Opinion
- Another Wicked piece of marketing
  
  I’ve written about this before, but once again I have to confess to a sneaking admiration for the PR and marketing expertise of John Webb and Wicked Campers. Read more »
- Grounds for cautious optimism, but things could get worse before they get better
  
  Just got back from a couple of weeks in London – surely the world’s most depressed capital city at the moment, but more of that later – and everyone I speak to seems to be 20 per cent down. Read more »
- BOA successfully talks up the ‘Gong and south coast
  
  BOA president Katrina Greeves’ wrap-up on last week’s regional meeting in Wollongong.
  
  Over 10 local South Coast tourism operators joined BOA Committee representatives and members at the ‘BOA Talks South Coast’ event in Wollongong last Thursday to engage in lively debate regarding travel and tourism issues affecting the backpacker, student and youth market in the south coast region. Read more »
- What prison taught me about discounting
  
  Founder of Brokepacker.com Kevin Lippy explains there are three types of discounting ahead of the website’s launch tonight.
  
  A prison yard is a tough, volatile, dangerous, cut throat and an extremely unpredictable environment… Kind of like the Australian backpacking industry during low season. Read more »
- How many backpackers does it take to change a lightbulb?
  
  Thumbrella is conducting an exclusive industry survey this week, with just one question. How many of your customers are idiots? Read more »
- How’s business?
  
  So, how’s business? It’s a simple question, but it seems there’s no easy answer. Read more »
- Australian backpacking is the pulse we watch to gauge the health of the industry worldwide
  
  In this guest post, gapyear.com founder Tom Griffiths relects on the recent ATEC Backpacker and Youth Industry Conference and why Australia’s backpacking industry still leads the world.
  
  Like most of the delegates I spoke to, I found the recent ATEC Backpacker and Youth Industry Conference extremely interesting and useful. It’s very easy in these current times to set a safe agenda to cater for an industry licking its wounds, who want to hear good news stories and see rainbows ahead. Read more »
- McEvoy: ‘Put your tourism experiences on the map’
  
  Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy discusses the first stages of the There’s nothing like Australia campaign and urges the industry to get involved. Read more »
- The Cross needs backpackers to thrive
  
  In this guest post, a Kings Cross backpacker operator who wishes to remain anonymous outlines the benefits backpackers bring to the Cross.
  
  Lately there has been a concerted effort to push out the evil doing, backpacking “scum” from Potts Point together with various articles on your website and other media. Read more »
- There’s nothing like Australia’s violence on tourists…at least according to Google
  
  News in Sydney’s media of a young Scottish tourist who had been bashed by a group of youths in Sydney this week got me thinking, is violence in Australia towards foreigners worse than anywhere else or is it just because we’re here that we hear about it? Read more »
- Vote Australia – you know it makes sense
  
  If, as expected, British prime minister Gordon Brown goes to Buckingham Palace later today and asks the Queen to dissolve parliament, there will be a general election in the UK on Thursday May 6. Read more »
- Morrissey was right – life IS very long when you’re lonely…
  
  Last month I faced a classic publishing dilemma. When stories surfaced in the national press that a harvest work contractor in Bundaberg had allegedly sacked backpackers after they asked for water, my colleagues on the Backpacker Tourism Advisory Panel urged me to publish a story in TNT Magazine informing readers of their workplace rights. Read more »

Asia snaps up ‘emotion’ share from Aussie holiday destinations

In this guest posting, TNS Director, Travel & Leisure, Carolyn Childs explains how Asia is attracting Australia’s domestic travellers.

For years, many Australian travellers have viewed Asia as predominantly a ‘fly and flop’ destination, but no more. The region is sneaking up on the heels of Australian destinations targeting domestic travellers, with value-based offerings around sightseeing, adventure and immersive or transformational experiences.

Australian operators are encountering the challenge of a shift in their competitive set. Traditionally, domestic operators contended with other domestic destinations (or other goods being purchased instead of domestic holidays), and increasingly New Zealand. Our deep-dive study into the Australian domestic tourism market, Domesticate™, revealed a dramatic increase in the competitiveness of south-east asian destinations.

One research participant commented that they could get a three-week trip to Cambodia and Thailand for the same cost as a weekend in Sydney for a festival. This coupled with increased capacity on routes, competitive air fares, favourable exchange rates and an extremely low in-market spend has strengthened rational justifications for SE Asia travel.

But we all know there is more to holidays than the lowest price (even though this is not immediately apparent by the way we compete with price-based offers). Emotion is the most compelling driver for holidays – reconnection with loved ones, relaxation, transformation and immersion are what we seek.

SE Asia is moving into this space as well, having augmented their traditional low-energy, affiliative, fly and flop offers with offers that meet travellers’ experiential needs – offering adventure, learning and challenges. This is in line with how some of these destinations have been marketed (eg Malaysia Truly Asia and Amazing Thailand), and is a reflection of the success of those campaigns. By meeting these more experiential needs, a higher emotional value is placed upon holidays to these destinations.

To stave off this challenge, it will be important to identify which elements of the Australian offer can really engage consumers. In part, the task is to raise our ‘emotional’ market share in the eyes of the consumer.

I will discuss how we do this and touch on why Australians aren’t using their annual leave and the decline of customer loyalty in travel at the upcoming press launch of Domesticate, to be held in Sydney on Tuesday March 16. If you’d like to attend, please request an invite from tnscommunications.au@tns-global.com.

Carolyn Childs is Director of TNS’ dedicated Tourism and Leisure research division and contributes a regular column to Thumbrella. You can follow Carolyn on TNS’ blog, Sixth Sense (sixthsenseinsights.com.au), or on twitter @tns_aus.

By Martin Lane · March 11th, 2010 at 12:13 pm