Tourism News

Central Coast Tourism joins forces to strengthen Pacific Coast Touring Route
Central Coast Tourism is now a member of a new association formed to manage and develop one of Australia’s most popular touring experiences, the Pacific Coast Touring Route.

CCT has joined forces with the Mid North Coast, Hunter and Northern Rivers Regional Tourism Organisations to form a new group called PCTR Inc. It was decided that this model was the best to allow the group to more effectively enter into commercial partnerships, seek funding and target both the domestic and international marketplace while promoting the PCTR.

Horst Endrulat, CEO of CCT, who is Vice Chairman of this new organisation said, “Central Coast Tourism is a major stakeholder in this touring route and we are delighted to be part of this progressive group. CCT wants to support and provide valuable input into this exciting project. PCTR Inc has already picked up a lot of momentum, as we have been meeting on a monthly basis to get things started. We are now working on a funding application which, if successful, will allow the group to revamp and renew this valuable tourism product.”

Previously Tourism NSW administered the route, but will now continue to work with PCTR Inc in an advisory role to help develop and market the route. Upcoming combined work will include consumer marketing such as a feature in Make Tracks magazine and promotion of the Pacific Coast Touring Route to key international markets at the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE 08) in Perth in June.

Telemarketing campaign to attract conferences
An extensive telemarketing campaign has been conducted by CCT targeting the conference market to attract business to the Central Coast. “We are contacting over 3000 potential clients from our database to secure future conference business for our participating members” Sarah Bennett, Sales & Marketing Manager of CCT said. Last year’s campaign had a response rate of over 60% and delivered conference business in the vicinity of $250,000.

Central Coast Visitor Centre visitation up
The first three months of operating the new CCT Visitor Information Centre located at Mt. Penang Parklands has shown an increase of 60% in comparison to the previous location in Terrigal. “We are not only far above the Terrigal numbers but more importantly is the quality of our customers which has increased dramatically” said Jacqui Greaves, Sales and Information Manager of the Centre. “Here we are now getting visitors who really request quality information about the Central Coast as well as other regions, whilst in the other Centres we also have many people who are ‘just wanting to have a look around’.” she added.

visitcentralcoast.com.au going strong
Central Coast Tourism’s website www.visitcentralcoast.com.au has received its highest ever number of unique visits in January 2008, with almost 28,000 users checking out the official website for visitors to the region.

Over 108,000 pages were viewed in the last month, and the figures show a 34% increase from the same period last year. In its first year of operation the website has grown from strength to strength with a monthly average of 25,000 visits.

The website keeps locals, visitors and media up to date with the latest news on the coast with an extensive events section, special accommodation offers, online accommodation and tours bookings, surf reports and web cam and a themed things to do section.
“The most popular pages visited are the what’s on, online accommodation bookings, latest news, cuisine and entertainment and special offers sections, which gives a good indication of what visitors are looking for during their stay, or as a trigger to their decision to visit” commented Sarah Bennett, Sales & Marketing Manager of Central Coast Tourism.

The website also provides detailed information promoting the national parks, beaches, local history and a cycling guide.
Ms Bennett continued, “We are also able to track the country of origin of visitors to this website, and after the domestic figures, which makes up about 80% of the visits, it is very interesting to see countries such as China, Singapore, UK, NZ, Germany and Japan feature on the top 10 list.”

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