these numbers are quite interesting and point to some alternative interpretations. 'With respect' to Tim Burton & mUmBRELLA, I will re quote some of Mr Hayes comments. I will refrain from using Spin or Buzz words, when 'Plain English' is what we all understand.

• "Stage One was to introduce the islands to the international travel trade. The aim was to encourage international wholesalers to include Queensland island product in their brochures via trade training, famils, roadshows and web-based marketing. For the first time, we worked with regional tourism organisations and local operators to coordinate marketing activity for the ‘Islands of the Reef’ as a whole. This first stage was successfully implemented over 2008 and we were very happy with the support the wholesalers provided us in terms of new brochure space."

Facts
International Tourism numbers to the Whitsundays have yet to cease declining. For the year ending July 2009, the Whitsundays saw a massive 19% decrease in Tourism numbers. However, Hamilton Island has apparently had its best 12 months ever - UK & Irish visitors up 19% compared to last November - (source Glenn Bourke, CEO of Hamilton Island).

To quote Mr Bourke: "The Best Job in the World campaign has without doubt made a real impact on tourism to the Great Barrier Reef and with a raft of new developments on Hamilton Island we’ve been well placed to take advantage of this." (source Travel Daily UK)

• So the primary goal was to raise consumer awareness of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef in Tourism Queensland’s key international markets. $400 million in estimated media coverage and 8.6 million web visitors later….tick!

Facts
The 'Find a Winner' part of the WBJ campaign ran from 10 January to 6 May (116 Days), and attracted 35,000 entrants. If the 35,000 entrants visited the website just twice a day to check their status, that makes 8.12 million web visits.

While $400 M has been quoted as media exposure, I have not seen once how this figure was calculated or how it can be substantiated.

• Mumbrella readers, probably more than anyone else, would understand that today’s consumers are placing increasing importance on first-hand reports from other travellers, particularly via online reviews. This is the way of the future, and we identified online interaction as a key part of our consumer communication strategy.

Facts
Mumbrella readers, and I'm sure most other people who know of this campaign, would be smart to enough to know that the winner of the WBJ is getting all his activities, rent, flights, meals etc paid for, plus $150,000 for 6 months blogging and some touring. He is not an ordinary traveller.

• Use media and social networking to promote the campaign and increase awareness of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef and Queensland. Tick.

Fact
Except for Hamilton Island, extra interest has not been generated around the other islands. The graph shows Worldwide interest in travelling to Australia, and having a holiday on these popular islands in the Great Barrier Reef

You will note the spikes for Hamilton Island when the WBJ Campaign commenced (January), and when the winner was announced (May).

• Stage Three of the strategy, which we are now actively pursuing, is to turn the new level of consumer interest into increased visitor numbers and visitor expenditure. We are now working very closely with a variety of wholesale, retail and airline partners to convert the new level of interest into new visitors.

Fact
What new interest? Just from the one graph above you can tell there has not been a continuing increase in awareness for other popular islands in the Great Barrier Reef besides Hamilton Island. But wait, there's more. Here are Real Time Statistics on people around the World looking to travel to Queensland, to particular Regions, Villages and for Activities, for the past 90 Days and also the past 5 Years.
You will note in those graphs that current interest in travelling to the Great Barrier Reef appears to be at its lowest level, ever. How can you twist these statistics and call it a 'new level of interest'?

Another interpretation of the latest figures is that Australians (and possibly a lot of people around the world) have been 'turned off' from the Whitsundays by the WBJ campaign - could this be a classic Australian reaction called 'Tall Poppy Syndrome'?

And what's with the Ticks? Is that to give an illusion of credibility when facts can not be found? The sooner the Spin Doctors stop believing their own hype and patting themselves on the back and realize there is a serious problem up here, the sooner they can go about fixing this huge problem.

I wonder how many of the Spin Doctors are taking a holiday about now, when they should be working on our serious Tourism issues over Christmas.

Whitsundays Online
Big Thanx to mUmBRELLA
Sourced from mUmBRELLA, Tourism Australia, Travel Daily UK, QLD OESR, Google
Related Articles
13 Nov 2009 - How has the awareness for the rest of QLD been raised by the Campaign?
Oct 14, 2005 - Cummins & Partners picks up Whitsundays business
14 Nov 2009 - Update
Related Story - The writing was on the wall in April 2009
More at Sydney Morning Herald - 'I wish you were here'
Brisbane Times - 'Best job campaign a tourism lemon'
Whitsundays Online - Tourism Trends and Comparisons
CDNN - Tourism QLD's Best Job in the World campaign flops
mUMBRELLA - Best Job's (very long) glory list
Is Queensland 'Best Job in the World' Really the Worst - Jaunted
A perspective of the "World's Best Job" Campaign
Best job in the world? Not if you're vision-impaired