Tourism Central Australia Danial Rochford on new tourism strategy

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, there's been plenty of bad news unfortunately for the
tourism sector, particularly in Central Australia lately, with those QUANTUS
flights being canceled, but in what looks like some great
news money well coming in over the last couple of days. First,
the Northern Territory Government announced more than two hundred and
seventy thousand dollars to support seven tourism experiences across the

(00:23):
NT from the NT Experience Fund, and then the Commonwealth
followed that up with the next phase of the five
million Red Center marketing boost in partnership with the Tourism
Well with Tourism Central Australia and joining us live on
the line is the CEO, Daniel Rochford. Good morning, Daniel.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Good Akatan, good morning to your listeners. Yes it's good. Yes,
it was a big day yesterday. I had to pinch
myself a couple of times.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Do you know, mate, I saw you on the ABC
News and you look so happy. I thought, oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, no, it's a good day. Look really, you can't
be so thankful for both the federal and territory governments
for backing tourism. You know, we've been loud and proud
advocates as you know, okay for our industry and our
region and you know, we're really appreciative of our government
supporting our industry.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Will tell us a little bit more about this partnership
with the Commonwealth Government, the fly Free to Alice campaign.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, so this is part of a five million dollar
funds that they've given us to market Central Australia. So
this is probably one of the centerpiece campaigns. And what
we're doing is putting that national push out there to
encourage Australians to turn that dream into reality of coming
to Central Australia for a holiday. You know, we operate

(01:48):
in a really competitive landscape, so we had to do
something brush and that was to put a free one
way trip to Central Australia on the table. And that's
got the word out there, and you know, I've been
doing a lot of media around Australia all in the
last twenty four hours who've picked up this story and

(02:09):
really run with it. And you know, that's got the
bars out there that people that we're really keen to generate.
And you know, what we're doing is effectively saying to
Australians will put a free flight to our springs on
the table. All you have to do is say a
couple of nights, go out and do an experience, go
to an attraction, and we'll subsidize that one way effect,

(02:29):
I mean.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Daniel, Given the cost to fly in and out of
the Northern Territory, it is an incredible saving opportunity for travelers.
What are you know, what are people nationally and internationally
saying to you at this.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Point, Look, it's going down really well. In fact, it's
going off like a frog in a socket button. I'd
have to say, we're really excited. And that's certainly you know,
we're starting to get a lot of interest in these packages.
So you know what we wanted to do is craft
this and away Katie, where everyone benefits wasn't just the airlines,

(03:03):
it wasn't just the accommodation. We wanted to make sure
the money sort of found its way to the experiences
and our local attractions. So you know, you have to
buy a package which includes all those two nights accommodation
and an experience and attractions, so everyone wins. And what
we also allows people to fly into our springs and

(03:23):
then fly out of LaRue. So it was really just
not just about flying people to the rock and out,
so we were you know, we're encouraging people to do
the whole of Central Australia.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
I reckon that's a really important part and it is
all part of the head for the Heart campaign which
launched in March. Does that mean there's been a good
response to that as well.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah, And look, you know, as we said last week
when we chatted, you know, there's certainly been a nose.
It will turn around, and you know we put that
down to all our great events and also the work
that we've been doing with this money, and also the
support from tourism events and all the territory. To begetting
the word out there that's coming to Central Australias now

(04:09):
is a really great idea and you know it seems
to beginning subtraction. You know, we're starting to see moulturists
come through and you know they're spending money in our
local businesses and supporting our local economy.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Daniel, I know that, you know, I guess the obvious
question is are campaigns like this sustainable without that government support,
you know, would people still travel to the center or
is it about sort of spreading the word in the
hope that it encourages others to get here.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, it's always good to have these funds to be
able to do this, and you know, we wouldn't be
able to do it without this funding, so you know,
we really appreciative of the federal government support. That's why.
Also the second part of this funding that was announced
yesterday is really important, you know, which was all about
the two point five million dollars of investment into new

(04:56):
tourism development. And we've got some massive amount of exciting
new projects. Now what those new projects do when they
start to come online, they'll give us a new hook,
some new angles to be able to tell the world
about Central Australia. And you know there's some really exciting
initiatives in there, Katie, and you know where you know,
you and I have been talking about many challenges that

(05:19):
our industry and region have had to face. But you know,
in the last few weeks and months, with this funding
that's been announced by the SAIDs, I've got people walking
into my office saying, Hey, I've got this great idea
for a new tourism business with this fun backet and
you know that's really exciting to see.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
That's really good to hear and Daniel, I mean, are
you able to quantify? I know this literally has just
sort of been announced, but like what kind of feedback
or what kind of you know, I don't know if
anybody's gone so far as to book yet, but give
us some numbers or a bit of an idea of
how it's going in the early early stages.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Oh yeah, the phones, I understand, it's been running off
the hook. So to to make a booking, we've actually
partnered with a travel company called nt now, which are
Northern Territory Travel experts. They handle the flight booking, the
accommodation and experience booking. So you're going through this party
and they're doing all the booking on your behalf, and

(06:16):
then we're redeeming that one way fair off the package bryce.
So that's all handled centrally. And so my understanding yesterday
is the phones are ringing off the book and you know,
and as I said at the start, you know, we've
had so much national media attention on this, so it's
great to see Central Australia in lights and you know,
as you know, we're at my heart and my sleep

(06:36):
about this amazing region and it's been great to talk
about how great it is to turn that dream into
a reality through this initiative.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
It's awesome. I think it's fantastic news. Daniel Rochford. Always
good to catch up with you, but good to hear
you're so happy mate.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Ah haha. No, thanks Katie, and really appreciate it and
look forward to seeing the success of the campaign.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Good on you. Thanks so much for your time this morning.
I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Thanks Daniel.