Hello businesses of the Clare Valley. So I came out of that Destination Management Plan workshop on Monday probably like two things. One was inspired and one was a little bit impatient.
The Funding Challenge
So the Destination Management Plan is going to be released in July and, if we’re honest, unless something significant changes in the structure of how the organizations do things that are involved in tourism up here, or the funding changes, then I guess looking at history, which is probably the best predictor of future behavior, we can’t have any real sort of significant confidence that we’re going to have the funding to do the things that we need to do, as will be recommended in that report. So therein lies a bit of a gap.
Key Takeaways from the Workshop
So my take on the workshop was you could sort of break it into two parts. There was probably 60 to 70% of the conversation was around infrastructure. Some of those things were securing water long-term for growers, transport, accommodation, bushfire, disaster mitigation, and stuff like this.
And then the other side of it was loosely tourism marketing. So things that I’m probably a bit more familiar with around collaboration and having a shared presence on social media. It’s important that the Destination Management Plan considers all of those aspects and everything that was talked about.
My Focus Moving Forward
But for me, the clarity moving forward that I’ve got is that I want to focus on the things that the visitor sees. I don’t know anything about water. I don’t know anything about disaster relief mitigation or whatever it was. But I do know a lot about branding a tourism destination and executing marketing in a tourism destination at both the destination level and also for operators.
So that’s what I’m going to focus on. I’m going to focus on the things the visitor sees, and this will make tons of sense when I explain to you how we’ll go about that.
Sharing My Thoughts and Plans
So I just sort of see this like—this is almost like just vlogging now. So blogging on video about what I plan to do, how my thoughts are evolving, and maybe it’s a little bit ranty, and maybe it’s going to—as I do—share a little bit too much, but I think it’ll help me get clarity over what I want to do.
And if you’re on board with watching the content, then I know for sure there’s going to be opportunities for your specific business in here for collaborations, just for getting some stuff done in your business. And I’m not necessarily talking about stuff you have to pay for either.
A Simple Tool for Tourism Businesses
I want to show you a tool that I use in businesses, and I think it’s relevant here. And I think it’s like a one-page—rather than reading through 20 pages of a Destination Management Plan that comes in July, I just want to break this down to go—and remember, this is focusing on the things that the visitor sees.
And this is the same thing that you can use in your business. It’s called a Customer Journey Map, and what it’ll do is highlight the priorities in each of the stages of the customer journey— which, I think I’ve got it on my screen behind me—goes from dreaming, inspiration, planning, booking, the visitor experience itself, through to sharing or reliving, which then becomes the inspiration for the next dreamers.
Understanding the Customer Journey
So that’s a customer journey, right? And then at each stage of the customer journey—it’s a marketing tool—so at each stage of the customer journey, it’s our responsibility, or the business owner’s responsibility, to move the customer around that. So to give them what they’re looking for at each stage.
They can’t be inspired, for example, to visit the Clare Valley if there’s no content that they see inspiring them to visit the Clare Valley. They can’t book to come to the Clare Valley if there’s no booking mechanisms, you know, like, it speaks for itself, right?
But it goes a little bit further, like, how can you provoke sharing after they’ve left the destination? When they’re in the destination, what’s the visitor experience that we’re trying to create?
Addressing Gaps in the Visitor Experience
So what are the gaps there in terms of marketing tools? And I would argue there’s things like just organizing information in the region. So, for example, if I’m walking down the main street— I was talking to a retailer about this the other day—if I was walking down the main street on a Sunday and everything’s closed, and I come from the city, so I’m not really used to— I did come from the city three years ago—I’m not really used to everything being closed on a Sunday. Like, what’s going on?
And how do I find out what I can do? At the moment, that information isn’t really well organized. But it’s not going to be that hard to solve that, right? Like, if somebody could just walk down the street, scan a QR code on the window that says, “What’s on in the Clare Valley today?” and they go to a little website that just goes, “This is Sunday in the Clare Valley. These are the things to do.” It solves that problem.
The Role of Branding
And this is the thing about branding, right? So at the—there’s two levels of branding: there’s hygiene and there’s branding.
Most businesses operate around that hygiene level. They’re just hanging on for dear life to know how to present themselves well, know how to talk about themselves well, have a half-decent logo, have a half-decent customer experience, and hope that when the customer leaves, they were happy, right?
And then, if you can elevate yourself above branding—which only comes after you’ve got the hygiene level sorted—you can start being deliberate about the type of person you’re targeting and what you want them to think and feel about your brand when they leave.
What is a Brand?
A brand is a gut feeling that people take away when they interact with your product or experience, right? We can’t control their gut feeling. There are so many inputs into that that are completely out of our control—their environment, the people around them, what touchpoints or things they’ve interacted with.
Who Are We For?
I’ve read the previous destination marketing plans, and it said high yield, high value—X, Y, and Z, with X, Y, and Z being families with money, couples with money, and older couples with money. I think that’s a really good aspirational identity and matches the DNA and product development in the Clare Valley.
The Role of the Destination Website
Historically, DMO websites have been for late-stage inspiration and mid-stage planning. But if destinations don’t adapt, they’re going to get killed by AI.
Right now, I can go to ChatGPT and say:
“I’m a family with two kids under five. I don’t want to spend much money. These are the dates that I’m in somewhere. Give me a bunch of experiences that fit this budget.”
And I’m going to get a pretty good result.
How We Adapt
Start creating better local content—because AI can’t do that.
Shift the destination website’s role to in-destination support rather than just planning.
If visitors scan a QR code on a window, they should be able to see specific operators, hours, stories, and all of that information.
Final Thoughts
I probably need to start collaborating with somebody on this—to start talking about this and actually get somebody else’s ideas other than my own.
But also, hopefully, this gives you some idea about how we can go through this process strategically, but also just simplify the heck out of it so we’re not reading a 20-page document or a 15-page marketing plan, getting completely overwhelmed, and doing nothing.
Thanks for getting this far if you did, and we’ll see what we got from here.
