Tourism operators go global

NEARLY 30 Tourism Noosa operators attended an information session this week hosted by Tourism Noosa to discover how they could benefit from completing the Global Ready Industry Program (GRIP) mentoring program and become ‘international ready’.
Tourism Noosa CEO Damien Massingham said the Global Ready Industry Program has been designed to provide four suitable members with tools, knowledge and expertise to develop and market their business internationally.
“The information session was an opportunity for members to discover what the one-on-one mentoring program involves, giving operators an overview of the international market and distribution channels, hearing from key trade partners and also to discover how the GRIP program works,” he said.
“The program will be delivered by qualified and experienced industry specialists from DR Tourism and will include one-on-one mentoring sessions including a review of their business and setting it to work in the international markets.
“International markets are important to Noosa as typically international visitors stay longer than the domestic market and, on average, spend more than the domestic traveller.
“International guests also tend to travel at different times of the year which can help even out seasonality in business.”
The program will feature five key sessions from understanding a business, discovering why to work with trade, reviewing and positioning price structure, being trade ready and finally, the sales pitch and getting ready with sales tools for contacting potential trade partners.
Hayley Gee from Kanu Kapers attended the information session.
“The afternoon was really informative and gave me a good insight into the potential that the international market can bring to my business and also how different marketing internationally is to reaching the domestic market,” she said.
The program will commence in late January and finish in early May 2017.