Loddon Shire Council, about an hour from Bendigo in Victoria’s north-west, is not a mainstream tour- ism area, but the stories, the characters and the enterprise in some of the towns is the stuff that many city people love to hear.

The small towns of Wedderburn, Inglewood Tarna- gulla and Bridgewater have a gold heritage, while Pyramid Hill and Boort have grown-up on the  prosperity that irrigation brought to rural Australia. There’s also a significant indigenous heritage.

Former tourism operator, Robyn Vella, began    Loddon Valley Tours several years ago as a way to attract greater visitation to her family’s Eucalyptus distillery in Wedderburn. She soon found that her groups were as much interested in the lifestyle of the local area as they were in gold and heritage. For urban-based people it was often their first real contact with small rural communities and they were fascinated to learn how the locals lived, worked and coped with trauma such as prolonged drought.

The simple tourism based tours grew into over- night visits, which included extended drives through the farming district. Guests arrange their own charter bus and stay at the town’s only motel.

With almost no marketing budget to spread the word, Robyn uses her best assets to promote the tours – her personality and unbounded enthusiasm.  She regularly visits Melbourne’s Probus clubs to provide their members with a free talk on ‘surviving life in a country town’.

Her positive attitude and ability to connect with people generates an increasing number of bookings for the two and three night group tour packages.

Loddon Valley Tours became important to the Shire’s image and was a new economic injector, so much so that the council agreed to take over the concept and bring Robyn onto their staff to manage the program. The tours are revenue-positive for the Council and they enable the area to present itself to the outside world as a dynamic community that has managed to survive the economic rational- ism of the 90s and the drought of this decade.

The tour programs have flexible components to suit the budget, time frame and interests of each group. Step-on guides accompany the bus each day to highlight the particular towns and features. These can range from the vast expanse of Abo- riginal canoe trees in Boort’s Big Lake to the largest olive groves in the Southern Hemisphere along the Charlton Road. Each guide is a likeable and knowledgeable local person who takes great pride in showcasing their area to the city visitors.

Questions:

1. From the above case study, describe whether innovation or proper funding is of greater importance in the tourism industry.
2. Explain the effect of being aware of your target demography in tourism.
3. Other than promotion what other skills are required for long term success in the tourism industry.

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