There has been a lot of regional travel happening in the MINT office recently. With new clients such as Mona Farm in Braidwood, Nimbo Fork in Killimicat, Mount Lofty House in The Adelaide Hills and The Ville in Townsville, there have been quite a number of Minties hitting the road and venturing off the beaten track.
It seems we’re not the only ones, with regional travel seeing tremendous growth of late. KANTAR TNS’s ‘Domesticate 2018’ study shows that Regional NSW toped Australian places for visitation in 2017 (39%) ahead of Sydney (38%). Regional NSW also held the highest level of repeat visitation with a third of visitors making between 1-3 trips in the past 12 months.
In 2018 Australians felt more worried than ever of global conflict and crime as well as the stress of long hours and social media. It seems escaping the city is the new antidote, with a rise in motivating factors for domestic holidays being ‘getting away from crowds’.
The study suggests some improvements that can be made to how the offer of regional travel can be communicated to prospective visitors:
- Improving knowledge of Australia’s heritage and indigenous experience is vital to drive interest
- While regional destinations shouldn’t try to compete with metropolitan nightlife, offering authentic night- time experiences that showcase the destination beyond daylight hours is essential
- There is no such thing as a ‘typical’ regional holiday; visitors are driven mainly by what they can do there
- Stop talking about ‘regional’ travel – People don’t think about regional destinations as brands.
- Be wary of language – regional travel is about experiences, not destinations
- A destination’s brand is the combination of experiences on offer
Written by Miranda Bryce, Head of Strategy
