It's nearly Spring!

This month we have featured one of our locals Renee de Bondt whose fantastic image captured one of the many whale breaches that was witnessed over the last few months in local waters. Check out her collection at Unearthed Designs , on Facebook or say hello to her at Wildlife Coast Cruises.
 
It has been an amazing whale season, viewing the images, videos and updates flowing through on social media and the news has been uplifting during our cool and quieter winter period. Congratulations to our local operators who have supported the story of the migration and utilised partnerships with conservation and research organisations, developed technology to share the sightings and stories with locals and the Melbourne audience. We hope this will be a growing market for the region.

We are pleased to have opened our 2016 Conference bookings and look forward to delivering a vibrant day of presentations and networking. You will have the opportunity to hear from the new CEO for Visit Victoria Peter Bingeman as he leads the newly created organisation and the journey of Peninsula Hot Springs by CEO and owner Charles Davidson. We have put together a variety of speakers and the program is still developing so watch out for updates.

This month we have met with the Red Tape Commisioner Dr Matthew Butlin who has the mega task of trying to reduce red tape for business in Victoria. You can lodge your experiences online with the commissioner via the website.

The Bass Coast Shire Council are to endorse the Phillip Island and San Remo Visitor Economy Strategy at their meeting this week and we look forward to work commencing on this plan.

Pauleen has been working with our accommodation providers to provide leads back to Phillip Island Nature Parks China office with vacancies for the Chinese New Year period in 2017 which will clash with the Australian Open and the Australia Day weekend. Thank you to those who have been providing information, looks like it will be a very busy time on the Island. 

Visit Victoria and Destination Phillip Island hosted a Cruise Ship Workshop with visiting Cruise Ship representatives to present the destination and received positive feedback on the great range of activities on offer. Phillip Island looks set to host more than six ships in the coming 18 months so we will be working to communicate to all our industry on those pending arrivals. 

There will be a Spring Campaign invitation out shortly and we are working on a new campaign for our annual visitor guide for the 2017 year.

If you want to catch up with Pauleen or myself, please give us a call we are very keen to hear from our industry on how they are developing their business or providing new experiences.

yours sincerely


Kim Storey
General Manager