The topic this month for The Lunaticks Society event was Role and Impact of Technology in Tourism and Hospitality. This gave us a panel representing Newcastle Events, Hunter Wine Country and the developer of the Newcastle App, Andy Howard.
Lots of figures produced on visitors (most are repeat visitors, so domestic travelers) and perhaps surprisingly that day trippers spend the most money on their visits. Or not such a surprise if they are leaving with a car full of great Hunter wines!
In 2011, a total of 7.8 million visitors came to the Hunter and around 60 per cent of travelers now want to book online. As was made clear by the panel, visitors expect to be able to book online immediately and this is no longer an optional service for business to provide, it is just part of the cost of doing business.
In this way we see that local tourist and businesses offering hospitality are being driven by the marketplace to adapt. Unfortunately for many small operators this is still not so well understood and the technological literacy in small business is lacking.
As is often the case with panel discussions like this there is a focus on statutory bodies, government grants and other political issues that relate to funding constraints and reference back to old thinking and how we've done things in the past but with a new website function or a bit of technology thrown in. And still the distinction between Newcastle, other council areas and other established tourist areas keeps us from understanding this great place where we live, whether we are in the suburbs of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Port Stephens and the wine areas, is one region. That parochial thinking prevents us consolidating efforts to attract more visitors for longer stays into the whole region.
This is unfortunate as while it may be the reality of funding and scope of interest that these bodies deal with, it ignores the massive opportunity that we have to create engagements in new markets in new ways using personal networks and the potential for the whole community to be actively engaged and encouraged to be promoting the area. Hey. This is Our Region.
What's clear is that small business operators need to lift not just their literacy with the new technologies, they need to be competent with them. Websites need to be made useful, (most that I see are not). Content in the form of articles, blogs, images and resources to download, needs to be created for every single business. This acts to improve visitors to a site and social media allows for social sharing of this material. This is the new marketplace and these are the tools that need to be understood and well-utilized. Multiplied across the region and we have a huge net to catch tourists with money to spend.
Local areas need to have access to good broadband and we need to work together to help businesses and the communities share ideas, opportunities and open the door to more collaborative open culture. Perhaps it is also time to wake up to our position in the world. For someone in Europe, or China or the US the Hunter region is the backyard of Sydney. We should want people to know we are here, instead of them flying into Sydney and then out to Queensland and other well established destinations that are known by name to those overseas. And to educate our local market to the full range of options that are available across the region. Together we have some critical mass. There is potential to make this region the best resourced, most effective and digitally savvy area in the country. Someone will do it first. It can be us.
For small operators who are not up to speed with the digital world there is help but those of us who can help cannot do so without knowing who needs it and who wants it and who is prepared to invest in their own business to bring them up to minimum standard at least.
There is a lot of work to do.
You can find Andy Howard's blog on the discussion last night here
Related:
Tourism Trends We Need To Be Up On In The Hunter
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