The following is a guest blog piece by Australian Regional Tourism Network (ARTN) Chairman David Sheldon who is also the owner/operator of Elm Cottage in Tumut. We are proud to be affiliated with them through our sponsorship of the ARTN Young Tourism Professional award Over 45% of the Visitor Expenditure is currently in Regional Australia. That means our network needs to begin updating its practices to fit the current climate. Today’s ever-changing economic challenges should be seen as opportunities as opposed to roadblocks. Tourism is a … [Read more...]
How VFR Hosts Can Turbo Charge Your Visitor Economy
In this video we talk about how visiting friends and relatives (VFR) hosts are largely ignored when it comes to marketing efforts, yet they represent an extraordinary opportunity. The latest research from Tourism Research Australia tells us that 48% of the domestic travel industry is VFR. This market is the low hanging fruit of domestic tourism. If you want to see a gold star campaign for VFR hosts in action, check out Destination Southern Highlands, My Southern Highlands campaign, created with the help of creative agency Wisdom. To … [Read more...]
VFR Tourism from India: A Moveable Feast
India and Australia share many things including the same national day (26th January). As we had back from the holidays, discussions around the MyTravelResearch.com barbecue have focused on the many reasons why Australia should encourage more friends and family visits (VFR travel) from India In the travel industry, the Indian market keeps on giving due to its size: UNWTO forecasts 50 million outbound visits by 2020. And in our case, there’s the loyalty factor. Based on 2013 figures, 47% of arrivals to Australia are repeat visitors. In the … [Read more...]
Are Accommodation Businesses Optimising VFR Travel?
When you are a tourism researcher, it is not so much that life reflects art but that life reflects research. As such, it has been fascinating to take visiting friends and relatives trip so soon after completing the research on VFR travel in Australia. … [Read more...]
Visiting Friends and Relatives Travel Research – Coffee Break Insight
In this video, we give you a 4-minute insight into one of the key findings of our VFR Research - the information void. VFR hosts and visitors rarely see marketing targeted at them and their pain points. We need to go back to basics - marketing 101 and learn how to talk to the VFR persona and start helping them with the information they need to have a great stay. … [Read more...]