Tourism attractions best in state

THE Ballarat Wildlife Park has been named the top tourist attraction in the state in this year’s Victorian Tourism Awards with Kryal Castle taking out silver.

The category celebrates natural or built attractions which bring joy and a sense of interest to visitors.

“After four pretty tricky years in the tourism industry it’s a fantastic recognition of all the hard work of everyone at the park and it was an incredible celebration on the night,” said Darren Collinson, marketing manager at the Ballarat Wildlife Park.

The tourist destination is in its 38th year and provides an opportunity for visitors to get close to Australian animals.

Mr Collinson said one of the keys to their success is how they have harnessed the domestic market.

“One of the biggest things was making sure we had the domestic market, particularly Melbourne day trippers with 60 per cent of our visitors from Melbourne,” he said.

“That was a really huge part of our plan with the overseas market coming to a standstill.”

The Ballarat Wildlife Park will now compete at the Australian Tourism Awards next March.

Kryal Castle CEO Bart Hamilton thanked his team and the support from the local community for the organisation’s success.

“It was an amazing result and its such a testament to how hard the team has worked and how far Kryal Castle has come,” he said.

“I think we have incredible marketing and a really, really dedicated team who have been here a long time and have really flourished.”

Mr Hamilton said that Ballarat is now positioned as a top tourism destination and congratulated the Ballarat Wildlife Park on their win.

“We love the Ballarat Wildlife Park team and they’re a fantastic attraction and Sovereign Hill is a hall of fame attraction so they can’t win anymore so it just shows how far Ballarat has come as a tourist destination,” he said.

Mr Collinson agreed, saying that tourist attractions are working together to bring more visitors to the region.

“One of the things we’ve been working on with Sovereign Hill and Kryal Castle is looking at how we can better promote the area,” he said.

“We’re not trying to fight for visitors, we just want to get visitors to come to Ballarat.”