Tourism outlook and areas for improvement

TWEED TOURISM Company (TTC) General Manager Brad Nardi has fielded several questions from The Weekly to find out about some of the challenges and opportunities to keep the Tweed on the tourism map.

Tweed Tourism Company is the lead organisation for the Tweed Shire’s tourism promotion having won a tender through the Tweed Shire Council in late 2018.

Mr Nardi said Tweed Tourism Co has looked to collaborate with local businesses to find out where action was needed.

“Although it would take too long to go into all priorities, I would briefly mention the following short-term priorities include a digital focus,” he said.

“A heightened digital effort includes new social channels being implemented and a new destination website in the pipeline.

“MICE Markets: The Meetings Incentives Conventions & Events (MICE) markets are an area many local businesses identify as either targeting or wanting to target.

“We have responded by signing on to attend Australia’s largest trade event for this market in February and will be working with strategic partners (including Destination North Coast, Tweed Shire Council, Twin Towns and further industry) to drive this sector forward.

“Operator Education: Programs to continually assist local tourism businesses to improve and redefine their businesses are being developed in the areas of experience development, trade mentoring, and tourism packaging.”

The Weekly asked Mr Nardi how Tweed Tourism will engage with tourism operators in 2019.

“Engagement will occur with a range of industry events and workshops,” he said.

“Additionally we are utilising digital channels including a Tweed Tourism Co Facebook channel which is focused on messaging for local industry, and we also send a range of information through our TTCnews (e-news) publication.

“If any business would like to be on this list (tourism or otherwise) they can contact TTC’s Industry Liaison Shona Fuller (sfuller@thetweed.com.au) with their details.”

Another burning question for tourism operators was what should local tourism operators be doing in 2019 and how can they engage with Tweed Tourism Co?

“From TTC’s point of view the tourism economy will ultimately be a shared success,” Mr Nardi said

“We ask operators to be interested and informed, and simple steps like reading a regular e-news and coming to networking events when possible is a great place to start, to connect the industry.”

Mr Nardi also spoke about the recent inclusion of the Northern Rivers in the New York Times’ pick for the best travel destinations in 2019.

“We certainly saw the wonderful New York Times feature, and TTC’s PR guru Kylie Mitchell Smith was also involved in hosting the writer (prior to the formation of TTC),” he said.

“Whilst there have been some pleasing percentage gains in the international visitor numbers to the Tweed recently, this is an area we can build on.

“International markets can be a great source of visitation for a range of reasons including (generally) not being governed by a working week, and having different peak periods to our domestic visitors.”

“The primary objective for TTC in the short term will be to assist with product development (operator education) and trade integration (working with international distribution partners) to maximise the potential return for the region.”

Finally, The Weekly asked Mr Nardi what he believes are some of the biggest challenges to Tweed Tourism in 2019, and how can these be overcome?

“The Tweed as a region is currently experiencing strong domestic daytrip visitation, this is especially evident in peak periods such as weekends,” he said.

“Whilst the domestic daytrip figures are a positive, there has also been a slight slackening of overnight visitation for domestic markets.

“This is certainly an area to focus on, to ensure that visitors are engaged with whole range of operators, to offer packages that represent the Tweed.”