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

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)

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"

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. 

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

'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

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

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

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

Best Whingeing Job in the World

Whitsundays Online

The 'World's Best Marketing Campaign' saga continues with British and Australian news agencies over the weekend calling the 'World's Best Job' winner a 'Whingeing Pom'.

British newspapers have called the winner of the 'Best Job in the World' a whinger, after he admitted he would miss the English long summer days and traditional roast dinners.

Over 30,000 hopefuls from around the world applied for 'The Best Job in the World' in a recent competition held by Tourism Queensland, which was won by Ben Southall from England. Ben's duties for 6 months are to live in a private house, write a blog, swim, and get paid the equivalent of $300,000 a year.

Ben hasn't even started work, yet, The Sun reported 'Paradise isle Brit's moaning', while The Sydney Daily Telegraph headlined their story "Best job winner a $150k whingeing pom". Australian Internet Portals NineMSN headlined their story "I'm no whingeing pom: Dream Job winner", and Perth Now reported that the "'Best job in world' winner Ben Southall now complaining". Even the conservative Australian ABC headlined their story "'Best job' Brit already moaning about weather".

And while the Tourism and Advertising agencies scramble to rescue this expensive marketing campaign, the Lions Club on the Sunshine Coast and Virgin Blue are quietly giving away free holidays on the Sunshine Coast to Victorians who were affected by the recent bush fires - 70 at last count.

One has to wonder how many free holidays for our fellow and distressed Australians we could have given away instead of a junket for a British backpacker.

Toursim QLD defends 'whingeing pom' - Herald Sun
Fake Video by tourism advertising agency backfires
Map by channelwhitsunday.com.au
Map
Editors Note : It is interesting how others and ourselves, can manipulate an innocent remark and make a story out of it, knowing pretty well that the persons intentions were probably sincere. I honestly would not have had the 'patience' to have lasted this long.

Disclosure Laws for Testimonials & Endorsements

New laws in the USA that come into force tomorrow will impact everyone who use Twitter, Facebook and MySpace and other Social Media services.

So why would these new laws have anything to do with us here in the Whitsundays and the rest of Australia? The 3 main reasons are:

1. Anyone posting to a service that has its servers (computers) based in the USA, must abide by these new Disclosure laws. The Big 3 of Social Networking are all based in California, USA - Twitter is based in San Francisco; FaceBook is based in Palo Alto, and MySpace is based in Los Angeles.

2. Any business that trades using a US based web host is deemed to be trading from within the USA. The fact that the website owner may be a foreign resident does not excuse her/him from the laws of the United States.

3. The Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) entered into force on 1 January 2005. AUSFTA is a comprehensive agreement that includes telecommunications, competition-related matters, electronic commerce and intellectual property rights. Full text of the Agreement .

This is a good thing for consumers. While most webmasters are honest and sincerely present their products and services in their true form, some website developers and owners have been unethical with their marketing efforts. The new disclosure laws are designed to protect consumers from fraudulent practices, and those people who condone them, and to upgrade unethical practices from being 'a white lie' to an offence.

The goal of the new Laws are to keep marketers and website developers honest, which might seem like an easy task, but it's not that easy because we all have different ideas of what constitutes the whole truth in various situations, and in some marketing situations, it's literally impossible to know the whole truth or which truth to communicate where more than one truth is possible.

An excellent example of seeing two (2) sides to a Marketing story is our ongoing series on 'The Best Job in the World' campaign:
Do the Whitsundays deserve to hear both sides of a story?
Has the 'Worlds Best Job' increased awareness in your part of QLD?
Even the 'Best Idea in the World' can fail


"You must be transparent about your relationship with people providing endorsements or testimonials."

"Website Developers are subject to liability for false or unsubstantiated statements made through endorsements, or for failing to disclose material connections between themselves and their endorsers. Endorsers also may be liable for statements made in the course of their endorsements. The new laws require people who are known by the website developer and are endorsing their products to disclose the nature of the relationship."

"If there is a connection between the endorser and the seller of the advertised product that might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement (i.e., the connection is not reasonably expected by the audience) - even in-kind compensation -then you must "fully" disclose the nature of the connection."
(Kevin E. Houchin - Lawyer and Author, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA ).

Let us look at an example of what will probably be illegal as from tomorrow.

The Facebook page for Boathaven Spa and Resort in Airlie Beach has some interesting 'reviews'. Boathaven Spa and Resort is part-owned by Kellie Medford, a Director of Tourism Whitsundays (TW), the semi-government Regional Tourism Organization (RTO) for the Whitsundays (Airlie Beach, Hamilton Island etc...); TW comes under the umbrella of Tourism Queensland.

Ms Medford claims to be the 'creator' of the Boathaven Spa and Resort's FaceBook page, where there are eight (8) referrals over the last eight (8) months.

The very first 'experience sharer' is a Lyn Gregson, who writes on March 23, 2009: Lyn Gregson "I have stayed at Boarhaven(sic) Spa & Resort and so have some of my staff, the accomodation(sic) is great and the location so convenient, I would recommend this property"

Seems innocent enough?

Well, this is why the new Disclosure and Transparency laws are coming in. Ms Gregson, who wrote the 'review', lives in Airlie Beach. At the time of writing the 'review', she was a Director and Chairperson of Tourism Whitsundays, of which Ms Medford is now a director of.

Ms Medford has a friendship with Ms Gregson, as you can tell from the first 'Friend' in her Facebook page. Ms Medford also displayed her friendship with Ms Gregson publicly recently, by defending her with correspondence sent to myself.

Ms Gregson in her 'review' allegedly fails to be transparent by not disclosing to you about her relationship with Ms Medford, that she actually lives in Airlie Beach, and that she was also Chairperson of Tourism Whitsundays.

A 'Megan' (no longer registered on Facebook) gave a glowing (and the longest) account of her stay at the 'resort' on March 28.

On March 27 2009 at 11.17am, Jackie Maxwell wrote: "What a place to stay. If you ever get the chance - you should."
However, Ms Maxwell fails to say that she too lives in Airlie Beach, and has a personal friendship with not only Ms Medford, but also Ms Gregson (see 'Friends of Jackie Maxwell's Facebook page).

On March 31 at 5:40am Anne McDonald, a neighbour wrote: "Hi I have not stayed at Boathaven resort but I live 2 doors away and I know people that have and like me the location is fantastic - opposite the new Port of Airlie - ok not finished yet - so if you have the opportunity to stay - call Kelli. Anne"

As Ms McDonald has pointed out, across the road from Boathaven Spa and Resort is the huge 'Port of Airlie' construction site. To put the size of this construction into perspective, I have included some stories from our local paper, the ABC, and the latest image from Google Earth - Boathaven Spa and Resort is shaded in yellow.

Hours changed at Port of Airlie | News -

Whitsunday Times - Jul 11, 2008
CONSTRUCTION hours on the Port of Airlie development have been changed following community concern about noise levels. Apartment owners and managers last ...

Port of Airlie noise respite looms

ABC Regional Online - ABC Regional Online - Sep 8, 2008
The developers of the Port of Airlie project says tourist operators will be given a break from noisy construction this school holidays. ...

While not all the Directors and Members of Tourism Whitsundays have colourful and creative descriptions of their private business concerns, Ms Gregson and Ms Medford are not alone. Other Directors of Tourism Whitsundays have had comments on public websites removed, because, well, they allegedly weren't thruthful.

One day, maybe, everyone will play by the rules on a level playing ground. The new FTC laws coming into effect tomorrow are a good start.

Whitsundays Online

You can complain about the behaviour of a Tourism Whitsundays member. Apparently, a TW member will be dismissed if they have failed to abide by TW Rules three (3) times. The TW website says it has a form for complaints, but I couldnt find it. Try contacting them direct.

I found at least four (4) sites on Facebook connected to Boathaven Spa and Resort".
Site 1 Site 2 Site 3 Site 4

Sourced from:
Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
United States Federal Trade Commission
Image from Whitsunday Times, October 1 2009, Front page.
Satellite image from Google Earth
Kevin E. Houchin - Lawyer and Author, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
joelcomm.com