Team Sunshine Coast shines on domestic roadshow blitz!
More than 200 leading travel agents from across the country are better informed to sell the Sunshine Coast following our domestic roadshow blitz. Visit Sunshine Coast (VSC) partnered with Tourism Noosa and 13 local tourism operators to showcase just what sets the Sunshine Coast apart at a series of targeted events across the country last week. Attendees at the events included representatives from companies such as Flight Centre, Helloworld, Goway Travel, Trip.com, Travel Associates, Travel managers, Tourism Australia and a number of independent travel agencies.
Thank you to all the local operators who joined us on the roadshow, including: Creative Tours and Events, Australia Zoo, Aquaduck, Coast to Hinterland Tours, Mary Valley Rattler, Tasty Tours, Narrows Escape, Misty View Cottages, Novotel Sunshine Coast Resort, Beach Road Holidays Home, Noosa International and Go Ride a Wave.
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ANOTHER Weekender Episode!
VSC is making sure the Sunshine Coast continues its domination of the small screen, with another half-hour episode of 7 Weekender going to air this Sunday at 5:30pm! This episode will highlight Mooloolaba, Maroochydore and surrounds, highlighting things to do, where to eat and places to stay. Thank you to all the local operators involved in the episode – we look forward to seeing you shine!
This week VSC hosted journalist Rob McFarland from Vine & Shine in conjunction with Brisbane Marketing for a famil in region exploring our wineries and breweries. In the news, the Sunshine Coast featured in articles in Family Circle and New Idea magazine.
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Winter campaign heating up
VSC is poised to launch a new winter campaign across Australia’s eastern seaboard and into New Zealand inviting travellers to the Sunshine Coast. The campaign will run from June until the end of July in Australia, and June through to September in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, driving visitors to our NEW visitsunshinecoast.com website. The campaign’s dedicated landing page will feature winter trip ideas and deals, with members invited to get involved by submitting their deals for inclusion through your ATDW listing (more details below). The campaign creative will include a television commercial in New Zealand as well as targeted digital content rolled out domestically.
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How to feature your deals on our NEW website!
VSC is excited to be launching a brand-new visitsunshinecoast.com website soon, and all our campaigns in market – including our mega winter campaign - will be redirecting visitors to the new site! In order for your business to be featured on the new website, you MUST have a listing with the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW). Registration for ATDW is currently FREE, and will ensure your business is not only listed on VSC’s new website, but on up to 50 key travel sites including Queensland.com, Australia.com and more. In listing your business with ATDW, you are ensuring visibility for your product when visitors are making important travel decisions.
ATDW also gives you the freedom to update your listing at anytime – making sure your listing remains up-to-date – and promote any current deals or offers you have which will be pushed out through the new visitsunshinecoast.com website. For a step-by-step guide on how to list, or update, your business through ATDW, click here.
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Trans-Tasman trade push
With direct flights from Auckland with Air New Zealand about to commence from 28 June to Sunshine Cost Airport, VSC CEO Matt Stoeckel and Trade Specialist Emily Zinowki travelled to New Zealand to meet with key distribution partners including House of Travel, Flight Centre, Helloworld and Air New Zealand. During the trip the finishing touches were put on campaigns that will launch in the market ahead of the flights. Stay tuned for more information.
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Enticing incentive travel
A three-month campaign to promote why the Sunshine Coast is the perfect host destination for incentive travel programs will commence shortly. The ‘Always On’ campaign will target Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide, to increase awareness of what the Sunshine Coast offers as an incentive travel destination for small to medium sized groups. The optimised campaign will include targeted search ads on LinkedIn and Google, driving planners to the dedicated Sunshine Coast Incentive Travel website and featured operators.
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Thank you to our amazing Volunteers!
Last week was National Volunteer Week, and VSC would like to celebrate and acknowledge the generous contributions of our amazing volunteers! Our dedicated team of vollies continuously broaden their knowledge of the region to better serve our visitors. This week they are heading on a famil with Glasshouse Country Tours through Peachester, exploring the region’s rich history.
Two of our Visitor Information Centre Ambassadors – Rodger Thomson from Glass House and Desrae Woolley from Montville – have been nominated in the 2021 Sunshine Coast Volunteer of the Year Awards in the Sport & Recreation Services Volunteer Category with the winners to be announced this weekend – we wish you both the best of luck!
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Clucking hell! Hens on holiday running fowl
The age-old question of why did the chicken cross the road may have been answered, but there’s a new riddle that has the local tourism industry stumped. Seven hens on an apparent Hinterland holiday have for the last few days been running fowl in the grounds of VSC's Glass House Mountains Visitor & Interpretive Centre. Seemingly all cooped up with nowhere to go it begs the question – why did the hens go on holiday? More to come.
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A jaw-some 70th birthday celebration!
One of our daring VSC Ambassadors – June Blackburn – has celebrated her 70th birthday with a Shark Dive at SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast! After a three-year hiatus SEA LIFE’s exhilarating Shark Dive Xtreme experience is back, inviting thrill-seekers to swim with nine different shark species including three huge grey nurse sharks, reef sharks and wobbegong sharks. Thank you to SEA LIFE for accommodating the experience, and a very happy birthday to you June!
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New heights at Treetops
Australia’s largest high wire park, built specifically for junior adventurers, will open in early June at the TreeTop Challenge on the Sunshine Coast! The new junior course is spread over 1.2 hectares of rainforest and includes five courses featuring rope bridges, flying foxes, swings and jumps. The new attraction was supported by the Queensland Government, with $500,000 in funding from the Growing Tourism Infrastructure Fund.
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Thrill ride at Aussie World
Aussie World has announced that it will open the much-anticipated SX360 thrill ride on Friday 18 June, giving thrill seekers an all-new experience on Australia’s tallest and fastest 360-degree pendulum swing. The heart-pumping pendulum swing will reach speeds of 80km/h while launching 32 metres into the air and completing four inversions up to 5Gs. This is a never-before-seen feature on this style of ride in Australia!
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ExBEERience makes a splash
One specialises in craft beer, the other is an aquatic duck, but two Sunshine Coast operators are proving that sometimes, opposites attract! Sunshine Coast Craft Beer Tours has joined forces with the iconic Aquaduck for a beer and cruise tour of Mooloolaba. The two operators connected at SCouT 2021 – the Sunshine Coast Big Day Out for Tourism Operators. Their first Aquaduck Craft Beer Tour will be held this Sunday, 30 May.
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Tourism news in brief
- It's welcome news for our region's tourism industry that Virgin Australia will increase capacity for the Sunshine Coast, doubling return flights between Sydney and Melbourne by October 2021.
- Entries for the Queensland Tourism Awards 2021 close this Friday, 21 May! Nominate now.
- This winter Wotif is curating the ultimate bucket list of Australian travel experiences worth ticking off before the age of 13. We encourage our local industry to head to www.wotif.com/kidslist to nominate your child’s dream Sunshine Coast travel experiences, entries close 28 May.
- Noosa won Queensland’s Top Tourism Town Award last week at the Queensland Tourism Industry Council’s awards presentation!
- Entries for the 2021 Sunshine Coast Business Awards are open! The Awards cover 16 categories, including Accommodation (Tourism), Experiences (Tourism), Festival & Events (Tourism), Food & Agribusiness, Health & Wellness, Hospitality and Retail. To find out more about the Awards and enter visit sunshinecoastbusinessawards.com.au.
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What's on! Leisure events
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