Where the bloody hell is the NSW post-bushfire tourism campaign?

31 January 2020

Published by https://www.abc.net.au

AUSTRALIA – Where the bloody hell are you? It’s the famous question Lara Bingle put to the world in a campaign inviting tourists to Australia’s famous beaches.

But now the industry is asking the same question of the NSW Government and its tourism response to the summer’s bushfire crisis.

Lauren Douglas, the executive officer of Australian Regional Tourism, said there had been a lot of talk but not much action.

“At this stage they haven’t even put on the table a strategy, even though the bushfires in NSW have been burning since November,” Ms Douglas said.

“There has been a lot of silence. We are not too sure what is happening.”

Ms Douglas said her organisation had attended a roundtable discussion with the state’s Tourism Minister, Stuart Ayres, and Destination NSW and had been promised a strategy.

“Destination NSW and its networks have been actively listening to the needs of the regions, but we won’t really know more until the NSW recovery strategy is released.”

SA, Victoria launch sugar-hit campaigns

Across the border it’s a different story, with the South Australian Tourism Commission releasing a targeted video encouraging visitors to return to Kangaroo Island in the #BookThemOut campaign.

The video acknowledged the devastation brought by the fires:

“Kangaroo Island is much, much larger than people anticipate. We’ve still got half of the island untouched … we’d really love people to support our region.”

The Victorian Tourism Industry Council, meanwhile, is urging people to upload photos and videos to its #ThisIsVictoria campaign.

Dozens of videos have been added with people sharing their experiences, including council chief executive Felicia Mariani, who talked about her visit to Metung.

“All I can say is everyone needs to get back into this region and visit our operators,” she said.

“Things are open, everything is not burnt, it is fantastic, and these folk need nothing more than for everyone to come back. We need business, we need you here.”

Ms Douglas said the response interstate had been effective and fast, only a few weeks after fire devastated regional communities.

“It has been pretty impressive to see those governments back a new campaign; they came out so quickly to drive business back into those regions,” she said.

While fires have been burning on the NSW South Coast since November, on January 2 the State Government declared a tourist-leave zone between Bateman’s Bay and the Victorian border — only days later it was stretched north to Ulladulla, creating a mass relocation.

Ms Douglas said she would have expected a more sophisticated tourism strategy response from the Government, as the impacts were causing widespread devastation in many regions during their traditionally busiest season.

“We’re already hearing reports of business closures and revenue loss of up to 70 per cent in non-declared fire zones, which is putting a tremendous pressure on regional business,” she said.

Communities creating own campaigns

Anthony Houghton from the Berry Chamber of Commerce and Tourism said his region was not directly impacted by the fires but had suffered serious disruption.

“We did send out a survey a couple of weeks ago to find out how much people were hurting, and the majority said they were down 50 per cent on last year,” he said.

“They pretty much said they were cutting down shifts or reducing staff numbers.”

Mr Houghton said in response the chamber had launched its own campaign to bring people #BackToBerry.

“We have hit our war chest and have hit social media very hard … we have engaged some Instagram influencers.

“The idea being that they can come down to Berry, take some photos of the green grass, and say it’s still beautiful down here, come visit us.”

Other small communities like Kangaroo Valley are also creating social media campaigns to fill the void.

Local resident Byron Ross ran around the small village just days after the fires swept through the western fringe, encouraging businesses to let people know they were still open.

“The fires came through the western side of the Kangaroo Valley, demolishing a lot of homes and destroying a lot of lives, however the township survived and we wanted people to know we are open.”

No excuse for delay

The State Government cut $35 million from Destination NSW’s budget last year, and while local tourism groups aren’t directly linking the budget cuts to the delayed response, they believe it has exacerbated the problem.

Labor’s tourism spokeswoman, Jenny Aitchison, said there was no reason why the Government hadn’t been able to release sugar-hit campaigns to help fire-affected regions.

“The NSW Government has no excuse for not having some campaign to counter these fires, ready to go to assist tourist operators, people who have lost their entire summer incomes,” she said.

Ms Aitchison said if the Government’s strategy was to try and avoid overlapping the Commonwealth’s $76 million #holidayherethisyear campaign, it was backfiring because other states were already filling the space.

“All the smoke has cleared, it’s actually a really beautiful environment, but the Government is missing that opportunity to support the tourism industry — they should get back on the ball.”

Mr Ayres this week visited some communities in the Southern Highlands and has been contacted for comment.

Key points:

• The fires have caused widespread physical and financial devastation in many regions during their traditionally busiest season
• Tourism bodies interstate have been quick to launch campaigns encouraging visitors to return and support fire-affected communities
• Local tourism groups aren’t directly linking budget cuts to the delayed response, but they believe it has exacerbated the problem