Selling Southern Great Barrier Reef to the World!
Posted on May 18th, 2016
This week, Capricorn Enterprise with our Regional tourism partners and operators are selling our Southern Great Barrier Reef destination at the biggest tourism trade show in the southern hemisphere – the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE).
Thousands of travel professionals (buyers and sellers) from all over the world are on the Gold Coast this week (15th – 19th May) to learn about tourism products from across Australia.
We received great interest in our destination in the lead up to this event and have secured over 80 appointments. Local tourism businesses also representing the region at ATE include; Capricorn Caves, The Edge Apartment Hotel, Empire Rockhampton, Great Keppel Island Hideaway, Yeppoon Accommodation (SALT, Echelon, Beaches on Lammermoor), Freedom Fast Cats and Takarakka Bush Resort (Carnarvon Gorge).
Our destination has also secured ‘Pre and Post Event Familiarisation Tours’. This means that a number of key international buyers visit our region on pre-arranged tours so they can experience the products first hand. Visiting last week, buyers from Switzerland, Germany, USA, Italy and Australia had an amazing experience. Then next week we will host Travel Writers from New Zealand, Brazil, Germany and Switzerland. These famils have been requested which means the interest in SGBR is resonating more every year!
The travel trade network is extremely complicated, and getting your product contracted for the first time can be tough. Most of us simply go online or to the travel agent to book a holiday and think nothing of it, but what most people don’t know is just what a tourism business has to go through in order to be available in these networks. They have to do sales pitches to Inbound Tour Operators, Wholesalers, and sometimes even Retail Agencies and On-line Travel Agencies from all over the world and convince them that they should contract, package and sell their product! This all happens before a product can be sold through a Travel Agency to potential customers.
Capricorn Enterprise has been providing free Tourism Trade Mentoring programs for the past 5 years in order to assist local businesses in breaking into the tourism distribution network.
One of our recent tourism trade guests in region was Key Account Manager Lydie Godot from Pan Pacific Travel Australia, one of the largest Inbound Tour Operators in Sydney. Lydie said “The Southern Great Barrier Reef offers so many difference experiences…..Great Keppel Island with its 17 amazing beaches with white sands that squeak under your feet and some beachfront accommodation just a few steps away from the beach. The best part is that you’re highly likely to have the beach to yourself most of the time. The water is crystal clear and it’s pretty good snorkelling around the island. We saw a lot of fish, a sea turtle, and a wobbegong (carpet shark) and eagle ray. The Southern Great Barrier Reef will truly deliver the reef experience of a life time – one that you never expected, but one that will stay with you forever.”
Until next time
Mary Carroll
CEO Capricorn Enterprise
