City looks to future tourism in new plan

A DOCUMENT guiding the municipality’s approach to visitor experiences for the next ten years was adopted by Council last Wednesday.

Director of community wellbeing Matt Wilson said the Traveller Experience Plan will promote visitation to Ballarat through its own residents.

“The underlying intent of all of this work is to enhance the pride of locals in sharing what is on offer within the city in the way that we enhance the experiences, the product, the infrastructure and all that provides benefit to the visitor economy,” he said.

Mayor Cr Daniel Moloney said he was pleased with the document, designed in collaboration with the visitor economy sector and key industry leaders since its inception last year.

“I’m really happy with the direction that we’re going but I also just see it as the tip of the iceberg of the things that we could potentially do when we harness the potential of Ballarat people promoting their own city,” he said.

But a leading expert in a specific traveller market said the plan didn’t realise the full potential of Ballarat residents as the driving force behind the city’s “primary source of visitation.”

Dr Elisa Zentveld said the plan underestimated the visiting friends and relatives travellers market by around 20 per cent, and as such marketing could “miss its mark” at a crucial time.

“Visiting friends and relatives has been shown to be a market that moves in low economic times because the mindset is different,” she said.

“It’s not regarded as a luxury, it’s regarded as connecting and more of an essential.”

“Perhaps some nuance in the design and application of the report is needed, with a dedicated plan for marketing to the VFR segment if the report’s goal [to leverage the VFR market] is to be realised,” Dr Zentveld said.

While it remains unclear why the percentage differs between the two parties, Mr Wilson said it would not affect the ultimate aim of the plan.

“If there is a statistical anomaly contained within the TEP or that economic data is under pitching the value of the VFR market it will not substantively impact negatively on our efforts to work in that economic space,” he said.