|
Category: Postcard
| | Leave a Comment
|
Last Thursday’s Social/Networking Evening was very well received, with twenty five people attending. A very enjoyable night was had by all thanks to our hosts, Kevin and David from the Northern Rivers Brewing Company in Alstonville. A few drink to start, followed by an informative tour of the Brewery and a final tasting of the seven beers currently produced. I can’t thank them enough for their hospitality and I encourage all of you, your friends and visitors/tourists to get up there on the weekends and have a look around (booking essential call 6628-8737).
|
 David and Kevin explaining how beer is brewed
 Some of the people who attended listening attentively.
|
 |
 Kevin passionately explaining the beer brewing process. This really helped with the understanding of the various styles of beer tasted after the tour.
|
|
Paul Ferguson – President of Tourism Ballina was given the opportunity to give those in attendance an update on activities as follows:
Membership Drive – current membership numbers stand at just under 40 and we encourage you to join the Tourism Industry’s representative body. Our membership year usually runs from 1st July to 30th June, but if you join now, this will cover you till 30th June 2009. Please call Dave Heggie on 6619 2470 or visit our website www.tourismballina.com.au or email secretary@tourismballina.com.au
Members Website – since its’ launch in March 2007, we have seen an ever increasing number of hits/visits to the the website. Late last year, we subscribed to advertise through Google Adwords, which has further enhanced our presence and helps us with our high ranking and visitations.
|
 |
Hogs Rally – October 2008 will be an huge event in Lennox Head. We are contacting all the Australian Harley Chapters with our Member’s details to provide accommodation, tours and attractions.
Ballina Chamber of Commerce & Industry – this years sees four spots on the Committee up for grabs. With the current Committee dominated by the Professionals, we encourage you to put your name forward in order to represent our best interests. Deadline is 5pm Thursday 3rd April 2008. We will support you.
Ballina Shire Tourism Industry Conversations – many of you would have attended the workshops held earlier this year. Although you have not seen the outcomes, we have had a meeting with Council to discuss the results and suggest where we can take the initiative or support the actions that came out of it. A report will be be presented to Council in April, with an Action Plan the following month by Liz Shepherd. Not surprisingly ‘collaborative destination marketing, branding and signage’ came to the for!
Networking Events – interestingly, a byproduct of the ‘Conversations’, was an ask for more social/networking events. Currently, we hold three a year, but if the demand is there, we will increase this to four.
Change of Direction – on Wednesday 26th March 2008, your Committee unanimously voted for a change in direction on the best use of Membership Subscription Funds. We had previously allocated $4,000 to two Destination Development Projects run by Council – South East Queensland Self Drive Campaign and a Promotional DVD. Both these initiatives are so far behind schedule, that it is difficult to see how we will ever gain any credibility from their completion. We hold neither the purse strings or project control and therefore find the situation very frustrating. Our funds and time are better spent on areas where we have control on the timescales and outcomes. This is not to say that we will not continue to engage with Council on your behalf as major Stakeholders for the Tourism Industry, but we we will no longer be prepared to fund their initiatives.
To this end, we have been in negotiation with a third party to produce a very exciting outcome for the Promotion and Tourism Development for our Members and the Shire. We can’t tell you more at this stage due to contractual arrangement, but it is new, conceptually different and very dynamic. Watch this space!
Finally
Beat the Drum – we managed to get some well timed publicity last Monday (24th March 2008) in the Northern Star and subsequently on PRIME on the disappointing Easter for the industry. We have now been through three months of the worse results for the Tourism Industry in a long long time. The powers that be realize this, but we need actions, not words and quick. There can’t be one operator that isn’t feeling the pinch and many have had to knock on their Bank Manager’s door. Tourism is new money to the Shire and worth in excess of $100 million a year. This slump will have already cost the Shire between $7m and $10m!
And from the local ABC Site Sat March 29
New South Wales Tourism Minister Matt Brown says the north coast will benefit from a million-dollar marketing deal. The $1.1 million partnership involves Tourism NSW and the budget domestic airline Jetstar. Mr Brown will meet the airline’s general manager, Simon Westaway, in Kingscliff today. He says the deal follows a similar initiative last year which proved its worth in tourist numbers. “What this is about is getting more people up to the north coast,” he said. “Last year we had a similar partnership and we saw some terrific numbers of people coming up into the area, people wanting to come up and stay at the new improved tourist facilities that are in the area.” Mr Brown will also meet Tweed residents to highlight Good Neighbour Day, and will also make an announcement on a flood recovery marketing campaign.
A special thank you to:
- Northern Rivers Mini Bus Hire for providing the transport
- Riverwalk Cafe for the splendid food
- and Ballina Byron Rental Cars for the raffle prize
Cheers for now,
Dave
