June 28th 2011

Page 1

Southern Peninsula

Features inside: FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT PAGES 25 – 28 SOUTHERN PENINSULA SCOREBOARD PAGES 29 – 30

WHAT’S ON PAGE 31

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Natural rewards: While there is now no charge for anyone visiting beaches within Mornington Peninsula National Park, friends and relatives of peninsula residents may soon be paying over the odds charged to residents.

Tourists pay up for locals By Keith Platt RESIDENTS of the Mornington Peninsula may soon be paying less for some tourist attractions than visitors. The two-tier payment system will underpin a campaign by Mornington Peninsula Tourism to increase money spent by friends and relatives when visiting residents. A less organised system operates in Indonesia where there is one price for overseas visitors, another for out of towners and a third for locals. Under the peninsula model, residents will be issued a rewards card that is only effective if they are accompanied by a “paying visitor”. However, this could be an problem with cafes and restaurants that will not allow customers to split the bill.

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The tourism group says visiting friends and relatives is the main reason people come to the peninsula, “surpassing holidays, leisure or business as the main purpose”. More than a third of all travel to the peninsula that includes an overnight stay involves friends and relatives. When put in money terms, friends and relatives spend an average $288 a day during their visit, $48 a day more than other visitors, according to the tourism group. “If you add the additional money that a host would spend above their normal daily activity this makes a VFR [visiting friends and relatives] visitor worth a total of $398 a day (on average),” senior tourism officer Kellie Barrett stated in a letter seeking backing for

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the campaign. The statistics come from research carried out by Destination Melbourne, 27 municipalities and Ballarat University. Ms Barrett said that in 2009, the peninsula “welcomed” 4.4 million visitors; 3.3 million daytrippers; and 1.1 million overnighters – the secondhighest rate of overnight visits of all country Victorian regions. “Of all overnight visitors to the peninsula 45 per cent stayed with their friends or relatives and the most popular activity was to eat out at restaurants (56 per cent),” Ms Barrett stated. “It has been identified that the critical success factor with visiting friends and relatives is the mindset and behaviour of the host – if we can educate locals to act as effective hosts, we can influence

visitor behaviour to encourage them to spend more and stay longer by experiencing more things to see and do.” Ms Barrett said that while 20 per cent of visiting friends and relatives stayed in paid accommodation, it was residents – their host – who chose where they went to spend their money. “If locals can be educated to act as effective hosts, and if they can achieve high levels of knowledge and appreciation of the attractions available locally, their visiting friends and relatives may stay longer and spend more in our community.” Ms Barrett said these resident hosts would be offered rewards as an incentive to choose particular tourism attractions. “The tourism industry will provide a range of special offers and incentives

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only for local residents so that they are encouraged to get out and show their visiting friends and relatives all of the wonderful attractions of the peninsula. “Industry partners will include an offer in the program that the local resident can only redeem if they have a paying visitor with them. “These offers may be free entry, special meal deals (two for one), a percentage discount on purchases or even a bottle of wine when the guest buys their own.” Under the Peninsula Tourism scheme, registered residents will be issued a 12-month rewards card and a brochure listing “participating deals”. They will also be sent a quarterly eNewsletter with updates, news and stories about local attractions.

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