4.5 Marketing Regional Victoria

Vision: Over the life of the plan more Australians and international visitors will be aware of and visit destinations in regional Victoria. This will contribute to increased tourism yield, greater dispersal of visitors and economic, social and environmental benefits to regional communities.

Objectives

• Increase awareness of regional Victoria leading to maximisation of the economic and social benefits of tourism for the whole of Victoria.
  
• Maintain and develop vibrant, liveable, authentic and sustainable destinations.
  
• Integrate tourism into community life.
  
• Develop product and infrastructure that meet the needs and expectations of visitors and local communities.
  
• Encourage visitor satisfaction through exceptional product and service delivery.
  
• Establish structures that facilitate cooperation, support and appropriate resourcing for regional tourism.
  
• Promote strategic business and community alliances.
  
• Encourage a focus on regional tourism issues by statewide industry bodies.
  
• Increase the visitation, length of stay, regional dispersal, yield and market share from international markets.

BACKGROUND

Why a Regional Strategy?

A strong, vital and innovative regional tourism industry can make a major contribution to the economic, social and environmental well being of all Victorians, complementing traditional agricultural and resource-based industries. Regional areas add to the depth and breadth of attractions, activities and benefits available to visitors, enabling Victoria to target a broader range of markets, promote longer stays and encourage greater expenditure.

Maximising the potential benefits of regional tourism and minimising the possible costs, requires a strategic focus on the issues, needs, challenges and priorities of regional Victoria, including issues of community building and sustainability.

This regional strategy provides that focus. It summarises the current tourism issues and trends for regional Victoria, highlights key challenges, identifies product strengths and key markets, while proposing a comprehensive range of strategies to develop and market the tourism potential of the State.

Regional tourism in this strategy encompasses all tourism activity outside metropolitan Melbourne. The only exception to this is in the discussion of regional cooperative marketing where Melbourne is also included as one of Victoria's 13 campaign regions.

The Development of Regional Tourism

A major catalyst for change in regional tourism was the Tourism Victoria Strategic Business Plan 1993-1996. For the industry, this plan substantially changed the approach to developing regional tourism in Victoria through the establishment of 13 tourism product regions, the introduction of a Regional Cooperative Marketing Program and the articulation of a comprehensive statewide marketing strategy. These initiatives resulted in a review of regional tourism structures, greater industry cohesion and cooperation, more professional regional campaigns and regional tourism growth.

Some regions and destinations are more advanced and mature than others and this generally reflects the benefits gained. However, others are not capitalising on their tourism assets and potential.

The restructuring of local government in Victoria in the mid-1990s, led to further development of regional tourism through increased recognition and resourcing. In many cases local government determined that the lack of professionalism and strength of some local and regional tourism associations required greater accountability and direct control in order to ensure the effective application of and accountability for increased resources. This resulted in a shift in traditional tourism structures from industry led to local government controlled, through the emergence of local government advisory boards, committees of council and restructured associations.

The Tourism Victoria Strategic Business Plan 1997-2001 built on the achievements of the previous plan. With a focus on partnerships, the plan refined the product region structure and led to additional industry development initiatives to support and facilitate regional tourism. These initiatives included:

• Preparation of regional tourism development plans for each product region;
  
• Visitor information centre development program;
  
• Regional tourism signing program;
  
• Local government support enhancement program;
  
• A focus on professionalism and standards through accreditation and training;
  
• Investment and infrastructure development facilitation;
  
• Market segment planning and tactical marketing programs such as Touring Victoria, Melbourne Plus and Great Escapes;
  
• Exposure for regional Victoria through lifestyle programs such as Postcards;
  
• Victorian Tourism Online; and
  
• Regional tourism research program.

During this period the administration of the Regional Cooperative Marketing Program and facilitation of industry development initiatives were outsourced by Tourism Victoria to the Country Victoria Tourism Council.

Strategic Plan 2002 - 2006

The Strategic Plan 2002-2006 aims to move regional tourism to a new level of performance and maturity. Major shifts in approach include:

• An increased promotional emphasis on regional tourism including more significant interstate and intrastate marketing of regional Victoria;
  
• A shift from marketing product regions to marketing the primary motivators for travel i.e. destinations and attractions, desired experiences, special interest themes, products and touring routes within a regional framework;
  
• Further development of partnerships incorporating strategic business, industry and community alliances;
  
• A broadening of objectives to maximise economic, social, environmental and cultural outcomes;
  
• An emphasis on strategies to disperse visitors geographically and seasonally from the Melbourne gateway;
  
• A focus on developing and marketing of touring;
  
• Improved strategic marketing planning through the requirement for three-year marketing plans from regional campaign committees and development of the Regional Partnership Program;
  
• A focus on visitor satisfaction with product and service delivery as a competitive advantage for Victoria;
  
• A strategic emphasis on infrastructure and product development for regional Victoria; and
  
• Evolution of industry structures with a view to building stronger local and regional tourism associations and greater industry self-sufficiency.

Successful approaches which continue from past strategic plans include:

• A focus on increasing yield (visitation x length of stay x expenditure) not mass visitation growth;
  
• The use of research to guide marketing decisions;
  
• The retention of campaign committees as the organising framework for regional cooperative marketing;
  
• Partnerships and cooperative marketing;
  
• Review and implementation of regional tourism development plans;
  
• The development of professionalism and standards in regional Victoria through accreditation, training, business counselling and performance review;
  
• Infrastructure and investment facilitation;
  
• Event development and marketing; and
  
• Special interest segment planning, development and marketing.

Visitation to Regional Victoria

Regional Victoria accounts for a significant proportion of domestic tourism to and within Victoria.

For example:

• Of the 54 million nights spent away from home within Victoria by Australians, 66% or 36 million were spent in regional areas.
  
• The average length of stay in Victoria's regions ranged from 2.2 to 3.2 nights;
  
• Of the 42 million day visits in Victoria, 67% or more than 28 million were to regional areas.
  
• Overnight visitors to/within Victoria spent $6,154 million of which 42% or $2,615 million was spent in regional Victoria.

The majority of visitors to regional Victoria are from within the state, predominantly from Melbourne.

Domestic and international visitors to regional Victoria

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Source: International Visitor Survey, Bureau of Tourism Research, June 2000
National Visitor Survey, Bureau of Tourism Research, March 2001

Visitation by region is reflected in the table below.

Travel to Victoria's regions

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Source: 2001 National Visitor Survey, Bureau of Tourism Research, 2000 International Visitor Survey, Bureau of Tourism Research. Produced by Tourism Victoria

*Due to unavailability of data, international travel data is for the year ending June 2000.

Success Factors for Regional Tourism

There are eight factors that are pivotal to the success of regional tourism. They are:

• Strong private sector driven regional tourism organisations, focused on their core role of destination marketing, working cooperatively with local tourism associations and providing an umbrella marketing and representation role;
  
• Strong local tourism associations focused on their core role of visitor servicing;
  
• Support of local government for visitor servicing, destination and infrastructure development and cooperative marketing;
  
• Strategic planning for integrated and consistent marketing and holistic tourism development that is owned and implemented by all stakeholders;
  
• Cooperative marketing which maximises the effectiveness of industry, local government and state government contributions;
  
• Leadership by strong and visionary organisations and individuals;
  
• Quality visitor services that create satisfied visitors and lead to word of mouth promotion; and
  
• A breadth and depth of quality tourism product and infrastructure that meets the demands of target markets and reflects tourism trends and best practice development and operation.

To be successful in the long term, regional tourism also has to ensure there is community support for tourism development and promotion, ongoing investment in visitor facilities and infrastructure and that the natural, cultural and community assets on which the industry is based are protected into the future.

Tourism helps to build social capital by raising awareness of community resources and expertise and producing social links between previously unrelated groups. Increased community awareness, cohesion and pride can also result from a region taking stock of its tourism assets and distinctive characteristics. Visitors' appreciation and admiration can further stimulate community celebration, foster community spirit and contribute to social cohesion.

Regional Strategy Framework

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Regional Planning and Sustainable Destination Development

To optimise economic, social and environmental benefits, tourism planning cannot and should not occur in isolation from other regional development initiatives or planning activities.

Planning and sustainable destination development is particularly relevant to regional Victoria due to:

• Proliferation of natural and heritage assets; and
  
• The transparency of tourism and its effects on the local community e.g. seasonal visitation effects on local infrastructure, services and quality of life.

Vital, cohesive communities with quality services and infrastructure, a strong sense of place, community spirit and enviable quality of life, also make attractive tourism destinations. Therefore destination development must also focus on:

• Generation and retention of wealth that will facilitate the development of appropriate services, infrastructure and employment that benefits both the local community and visitors.
  
• Improvement in lifestyle such as preserving environmental values and heritage structures, (particularly those that contribute to community identity);
  
• Sustainability i.e. ensuring the human, natural and built resources on which industry and the community depend are maintained into the future; and
  
• Monitoring and evaluation to ensure infrastructure, products and services are fresh, competitive and responsive to changing market demand.

The Great Ocean Road Strategy is a holistic 20-year strategic plan for the Great Ocean Road corridor to guide economic, community and environment planning. The project is in progress and being managed by the Department of Infrastructure. It is an example of integrated community and cross industry planning, the methodology for which could be applied to other regions and destinations.

Marketing

For regional Victoria, marketing refers to a variety of promotional activities such as advertising, trade and consumer shows, cooperative promotional and sales campaigns, direct marketing, internet, personal selling, public relations, media releases, familiarisations, sponsorship as well as distribution. It includes product to market and product to trade strategies nationally and internationally.

Regional product strengths

This table provides an analysis of market needs and avaliable supply indicating the product satrengths for regional Victoria as a whole in relation to domestic and international markets.

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Product Strengths for each of Victoria's campaign regions

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Domestic Market Segments for Regional Victoria

Tourism Victoria has identified Socially Aware, Visible Achievement, Traditional Family Life and Young Optimism as the target segments for regional Victoria. Marketing campaigns have focused on high yield couples and singles with the greatest propensity to travel and those with the attitudes most consistent with the product and stylish positioning of Melbourne.

Families have also been identified as an important market for several of Victoria's regions. Families can be considered as a lifecycle sub-segment within the Roy Morgan value segments. Although the lifecycle sub-segments remain within the overall mindset of the value segment, their needs, behaviour and attitudes alter depending on their life stage. For example nature experiences are core activities for the Socially Aware segment, but young parents are more likely to visit theme parks and have a beach holiday than other lifecycles in that segment. They also have different service and facility needs.

While Conventional Family Life (CFL) is a low yield market with a lower propensity to take holidays, the segment has been identified as a target market for certain regions. Families, including CFL, provide cash flow and are often the best match to the current regional product offering.

The regional tourism development plans completed in 1997 and subsequent campaign committee marketing plans have identified the market segments most likely to be attracted to the product strengths of each region. These are included in Appendix C.

National Marketing of Regional Victoria

The national marketing strategy for regional Victoria involves:

• Image marketing - You'll love every piece of Victoria Jigsaw campaign;
  
• The Regional Cooperative Marketing Program;
  
• Regional Partnership Program;
  
• Product segment, destination and event campaigns;
  
• Tactical promotional activities;
  
• visitvictoria.com;
  
• Product to trade activities.

The Jigsaw campaign is expanded upon in the National Marketing section of this plan (Chapter 4). As reflected in that strategy, the Jigsaw campaign will place a heavy emphasis on regional Victoria over the next few years.
Strategies related to tactical marketing, visitvictoria.com and trade activities can be found in the Product Development (Chapter 5) and Distribution (Chapter 4) sections of this plan.

Top of mind Holiday Destinations - Interstate verses Intrastate
Research indicates a low level of awareness of Victorian destinations outside Melbourne. In the interstate market, only Ballarat and the Great Ocean Road have a top of mind awareness greater than 10%. In the intrastate market the best known destinations are Great Ocean Road, Lakes Entrance, Phillip Island, Ballarat and Echuca/Moama.

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Base 2001:1,014
Roy Morgan Research (2001) Regional Awareness and Perceptions Study 2001

Regional Destinations and Villages Hierarchy

Background

The migration of marketing programs from a focus on product regions to the primary motivators for travel, reflects the consumer appeal of destinations, attractions, touring routes, special interest themes and products, and unique experiences.

In most cases, the geographical region does not hold the appeal, but the individual destinations or attractions that it offers. While there are 'regional' exceptions such as the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians, it is more specific destinations, events or activities that are key motivators for visitors. Recognising this appeal, the plan uses key destinations and attractions as a platform for the integrated marketing of regional Victoria.

In moving to market specific destinations and villages a set of criteria has been applied. Destinations and villages may move into different categories over time by strategic development or through the impact of market forces. Acting as an indicative guide, this hierarchy does not preclude other destinations and villages being added through campaign region marketing plans. The success factors for regional tourism outlined earlier in this section of the plan also provide a useful assessment and action guide.

Destinations

Level 1
Destinations that currently or potentially attract a strong mix of international, interstate and intrastate visitors, and particularly demonstrate international and national appeal matched to Victoria's key product strengths. Proximity to Melbourne is also an important factor. These destinations have the capacity to:

• Attract significant visitor numbers;
  
• Provide a range of accommodation, attractions and services to maximise visitor yield (length of stay and expenditure);
  
• Contribute to visitor dispersal (geographically and seasonally); and
  
• Provide high visitor satisfaction.

Level 2
Destinations that currently attract strong interstate and intrastate visitation and demonstrate national and/or international appeal potential.

Level 3
Destinations that attract significant intrastate visitation and demonstrate potential interstate appeal, or are important touring and accommodation hubs.

Villages

Type A
Villages and towns with unique character, visitation, yield and dispersal capability and/or product strength alignment.

Type B
Villages that have unique character but lack capacity (accommodation, attractions and services) and require careful management and development.

Touring
Touring routes with international, national and intrastate visitation and appeal.
Links to key destinations and villages are also important to maximise yield dispersal and visitor satisfaction.

Special Interest - Product Strengths
Destinations that offer significant characteristics and appeal for the special interest market, consistent with Victoria's primary product strengths:

• Food and wine;
  
• Natural attractions;
  
• Arts and cultural heritage;
  
• Events; and
  
• Ski.

Special interest destinations and villages are also rated Level 1, 2 and 3, or Type A or B, as a guide to the breadth and depth of product, capacity and potential.

Note: As indicated above these classifications are intended to reflect State and regional marketing planning and destination development, over the life of this plan. Other destinations and villages may be added as and when they meet the comprehensive criteria guidelines and regional tourism success factors to ensure sustainability.

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The Regional Cooperative Marketing Program (RCMP)

The RCMP was initiated by Tourism Victoria in order to facilitate more effective, strategic and integrated marketing of regional Victoria, in partnership with industry.

The RCMP complements Tourism Victoria's national and international marketing programs, by supporting the development of high quality, consumer driven campaigns. It also facilitates industry participation, cooperation and cohesion and assists in increasing industry professionalism and standards.

Since its inception, the RCMP has been delivered through 13 product regions defined on the basis of product strengths within a broad geographic area. The names and structures of these regions have been modified slightly over time, but they continue to be the organising framework for the coordinated marketing of regional Victoria.

There is poor awareness of the names of Victoria's campaign regions. The campaign region names most frequently recalled by respondents are those that relate to a destination of the same name, as illustrated by the Brand Name Awareness graph below.

Brand Name Awareness

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Base 2001:1,014
Roy Margin Research (2001) Regional Awareness and Perceptions Study.

To reflect the changing emphasis from marketing regions to marketing destinations and motivators, and also to reduce confusion with regional tourism associations and product segments, product regions will be known as campaign regions and the product region campaign committees will become campaign committees. The campaign committees will have a greater focus on strategic marketing planning and the coordination of destination marketing.

A major review of the RCMP during 2001 indicated that regions have successfully identified markets and developed programs that are specifically targeted to those markets. The 13 motivational brochures produced by campaign committees under the RCMP contributed to high consumer awareness of the Jigsaw brand in intrastate and interstate markets. There was strong industry ownership of the program manifesting in significant financial contributions from industry. The RCMP gave operators experience in producing and delivering high quality collateral in the market place.

As a result of this review major changes were introduced to the program in
2001 - 02. These include:

• All regions will no longer be treated as equal but will receive support based on market and campaign readiness;
  
• A requirement for strategic three-year marketing plans and one-year action plans as prerequisites to funding. The plans must be well researched, consultatively prepared and regularly reviewed;
  
• Increased emphasis on destination and product marketing rather than branding of regions;
  
• An increased emphasis on tactical regional or sub-regional marketing activity to support Jigsaw collateral;
  
• Support for Jigsaw branded regional visitor guides and maps and images to support motivational and product brochures;
  
• Greater focus on outcomes, governance requirements, monitoring and reporting;
  
• Restructuring of the funding; and
  
• The reduction of requirements for specific matched funding.

The changes are designed to:

• Focus more on outcomes;
  
• Encourage three-year planning and the more effective use of available resources;
  
• Encourage the marketing of destinations and products to better meet market needs;
  
• Support regions in their efforts to conduct effective campaigns in primary markets such as Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney; and
  
• Improve accountability.

Regional Partnership Program (RPP)

The RPP has been introduced as a new dimension of the RCMP to provide greater marketing support for regional Victoria. Under the partnership concept, campaign committees will be given the opportunity to coordinate their own marketing activities with those of Tourism Victoria to achieve greater impact in the market and economies of scale.

Campaign committees will be presented with a menu of relevant Tourism Victoria activities and opportunities for leveraging or participation.

Where an opportunity relates to a domestic campaign, campaign committees, regional tourism associations and business operators will be eligible to apply, provided the campaign committee has endorsed the application and it is reflected in the three-year marketing plan. Participation in international campaigns and national trade campaigns will be through invitation from Tourism Victoria to the more mature regions, destinations and products that are ready for wholesaling and export.

International marketing of regional Victoria

An integral element of this strategy is highlighting the accessibility and diversity of Victoria's regional product in all communications with the international trade and consumer. The aim is to increase the visitation, length of stay, regional dispersal, yield and market share from all international source markets.

Regional dispersal is vital as it impacts dramatically on the ability of the Victorian tourism industry to grow the length of stay of international visitors within the State and impacts on overall yield.

Consumer research will be reviewed and additional research undertaken to highlight key regional tourism assets of interest to Victoria's international markets. As a result, cooperative marketing activities will be undertaken with key partners to maximise results for regional Victoria, with a particular emphasis on growing day visits into overnight stays in the regions. This will ensure the substantial economic benefits of tourism are shared throughout the State.

The importance of Melbourne as a gateway to regional Victoria will continue with future marketing, while further exposure of regional Victoria will be achieved through an increasing emphasis on familiarisations.

Percentage of international visitor nights from each market spent in regional Victoria

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Source: IVS, 1999

Product and Infrastructure Development

The success of regional Victoria as a tourist destination, now and into the future, is largely dependent on the quality, diversity, maturity, commercial capacity and sustainability of its product range and infrastructure. Victoria's product and infrastructure needs are examined in the Product Development (Chapter 5) and Investment Attraction (Chapter 7) sections of this plan.

Visitor Services and Information Provision

Visitor services and information provision will be a cornerstone of this plan's marketing strategies. More information is provided in the Professionalism and Standards (Chapter 6) and Distribution (Chapter 4) sections of this plan.

Professionalism and Standards

Visitor experience as a competitive edge is a major thrust of the industry's strategic direction. A key element of this will be industry professionalism and standards, which is outlined in the Professionalism and Standards section of this plan (Chapter 6).

Industry Structures, Co-ordination and Leadership

Regional structures

Strong, cohesive and supported regional tourism organisations are pivotal to the long term sustainable growth of the industry. A template of the roles and functions of the various players in regional tourism follows.

Roles and functions of the various players in regional tourism may be distinguished as follows:

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Strategic Alliances

To realise their potential, regional tourism associations, campaign committees and tourism businesses need to develop strategic business alliances for:

• cross regional marketing between destinations, regions and businesses;
  
• cooperative marketing services provision;
  
• professional development; and
  
• business services.

Cooperative regional marketing agreements should be developed to support cross regional initiatives or specific products such as the Great Southern Touring Route and Great Alpine Road. In some cases these agreements may facilitate the establishment of separate tourism product focused organisations which will raise additional cooperative marketing funds to implement cooperative marketing programs at a national and international level.

Operators have the opportunity to develop strategic alliances with a view to increasing marketing effectiveness, facilitating packaging and distribution and reducing administration and other business costs.

There are also opportunities for strategic alliances with other industries to develop agricultural tourism such as wineries and farmstays or industrial tourism. There should also be a focus on strategic community alliances to enhance the social benefits of tourism activity and create more authentic and vibrant destinations.

Leadership

Country Victoria Tourism Council (CVTC)
CVTC is the peak organisation representing local and regional tourism associations throughout country Victoria. The organisation's aim is to provide leadership, representation, marketing services and communication links to government, the media and tourism policy makers at a local, state and federal level. CVTC has been instrumental in obtaining increased local government support for tourism, developing a planning model for the regional tourism development plans, establishing the Victorian Visitor Information Centre program and participating in the upgrade of tourism road signing.

Role of Local Government
In recent years, increased support from local government for regional tourism has in some cases resulted in increased control, driven from a need to improve coordination and strategic planning and to improve accountability for local government contributions.

With increasing professionalism of the industry, and the emphasis on enhancing industry involvement, local government is able to refocus on initiating, facilitating and supporting the development of tourism rather than controlling it.

Key local government roles relate to destination development, economic development, industry development, visitor services and monitoring of local and regional tourism organisations.

Tourism should be integrated within the Municipal Strategic Statement, Municipal Planning Scheme, Land Use Strategy Plan and regional economic development strategy in line with the State Planning Policy Framework, with a view to:

• Addressing planning issues relevant to tourism development;
  
• Providing greater flexibility in planning schemes for ancillary tourism uses;
  
• Identifying infrastructure and destination development issues that also impact on tourism;
  
• Seeking investment in the industry and the region;
  
• Integrating with other council strategies;
  
• Supporting the goals and strategic directions of regional and local tourism associations; and
  
• Providing quality visitor services.

In most regional municipalities, local government provides funding for information centres, tourism officers, facilities and administration, but is constantly seeking ways to decrease costs and provide best value. Local and regional tourism associations depend on membership contributions and the support of local government to raise funds for destination marketing, product development and visitor services.

ISSUES

The following are some of the major issues confronting regional tourism:

• Low awareness, visitation and yield;
  
• Lack of integrated, holistic and sustainable destination development and poor integration of tourism into regional development initiatives;
  
• Lack of community awareness of tourism;
  
• Lack of product development for international markets;
  
• Product supply gaps in accommodation, services, attractions and restaurants;
  
• Variable delivery of quality products and services;
  
• Variable levels of support from local government;
  
• Currency of regional tourism development plans;
  
• Variable strength of industry leadership and appropriate structures; and
  
• Predominance of small business limits the ability to maximise cooperative marketing.

In terms of Victoria's position relative to other states:

• New South Wales is the state with the highest number of total regional visitor nights followed by Queensland and then Victoria. However Victoria ranks fifth in terms of the percentage of visitor nights to the state spent in regional areas.
  
• Victoria has the second highest number of day visits to regional areas of all the Australian states and territories behind New South Wales. However in Tasmania, Queensland and New South Wales a greater percentage of day visits are to regional areas in those states.

There is higher visitation to regional Victoria during January and April than at other times of the year. However, this varies between regions with strong seasonal products such as winter in the alpine areas, resulting in local variations.

While domestic intrastate tourism remains the major source of visitors to regional Victoria, international visitation is increasing.

STRATEGIES

• Progressively shift from marketing product regions to marketing the primary motivators for travel, i.e. desired experiences, destinations and attractions.
  
• Build consumer awareness and positive attitudes to regional Victoria as part of the You'll love every piece of Victoria imaging campaign.
  
• Identify a Villages of Victoria program, integrated into regional marketing plans, to promote quality destinations with a strong sense of place, offering boutique accommodation, restaurants, shopping, galleries, markets and appropriate quality service.
  
• Progressively review and update the regional tourism development plans completed in 1997, with a focus on implementation.
  
• Identify priority destinations and facilitate development of integrated destination development plans.
  
• Review Tourism Victoria advisory publications Planning Tourism: Planning Guidelines (1996) and Planning and Building Tourism from Concept to Reality (2000) to reflect sustainability principles and holistic destination planning.
  
• Retain regional campaign committees in each region.
  
• Maintain product regions (renamed campaign regions) to develop three-year marketing plans and implement the Regional Cooperative Marketing Program, to maximise strategic cooperative marketing focused on regional product strengths.
  
• Increase opportunities for regions and operators to leverage from Tourism Victoria activities through the Regional Partnership Program.
  
• Develop cross-border touring routes with New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania.
  
• Encourage tourism business operators to identify product gaps and develop products to capitalise on international market opportunities.
  
• Support tourism planning integration with regional economic and community development strategic planning e.g. Great Ocean Road Strategy.
  
• Encourage local government to embrace and support the development of tourism.
  
• Facilitate efficient, effective and industry-led regional tourism associations as umbrella destination marketing organisations and local tourism associations focused on visitor services.