The Gold Coast’s new marketing campaign is attracting families and high-spenders from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with new data revealing more Australians are now considering visiting the city.
Destination Gold Coast CEO Annaliese Battista said a recent campaign survey found 55 per cent of respondents associated the Gold Coast with the term ‘Australia’s playground’, a direct result of a DGC led, family centric campaign in partnership with Tourism and Events Queensland and Gold Coast theme parks.
“The first marketing campaign – ‘Australia’s favourite playground’ – resulted in an estimated $20 million in economic return for the city and a bumper Easter holiday period for operators,” Ms Battista said.
“More recently, we re-doubled our efforts and launched a winter tourism push to ‘come and play’ in Australia’s favourite playground in key visitor source markets.
“That’s a total marketing investment of more than $5 million to drive visitation and spend for the Gold Coast by ensuring we remain top-of-mind for families year-round.
“The survey data clearly shows that we have been able to influence visitor consideration for the destination by capitalising on brand momentum to leverage emotional drivers that champion priority experiences and activities to highlight core strengths – our beaches, relaxing by the pool, casual dining options, theme parks and the spectacular hinterland.
“Those who recalled the campaign, particularly high-spenders travelling with children, were more likely to consider visiting the Gold Coast in the next six or 12 months.”
At the end of the latest campaign activity, 58 per cent of people surveyed indicated they were considering the Gold Coast for a holiday in the next two years.
Perceptions of the Gold Coast also improved over the past six-months with the Gold Coast identified as a highly desirable family holiday destination.
Four in 10 who saw the recent campaign have an improved opinion of the Gold Coast as a holiday destination (44 per cent) and consider it a more appealing destination overall (38 per cent).
More importantly, families were significantly affected with 57 per cent recording a positive change in perception.
The strength of the Gold Coast’s accommodation offering for families was also particularly evident in the campaign tracking research.
The Gold Coast’s most prolific accommodation provider, world-leading hospitality group Accor Hotels, saw a significant uplift of 43 percent year-on-year in leisure bookings throughout winter, having partnered with city’s peak tourism organisation.
“Not only did our collaborative partnership with DGC allow us to drive tourism during the Gold Coast’s traditionally softer winter period, it also gave us the opportunity to showcase our breadth of family-friendly accommodation options here, in particular the Gold Coast’s leading apartment brand - Mantra,” said Accor Chief Operating Officer Pacific Simon McGrath.
“The domestic family market represents a large, growing and high-value market segment for tourism operators on the Gold Coast and this campaign proved to be a great success for our Peppers, Mantra and BreakFree properties on the Gold Coast.
“It approached destination marketing with boundless imagination, strategically capitalising on the Gold Coast’s beaches, theme parks, entertainment and adventure offerings extremely well, which are all proven motivators for family tourism.”
Accommodation figures for July, which encompassed the travel period for the winter tourism campaign, show the Gold Coast was able to maintain 75 per cent occupancy rates when compared to last year’s strong performance, off the back of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
The Gold Coast also tracked ahead of flat national growth rates with the average daily rate (ADR) increasing by 3.5 per cent to $192 and upped the revenue per available room (RevPAR) by 4 per cent to demonstrate the region is attracting high value travellers as intended.
Tourism and Events Queensland
teq.queensland.com
Tourism and Events Queensland
teq.queensland.com
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