Tourism Noosa is one of Australia's most successful local tourism organisations. With a membership base of over 700 members, Tourism Noosa has overseen record increases in visitation, average length of stay and visitor expenditure over the past 5 years due to its exceptional branding and marketing campaign activity, and its strong focus on strategic industry development initiatives, such as its Global Ready Industry Program (GRIP).
We have had the pleasure of working with the Tourism Noosa team to deliver their GRIP program during the 2016/17 and 2017/18 financial years.
Tourism Noosa has a long standing relationship with DR Tourism across many facets of the tourism industry. For the past two years, DR Tourism has delivered a Global Ready Industry Program on behalf of Tourism Noosa, to upskill Noosa operators to successfully launch their product internationally.
The amount of support, contacts and knowledge provided through the mentoring program to participants, goes well beyond expectations and has resulted in successful international businesses.
I would highly recommend DR Tourism to any organisation searching for a professional, dedicated and knowledgeable team to deliver robust tourism program's or international support. Their reputation across the industry sector is held in high regard and their motivation to secure business for their clients is admirable.
Distribution channels such as wholesalers, Inbound Tour Operators, Retail Travel Agents and Online Travel Agents are critical to the success of tourism operators. There is however often a lack of understanding on the importance of working with these distribution partners and a lack of knowledge of where to start amongst tourism operators. Our challenge was to design and implement an intensive, tailored one on one mentoring program across a 5-month period to educate tourism operators and get them 'trade ready' for not only their own benefit, but for the benefit of the wider region.
We liaised closely with Tourism Noosa and a number of Tourism Operators to develop a highly detailed, intensive, one on one and face to face mentoring program that was able to be tailored to meet the needs of the specific businesses taking part in the program. The mentoring sessions included a number of elements focused on gaining an understanding of how the trade distribution system works, how to correctly price tourism products and experiences, how to create packages, and how to effectively work with trade partners to increase occupancy and profitability.
All participants of this program have 'graduated' at the Australian Tourism Exchange, the largest trade show in the Southern Hemisphere, allowing them to showcase their products and experiences to the world. As a result of this program, all program participants have been programmed with a number of trade partners to increase awareness of their individual products and to increase awareness of Noosa as a leading Australian holiday destination.