Business Resources

What tourism research exists to help me identify my customers and where can I find it?

And what are some of the strategies in place for tourism development in Tasmania?

A fundamental part of all business planning is research. Research helps you develop effective business strategies and identify opportunities and potential customers. Knowledge of your customers can play a vital role in effective positioning and the ultimate success of your product in the marketplace. Various tourism research resources and current tourism strategies are listed below along with contact details.

Tourism Research

Tourism Tasmania’s Research Unit

Tourism Tasmania maintains an active research unit. The unit conducts a range of regular research projects aimed at better understanding consumers behaviour whist in the State as well as how to influence potential new consumers.

The most significant ongoing research is the Tasmanian Visitor Survey (TVS). The TVS is designed to provide a profile of the characteristics, travel behaviour, and expenditure of international and domestic visitors to Tasmania.

The TVS is acknowledged as the most reliable source of statistical data about visitors to Tasmania; being based on a sample of more than 9000 visitors to Tasmania per year.

The TVS also collects a wider variety of data about visitors to Tasmania than other visitor surveys; being an island state means that visitors can be accurately counted as they depart via Tasmania’s air and sea ports. This is a natural advantage for data collection, and makes the TVS methodology very robust.

The data collected in the TVS is provided to the Tasmanian tourism industry and to government agencies to facilitate and promote the development of the industry.

Tourism Tasmania’s Online Data Tool - WebReporter

WebReporter allows you to fully examine the data available from Tourism Tasmania’s latest surveys. On-line results are formatted in easy to read tables with trend indicators from previous years. You can also download sections of the data in Excel format for local manipulation, comparison and charting. All the data on the site is free, however for additional analysis you will be charged a small fee.

Tourism Research Australia

Tourism Research Australia is a business unit of Tourism Australia. It provides independent, timely and strategic statistics and analysis to the tourism industry, government and the community to help enhance the value of tourism in the Australian economy. Tourism Research Australia conducts two major visitor surveys, the National Visitor Survey and the International Visitor Survey. Both surveys are useful for examining market share trends, behaviour in other States/Territories and intrastate travel within Tasmania.

Tourism Forecasting Council

The Tourism Forecasting Council (TFC) is an independent body that provides the tourism industry with forecasts of activity across international, domestic, and outbound tourism sectors. The council releases and updates its forecasts twice a year, in April and October.

Australian Bureau of Statistics

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is Australia's official statistical organisation. It assists and encourages informed decision-making, research and discussion within governments and the community by providing a national statistical service. The bureau has two main tourism data collections: Survey of Tourist Accommodation, which is a survey of accommodation operators; and Overseas Arrivals and Departures.

Cooperative Research Centres Program

The Cooperative Research Centres Programme (CRC) is a major research and development initiative of the Australian Government. The program aims to bring the highest quality research providers and industry operators together to focus on outcomes for businesses and communities.

The Sustainable Tourism CRC (STCRC) was established to underpin the development of a dynamic, internationally competitive, and sustainable tourism industry. The STCRC is a not-for-profit company owned by its industry, government and university partners.

Tasmanian State Government Resources

Department of Economic Development

The Department produces a guide outlining the benefits of market research.

World Tourism Organization

The World Tourism Organization – a specialised agency of the United Nations – is the leading international organisation in the field of tourism. It is a global forum for tourism policy issues and a practical source of tourism know-how.

It also provides the world's most comprehensive tourism statistics. The tourism data is collected from 190 countries around the world.

Strategies

New Directions - Tourism Tasmania

New Directions is Tourism Tasmania’s blueprint for the next three years, and provides Tourism Tasmania with its agenda for change.

This important new vision and strategic direction for Tourism Tasmania was shared with the tourism industry in late November 2006 and pledges the commitment to being a more focused, more strategic and more innovative organisation. It demonstrates how Tourism Tasmania will work with industry to jointly deliver marketing and development programs to drive benefits for Tasmania from domestic and international tourism.

Tourism 21 - Tourism Tasmania

The Tourism 21 strategic plan provides the framework for the industry and the State Governments focus on building a resilient and sustainable tourism industry.

Tasmanian Experience Strategy - Tourism Tasmania

The Tasmanian Experience Strategy emphasises the need to integrate Tasmania's three core visitor appeals to create extraordinary and unforgettable holiday experiences by focusing on presentation, interpretation and customer engagement. Connection with place, quality infrastructure and personalised service is vital to the success of any holiday, but it is interpretation and engagement that make the difference between a pleasant break and an unforgettable experience.

Thematic Interpretation and Thematic Interpretation Planning Manual - Tourism Tasmania

Interpretation is fundamental to the visitor experience in Tasmania and is seen as integral to the tourism brand. Tasmanian industry members are encouraged to look at how they can benefit from using interpretation techniques to enhance the delivery of the visitor experience.

Before you get into strategic planning for thematic interpretation, you might want to consider why you would invest time, energy and other valuable resources into a planning process that delivers thematic communication.

Other Useful Resources

Quality Tourism

“Quality Tourism” is a website providing a huge range of information to new and existing tourism operators. The site also contains practical business case studies and information on the tourism accreditation program. Quality Tourism has a key section titled “Getting Informed”, the link below to take you to this valuable resource.

How can I stay in touch with the latest tourism news and events?

Tourism Talk

Tourism Talk is Tourism Tasmania’s fortnightly newsletter. It contains all the latest issues related to tourism in Tasmania. Tourism Talk is distributed free online via an automated email. To join the mailing list you need to subscribe on the Tourism Tasmania corporate web site.

Natural State News

Natural State News is a free regular update on the latest news and events in Tasmanian tourism. Tourism Tasmania welcomes new subscribers to Natural State News and encourages the use of its content in editorials.