SGBR INAUGURAL GERMANY SALES MISSION
Posted on December 5th, 2017
Another first for our Southern Great Barrier Reef destination and Capricorn Enterprise this week!
Over a seven day period, Deanne Bowd, our Tourism Marketing Manager will provide training to 150 tourism retailers in Germany during their northern hemisphere winter, promoting products and images from our spectacular Aussie destination!
Participating tourism trade ready operators and our Regional Tourism Organisation (RTO) partners in the SGBR, are fully funding this sales mission, with Capricorn Enterprise providing the expertise (sales manuals, destination marketing) and human resources. Sincere thanks to our Capricorn paid participating operators: Great Keppel Island Hideaway, Capricorn Caves, Henderson Park Farm Retreat, Yeppoon Accommodation (Salt, Echelon, Beaches on Lammermoor), Cassidy Hospitality Group (Edge & Empire Apartment Hotels Rockhampton).
Whilst Dee has participated in Tourism and Events Queensland’s (TEQ) bi-annual Queensland on Tour twice throughout Europe (January 2015 and January 2017) on behalf of the Southern Great Barrier Reef Destination, this week’s sales trip was by invitation only from Germany’s largest wholesaler, Best of Travel Group (BOTG) to present to 100 of their retail agents at a function in Dusseldorf.
This opportunity has come about because of our eight collective years work in Tourism Trade Distribution promoting the Southern Great Barrier Reef Destination. We are now achieving, what larger and more established destinations in Queensland have been enjoying for decades with much more product and considerably larger budgets.
Over the past 8 years, we have invested time, resources and budget into training our operators one-on-one to be trade ready (i.e. paying the expected commissions and contracting with wholesalers and ITO’s), we have attended the annual ATE (Australian Tourism Exchange), we have visited major ITO’s (Inbound Tour Operators) in Sydney annually. We have hosted key tourism trade (ITO’s and Wholesalers) to our destination and we have produced multi-media material including website, social media platforms, product manuals and training videos.
Capricorn Enterprise has led a number of initiatives on behalf of our RTO partners in the Gladstone/1770 and Bundaberg/North Burnett regions under the Southern Great Barrier Reef brand, because we are too small to do this alone – partnership and collaboration has been key.
We have worked so very hard since the formation of Capricorn Enterprise, to promote the Southern Great Barrier Reef Destination and our trade ready products within it, with a 10% increase last year alone in our international visitation is a direct result of this commitment.
Dee’s itinerary this week is no holiday – it is back to back long days and includes training in Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Trier and Munich with major Wholesalers and Retailers. Sales appointments include:
- DUSSELDORF: BOTG (Best of Travel Group) presentation to up to 100 retail agents, Boomerang Reisen retail, Explorer Fernreisen headquarters;
- FRANKFURT, Dertour wholesale, Explorer Fernreisen retail, Tourism Australia, STA (Student Travel) headquarters;
- TRIER, Boomerang Reisen headquarters; and
- MUNICH, Boomerang Reisen retail, Pacific Island Travel, Studiosus Reisen, Tourism and Events Queensland office, AOT (Australian Outback Tours, including FTI and STA), Explorer Fernreisen retail, Australia Plus Reisen.
We are proud of our collective efforts and look forward to seeing fantastic results from this sales trip!
