Part 1 - Shire of Ashburton

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Shire of Ashburton Tourism Strategy January 2011 - To highlight the importance of a successful local visitor industry amongst the local community, develop a value of tourism program to local community. - Undertake a confidential survey of local tourism industry on an annual basis to measure the value of tourism to the Shire each year. - To convert local residents into tourism ambassadors for the Shire of Ashburton region. - Promote Onslow as “the place” to go fishing. - Australia’s North West ‐ there will be opportunities for the Shire to become involved with and support the RTO activities. - With the closure of TWA regional offices (including Karratha) they may be a need/opportunity for the Shire itself to undertake a greater role in promotional activities of the Shire area. - A large market type for the ANW region is the self drive grey nomad traveller where word of mouth is very important. Opportunity to further attract this market type by specifically targeting and delivering high standards of service to these market types. - The upgrade of the Onslow Airport and the creation of the Tom Price Airport would both be major stimulants to air travel arrivals servicing the needs of both business and leisure travellers to the region. - Investigate new developments in social media and network marketing to leverage promotional and information delivery to potential markets, eg interactive websites, inclusion of links to travel blog sites, facebook pages for Karijini and selected special events. - Addition of 5 star accommodation and serviced apartments to existing commercial accommodation operations. - Addition of budget style accommodation and activities opportunities specifically backpacker accommodation in Tom Price. - Opportunity to target visitor markets before they get to tom Price, Paraburdoo and Onslow (Exmouth, Nanutarra & Auski roadhouses, Broome, Port Hedland and Karratha Visitor Centres), visitors typically have already booked accommodation in other destinations so are unable to extend their visit once in the region. - Opportunity to develop packages for marketing – “Reef and Gorge” Exmouth and Karijini, fly drive and fly stay packages; and Exmouth, Mackerel Island and Karijini tourist packages. With Qantas commencing air services into Exmouth and already servicing the major town hubs of the Pilbara, additional opportunity exists to access the holiday and leisure traveller via the extensive Qantas travel distribution network. - The Karijini and surrounding region has a real opportunity to become one of Australia’s great visitor experiences. High quality nature based visitor attractions already exist. What is required is improved tourist accommodation standards and capacity and a range of rewarding tourism products/visitor experiences. - The Karijini brand ‐ the Shire should adopt a pattern of tourism development that will allow it to maximise the potential of tourism in terms of its economic, social and environmental objectives for the region. That is, adopt a development approach that targets higher value traveller types, integrates local Aboriginal culture where possible, and is connected and marketed through the natural attractions of the region. There is a real opportunity to develop a strong tourism brand centred around “Karijini” for the region and that should fit in with the wider ANW market positioning. - Successful tourism business enterprises will generate expanded and more stable employment opportunities in the region. - The potential to develop tourist routes that connect regional attractions and that incorporate local tourism business assets and Visitor Centre members. The large majority of visitor types to the region 19
Shire of Ashburton Tourism Strategy January 2011 arrive and travel by self drive means. Providing easy to follow tourist routes will work to increase visitor length of stay in the region and improve overall visitor expenditure levels. Potential to build on the Warlu Way self drive trail concept. Owner/managers of “Drive WA” website/program are also managers of the Karijini Eco Retreat so the Shire is well placed to leverage this existing internet based marketing expertise. - Global growth in the nature based tourist market, with the Karijini and Millstream Chichester National Parks and Onslow’s coastal assets well positioned to take advantage of this trend. - Opportunities to develop and promote total holiday packages (airfares, transfers, accommodation, meals and activities) to new markets. Work with operators from the upper Gascoyne region, in particular those based at Exmouth, Carnarvon, Mackerel Islands, Mount Augustus and Coral Bay. The Ningaloo Marine Park is rated as the state’s number one visitor attraction and Karijini is rated as equal number two. Packaging together Ningaloo‐Karijini experiences could offer tremendous market potential. Shire should support industry based initiatives for these type of linkages wherever possible. 2.5.4 Threats - Community’s over‐reliance upon a few major industries dominated by large players, there is a need to diversify the local economic base. - Growing intra and inter competition amongst tourist destinations. - Global uncertainties may inhibit international travel to Australia (may also be an opportunity to further develop Australian Domestic tourism). - Lack of suitably qualified tourism and hospitality staff for local industry and Shire tourism roles. - Global downturn in international tourism due to external factors such as renewed global terrorism threats, economic recessions in major source markets and the like. - Improved Australian dollar exchange rate encouraging both greater overseas travel by Australians and deterring International arrivals. - Significant increases in fuel prices thereby discouraging Australians undertaking large distance self drive travel within Australia. - Shire Council elected representatives will change over time, there is a need to ensure tourism remains an important industry and that Council support for tourism development and growth remains strong. - Competition for accommodation, local workforce and air services versus other local industries in particular shortage of the above for tourism markets due to buoyant local mining. - As there has been a lack of high quality commercial accommodation available in the past, the higher end visitor market has not been actively pursued for the Karijini National Park and surrounding townsite destinations. A major awareness campaign will need to be undertaken to generate interest amongst more upmarket, high yield traveller types. - The unpredictability of visitor numbers can be a real concern to remote Pilbara tourism operators with influencing factors on tourist travel patterns in many instances beyond the control of the individual operator. Events such as the Iraqi War, SARS, and the global threat of terrorist attacks can severely impact international travel decisions forcing many travellers to stay closer to home and only choose “safe” destinations. Domestically, events such as the collapse of domestic airline operators, and the high cost of petrol can also significantly influence the travel decisions of Australians. 20
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Location Amenities Tourism Destinat
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Part 1 - Shire of Ashburton

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