Free help for businesses to thrive after COVID-19

Published on 01 May 2020

Registrations are now open for a free digital marketing capability program designed specifically for Broken Hill and Far West NSW businesses.

Tourism operators and other interested businesses will benefit from a collaboration between Destination Country and Outback and Broken Hill City Council with the delivery of a regional specific digital marketing learning platform to be launched next week.

The “Survive and Thrive Through Digital Marketing” program is being delivered by Tourism Accelerator and includes a series of online masterclasses, educational tools and support resources to guide tourism operators in specific digital marketing subject areas with a focus on the “It’s Out There” campaign tools.

The “It’s Out There” Campaign, launched in February 2020. Developed by the Destination NSW in collaboration with Broken Hill City Council and Central Darling Shire, the campaign has been paused until tourism markets open again. How to use the industry toolkit which forms part of the campaign will feature in the capability program. 

Mayor Darriea Turley AM said the program forms part of Council’s response to the recovery of the issues businesses faced with COVID-19 and this is an opportunity for businesses to embrace the campaign toolkit and learn how to use it to benefit their own business. 

“Council has been working to identify opportunities to support business and industry to recover from the economic impact of COVID-19 and by working in collaboration with Destination Country and Outback, we are able to deliver an online program that elevates the implementation of the “It’s Out There” campaign toolkit in readiness for when we relaunch the “It’s Out There” campaign into market to encourage visitors back to Broken Hill,’’ Mayor Turley said.

DNCO Chair Clyde Thompson AM said Council is to be commended for this initiative and to be preparing for a post COVID-19 recovery plan.

‘We’re delighted to be partnering with Broken Hill City Council and investing in a customised capability development programme for the tourism industry. Our recent research has monitored Australian’s future intent to travel and the results are interesting’ Mr Thomson said. 

“Of those planning to travel in the near future, 46% are searching for information to plan their trip. This includes accommodation options, and destination related information such as attractions and local restaurants and cafes. Country and regional destinations were also favoured (33%) over cities (17%), so this programme will assist tourism businesses to be ’destination ready’ and to leverage the ‘It’s Out There’ campaign’ he said. (Source: University of Queensland and Associate Professor Gabby Walters, Tourism Discipline, UQ Business School).

Tourism Accelerator is led by Hayden Zammit OAM, with a team of experienced tourism marketers providing industry capability.

Mr Zammit was raised in Broken Hill and has gone on to create a career in tourism marketing.

Over the past 6 months, the Tourism Accelerator Team has worked hands-on with more than 800 tourism operators, particularly in the regional Australia. They also work with state destination marketing organisations, regional tourism organisations, lead customer experience, marketing, product development for tour operators, accommodation and attractions.

“With a network of like-minded tourism operators to bounce ideas around and collaborate with, alongside our industry experts we are empowering tourism operators to achieve incredible results,” Mr Zammit said.

The program includes:

• Induction Destination Outback Live webinar to be delivered to welcome participants to the program and provide an overview of the online learning management system. 

• 10 Online Masterclass topics will be developed with scheduled including recorded online sessions offered to allow for operators to join in the program and actively engage in the content with questions that they may have. Recordings of the first session of each topic will be provided online for on-demand learning.

• Live Q&A Sessions 3 days per week for operators to ask questions and receive support to further expand on webinar topics.

• A program divided into the key streams including:

- Digital Marketing foundations for Tourism Businesses

- Content Marketing

- Social Media strategy and optimisation

- Getting Started with Ecommerce

- CRM and Email Marketing

- Managing your reputation online

• A Digital Marketing toolkit will be provided including supporting worksheets to guide each of the live webinars. The toolkit will be provided as an overarching document where operators will be able to follow when reviewing their digital marketing activities in the future.

• A program specific closed discussion forum will be established to encourage the tourism industry to collaborate and ask questions regarding the implementation of the key learnings found from the masterclasses. 

Click here to register. The first webinar will be held on May 14, 2020.