The Australian tourism industry has been disrupted throughout 2020 by one calamity after another - from devastating bushfires, a global health pandemic, widespread job losses, and international trade tensions.
When problems such as these feel just too big and overwhelming, understandably our eyes and hearts shift focus to more achievable actions that support local communities.
Without question, businesses in the tourism industry have been one of the hardest hit this year in terms of loss of employment and economic revenue. And it is not just hotels and tour operators who are suffering. All sectors that support the visitor economy - food services, arts, transport, retail and recreation - have incurred unprecedented losses and are facing many years on their road to recovery.
The NSW Government is calling on residents to be a COVID-safe tourist in their own backyard and to support local businesses in the visitor economy businesses by booking tours and visiting attractions.
This call to action is echoed at a national level by Tourism Australia, the federal government Destination Marketing Organisation, who has launched the Holiday Here This Year campaign featuring Hamish Blake and Zoe Foster-Blake.
Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison urges Australians to "see the nation like international travellers do" and to participate in experiences while they are on holiday - to take a surfing lesson or a guided walk in our national parks, for example. When you consider that last year NSW residents took almost 2 million international leisure trips worth $16.7 billion - just imagine what that level of expenditure could do for our local economy if we holiday at home this year.
To encourage local people taking local holidays, Tourism Accommodation Australia is asking the federal government to invest in a travel voucher giveaway. This type of incentive-based program aimed at domestic and localised tourism is similar to successful campaigns, such as the Northern Territory Tourism Voucher and Tasmania's Make Yourself at Home travel voucher.
We absolutely agree that a holiday at home aimed at support economic recovery for the local visitor economy is essential. Our Hometown Holiday program - funded by the City of Newcastle COVID-19 Industry Response Scheme - will encourage Newcastle residents to have a holiday in the city by giving away 100 x $500 travel vouchers for locals to enjoy a Hometown Holiday.
When it comes to leisure visitors we have often kept the best of Newcastle to ourselves.
The Hometown Holiday campaign has evolved through close collaboration between the University of Newcastle and the City of Newcastle. This campaign will raise awareness of our city as a tourism destination and for Newcastle residents to engage with the amazing array of tourism businesses we have on our doorstep. In total, the Hometown Holiday campaign, which launches this week, will provide a return of more than $150,000 into the local visitor economy.
This campaign will do far more than just promote travel within our hometown. Resident engagement with the city as a tourism destination will also contribute many longer-term impacts that promise to shape the future of the local tourism industry. For example, five experience itineraries have been developed for Hometown Holiday makers. These curated experiences feature some of Newcastle's emerging and well-established tourism products. The more our residents identify with and celebrate these itineraries and businesses, the stronger our identity becomes as a must-see destination.
Crucial to the success of initiatives such as Hometown Holidays is coordination and collaboration between local visitor economy businesses. In the same way it takes a village to raise a family, it takes everyone working together to develop our tourism industry. Local associations, including the Newcastle Tourism Industry Group, the Makers and Traders Association, and the Australian Hoteliers Association, have been instrumental in ensuring that all Newcastle tourism businesses were invited to participate in the campaign.
Newcastle is well-known as a business tourism destination, but when it comes to leisure visitors we have often kept the best of Newcastle to ourselves and been reluctant to share just how good we have it.
Now is the time to support local business from the café to the coffee shop, the bakery to bistro. More than that, we need to act as ambassadors for Newcastle as a tourism destination by inviting our family and friends to visit and explore and experience venues we talk about, but often never actually share.
Now is the time to get out and about, enjoy what Newcastle has to offer. Have a holiday in your hometown.
