SOUTH Australia is still leading the way in pastoral tourism ventures.
In its fourth year, Station Stays SA-Flinders Ranges and Outback, is going gangbusters. The clustering model for station and farm stays in the north of the State has been highly successful in pushing the Station Stays SA brand.
The focus is now on how to best leverage the Station Stays SA brand with valuable crossborder promotion with similar groups including New South Wales’ Outback Beds, and the newly formed Bush Beds in Western Australia.
Regional Development Australia-Far North SA deputy chief executive officer Paula Osborn is central to the Station Stays SA network, having helped form the group in 2009.
The group has 24 members and as it gains marketing leverage, more are keen to join.
“In this next stage of Station Stays SA, we are looking at how we can best market our brand across our borders,” Paula said.
She said the industry looked toward South Australia as an example of best practice in the
pastoral tourism sector.
Teleconference meetings with stakeholders in SA, WA, NSW, Northern Territory and other industry reps are exploring how existing clusters “work together across regions and borders to create an ongoing relationship that will result in cross-selling, collaborative marketing and packaging opportunities”.
“People are looking to us to see how the clustering model gives businesses more bang for their buck,” Paula said.
She said they meet twice a month to keep “communication open and the momentum going”.
“It is sharing information across borders, across different regions and situations, that really add value to all businesses involved,” she said.
Paula said the next step was to try and link in other farm stay enterprises in regions such as the South East.
“It is not just about selling interstate but selling intrastate as well,” she said.
Station Stays SA wants to push further north into the outer reaches of the Outback, and
include stations in the NT. It also wants to get the technological edge to connect better with customers.
As pastoral tourism ventures get on top of online marketing, the next big move is embracing social networking media such as Facebook and Twitter and making websites smart-phone and tablet friendly.
Tilandco’s Geoff Anson has been working with Station Stays SA in educating operators about new digital apps that are helping tourism operators spread their message to a broader and more mobile digital audience.
He said recent Google research showed 79 per cent of Australian websites were not mobile friendly and 61pc of people said they would not go back to a non-mobile
friendly website.
“This is a big problem if your website is an important marketing tool as it means that
more than half of your potential market will not look at your existing website,” he said.
And the solution? “To mobilise your website, or create a mobile app or both.”
Next month, Geoff will be meeting with members of Station Stays SA to speak about how they can develop their online presence to suit mobile and tablet devices.
*This article appeared in the July 12 issue of Stock Journal, in our feature publication "We are South Australian", profiling people, agribusiness and industry bodies who have helped shape SA's agricultural sector in the 21st century.
