Southern Downs: Tourism Market Research Program February 2018
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Southern Downs: Tourism Market Research Program February 2018 1 Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Research Methodology 6 3. Brand/ Destination Awareness 9 4. Current Visitor Market Snapshot 17 5. Southern Downs: Visitor Profile and Market Analysis 19 6. Appendices 44 Disclaimer The information and recommendations provided in this document are made on the basis of information available at the time of preparation and the assumptions outlined throughout the document. While all care has been taken to check and validate material presented in this report, independent research should be undertaken before any action or decision is taken on the basis of material contained in this report. This report does not seek to provide any assurance of project viability and EarthCheck accepts no liability for decisions made or the information provided in this report. Images courtesy of Tourism and Events Queensland 2 1. Introduction Southern Downs Market Research : January 2018 3 1.1 Introduction and Purpose of Report Introduction Southern Downs Regional Council commissioned EarthCheck to carry out a program of tourism market research to inform Council’s future investments in the visitor economy – in marketing, communications, and product development. Purpose of Report This report provides a summary of market research conducted during the program; focusing on; 1. Gaining a comprehensive understanding of the Southern Downs visitor market, covering: • Trend analysis; • Visitor demographics; • Visitor origins; • Visitor activities; • Seasonality in travel patterns; • Visitation forecasts • Benchmarking of performance/visitation patterns with neighbouring areas and the wider Southern Queensland Country region. Market profile and forecasting information has been sourced from Tourism Research Australia’s international and domestic visitor surveys, and from the Tourism Forecasting Reference Panel. 2. Gaining an understanding of awareness of the region, incorporating; • Visitor awareness of the region from its key leisure and day visitor market - south east Queensland • Intention to visit the region in the next 12 months • Profile/awareness of the region’s key destinations, attractions and attributes • Awareness of region as a leisure/holiday destinations, testing an identified range of regional and local destination names and brands. Market awareness intelligence has primarily been gathering via a 2,500 sample Google panel survey of South East Queensland and northern NSW residents, complementing existing desktop information and previous brand studies, including Tourism and Events Queensland’s regional brand health survey. Southern Downs Market Research : January 2018 4 1.2 Research Area Context Historically an area focussed on mining, timber and pastoral pursuits, the Southern Downs region is currently known for its award-winning food and wine and a plethora of striking natural assets and heritage trails. The landscape is characterised by orchards and vineyards in a rolling countryside. In the summer months, sunflower fields line the highway. The Southern Downs Regional Council area is located approximately a two hour drive south-west from Brisbane CBD, and within a 3 hour drive of the Gold Figure 1: Southern Queensland Country Region Coast. As part of the Southern Queensland Country Source: Tourism Research Australia Region tourism area (see Figure 1), it is one of a small number of Queensland regions which have a temperate climate with definitive seasons. Figure 2: Southern Downs Regional Council area Source: Tourism Research Australia The area is home to a growing population of over 35,000 residents, and hosts a variety of travellers and backpackers for its annual picking seasons. While the area is best known for its agriculture, other major industries include retail, manufacturing, education and training, health care and social assistance and accommodation and food services1. The tourism industry within the area is estimated to support almost 800 direct full-time equivalent jobs, 29% of which are aged 15-241. According to census data the industry is growing, with an additional 130 jobs in tourism and hospitality in the region between 2006 and 2011, 95 of which were full-time equivalent (2016 data is due for release in the near future). 1. 2016 ABS Census Data Southern Downs Market Research : January 2018 5 2. Research Methodology Southern Downs Market Research : January 2018 6 2. Methodology Visitor Market Analysis Market profile and forecasting information has been sourced from Tourism Research Australia’s international and domestic visitor surveys, and from the Tourism Forecasting Reference Panel. For the purposes of this analysis, SDRC has been defined as the statistical areas (SA2 regions) of Stanthorpe, Stanthorpe Region, Warwick, Southern Downs East and Southern Downs West. These statistical areas are created by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and are defined by population density (averaging 10,000 people per SA2 region but varying between 3,000 and 25,000 depending on the maintenance of recognisable local boundaries). The above areas have been cross-referenced within both the Tourism Research Australia (TRA) databases and with the ABS to align with the Southern Downs Regional Council bounds current to 2017. Setting the above SA2 regions as the destination of “Southern Downs”, visitation data was sourced for the following aspects: • Visitor numbers and nights • Visitor demographics • Age • Origin • Travel Party Type • Preferred transport • Accommodation usage • Purpose of visit • Visitor activities • Seasonality • Visitor Spend (which was sourced from TRA’s Tourism Satellite Account). In order to gain insight into the region’s performance and market characteristics, the same market analysis methodology was applied to the neighbouring Toowoomba, Goondiwindi, Scenic Rim, Tenterfield and the Western Downs council areas, as well as the broader Southern Queensland Country Region (SQRC). Additionally, the areas of visitor numbers, nights and spend for all SDRC markets (domestic day, domestic night and international) have been utilised as the foundation for forecasting until 2023 utilising Tourism Forecast Review Panel’s forecasts for the tourism industry within Queensland and Australia. The forecasting percentages applied relate to regional Queensland’s future expected performance. It should be noted that all data in this report is based on Financial YE June 2017 data sourced from TRA, and as such is subject to change and readjustment by TRA based on survey data releases. Southern Downs Market Research : January 2018 7 2. Methodology Brand/Destination Awareness Historically the region has been promoted under a range of sub-regional and regional brand names and marketing areas including Southern Queensland Country and Granite Belt. To help inform future marketing investment, it was necessary to gain a clear perspective on the destinations and brand names/ tourism areas having greatest awareness and interest in taking a trip to the Southern Downs area. Gaining this type of information at local level is challenging as most research of this type is traditionally undertaken at regional and State levels. Data sources such as the Holiday Tracking Survey (Roy Morgan) potentially provide regional level data, as does’ TEQ’s brand health survey, but local level information is absent. At local level, utilisation of Google analytics (frequency of search terms) can provide a useful, albeit crude indicator of interest in searching for information on an area/different destination names, however it is challenging to relate this specifically to tourism/visitor economy interests. Therefore the approach taken in this study was as follows; 1. A context for Southern Downs was provided by analysis of brand health of Southern Queensland Country 2. Conducting a 2,500 Google panel survey of South East Queensland and Northern NSW residents, covering; • Intention to visit the region in the next 12 months • Profile/awareness of the region’s key destinations, attractions and attributes • Awareness of region as a leisure/holiday destinations, testing an identified range of regional and local destination names and brands • Southern Downs • Southern Queensland Country • Warwick • Stanthorpe 3. The survey touched 8,000 respondents, prior to filtering questions on origin of visitors and age/sex, selected 2.500 respondents 4. After pilot testing, the survey was in market from 14th December 2017 to 31st December 2017. Southern Downs Market Research : January 2018 8 3. Destination/ Brand Awareness Southern Downs Market Research : January 2018 9 3. Destination/ Brand Awareness Context: Southern Queensland Country Southern Queensland Country is the newest of Queensland’s thirteen tourism regions, but provides an essential forum for ensuring that the region’s constituent parts are profiled via Tourism and Events Queensland’s marketing investment, and at international level via Tourism Australia’s marketing and communications platforms. Brand Equity Index (BEI) provides a means of relative measurement of tourism brand health – it is calculated based on consumers’ responses to their favourite brand, brand that they would recommend, and willingness to pay higher prices. Figures 3 and 4 shows that SQC has an BEI of 0.8 - at the lower end of the scale of Queensland’s tourism regions. Scores of 3.1-5 are regarded as strong. Figure 3: Southern Queensland Country Brand Equity Index (Source TEQ) Southern Downs Market Research : January 2018 10 3. Destination/ Brand Awareness Figure 4: