Welcome to our Summer edition of Explore, where we look at some of the milestone projects from the last few months. October saw the launch of the statewide Cycling Strategy, which aims to make it easier for more people of all ages and abilities to explore our national parks on two wheels.
At the same time we're excited to announce our brand new Visitor Experience Digital Roadmap project aimed at creating an outstanding online experience for visitors to national parks around the state - stay tuned for more on this in later editions.
Other features this edition include results to some major experience campaigns undertaken in partnership with industry and operators over the last few months and new opportunities for collaboration within our national parks.
|
|
|
New digital future for national parks
The NSW Government is investing in a new visitor-focused website for national parks, incorporating brand new technology that will enable us to better communicate with, and meet the needs of, our visitors. Our national parks and reserves are public resources to treasure, and we want to make it easier for everyone to interact with us and ultimately get out into the great outdoors and visit a park!
Work has already begun on developing a contemporary and interactive website that is in step with current and emerging digital technologies. The three-year project when finished, will see visitors able to download useful apps, book trips online, access interactive maps and communicate via social media.
At the same time, we have begun to integrate our everyday operations into a single digital platform, which will allow us to better manage our relationships with external stakeholders. Our existing website is expected to refocus on business-to-business communication, education resources and will still host a variety of more in-depth conservation and corporate materials.
|
Sustainable Mountain Biking for our parks
The NSW Government's new Sustainable Mountain Biking Strategy for national parks will help guide the provision of high quality mountain biking experiences that riders of all levels of experience will continue to use and enjoy, while also ensuring these healthy and legitimate activities are safe and sustainable.
October saw a series of community cycling events around the state celebrating this important initiative, which allowed mountain-bikers and their families to have a fun day out while also learning more about the Strategy and its projects.
Two parks north of Sydney, Garigal National Park and Berowra Valley Regional Park
, have been identified under the Strategy as possible locations to create a new loop route that will offer riders, including children, safe and sustainable mountain bike riding on tracks of at least 8km.
Aiming to provide experiences that help all groups in our community enjoy our national parks, the new Strategy also encourages continued partnerships between the NSW Government and mountain biking groups to improve and maintain mountain biking tracks and adopts a code of conduct so all visitors can enjoy their time in our parks.
Work will continue with other land managers and local communities to identify opportunities in the most appropriate sites and create linkages between existing trails that improve the quality of the ride and sustainability of the track.
|
Campground Hosts revitalised
Over summer the Campground Hosts will be active in some of our most visited parks. Volunteers accepted on the program assist rangers during busy holiday periods, are an integral part of the campground community, and enjoy free camping while volunteering.
The program trialled in seven campgrounds over the 2011 Easter holidays was met with gratitude and enthusiasm. Campers really appreciated having a first point of contact within the campground, while campground hosts reported that they enjoyed themselves and appreciated the support given them by park staff.
The upcoming summer program requires Campground Hosts to stay for a minimum one week block between 26 December 2011 and 27 January 2012. Interested volunteers can apply online at our website.
NPWS provides training prior to the program commencement at no cost on scheduled days, allowing participants to meet and share information. For all inquiries regarding the Campground Host program please contact Diana Saucedo, NSW Volunteer Coordinator, NSW National Parks and Wildlife, at diana.saucedo@environment.nsw.gov.au.
|
Dungog raises its park profile
The town of Dungog in the Hunter region is well placed to service national park visitors, gaining valuable income and employment benefits from the tourism dollar.
The Dungog Shire in partnership with NPWS, comprising of the Barrington Tops National Park and Chichester State Forest area, recently hosted an industry event as part of Dungog Shire Council's economic development strategy.
Some 90 business operators, community members who offer services to visitors, volunteers, event managers and those generally interested in promoting the Dungog Shire attended the event, where Regional Manager Robert Quirk and Area Manager Anthony Signor led an industry famil through the region in a bid to encourage further investment in the Hunter region.
NPWS has spent over $180,000 on infrastructure including a new viewing platform, gas barbecues, picnic tables and information signs, as well as up-grades to toilets, walking tracks and car parks since gazettal of the Barrington Tops National Park. As well as these improvements, work is being done to encourage more local tour operators to gain a Parks Eco Pass and bring new tours to the Barrington Tops National Park and Chichester State Forest.
To receive information about this and other tours, contact Ivan Skaines, Dungog’s Economic Development and Tourism Co-ordinator on shirecouncil@dungog.nsw.gov.au.
|
Wild About Whales to return next year
As the whale-watching season draws to a close, and the final whales make their way past our southern shores, NPWS concludes another successful Wild About Whales campaign.
Now in its second year, the multi-platform campaign across online, social, mobile, print and radio, has delivered impressive results, growing year-on-year achievements.
The campaign website Wild About Whales saw 50,000 visits during the four month campaign, and closed with over 3,000 engaged fans across facebook and twitter.
Collateral was made available to partner operators, local tourism organisations and other interested parties to piggyback off the interest generated by the campaign through CDs, point-of-sale materials and other co-branding initiatives. Wild About Whales will return for the 2012 season with a fresh new campaign, and interested parties are welcome to contact the NPWS marketing team for more information at wildaboutwhales@environment.nsw.gov.au.
|
Joint Outback campaign a success
Outback NSW was a recent focus of a joint tourism marketing campaign, which took the opportunity to highlight a rare chance to see the outback under a cover of lush green after extensive rain over the summer.
Destination NSW and the Outback Regional Tourism Organisation were the main partners in the campaign, which aimed to build traffic to the visitnsw.com website, generate leads for industry, convert intention into visitation and lead to a significant increase in tourist numbers over the previous year.
NPWS commercial tour operators were encouraged to join Destination NSW's Get Connected online tourism database - operators who are part of Get Connected had the opportunity to create campaign-specific tours and special deals.
Results showed a 24% increase in traffic to the visitnsw.com outback campaign pages, when compared to the previous year. Other digital advertising generated more than 24,000 clicks to this website. There were around 28,000 leads generated for industry and many itineraries were downloaded. A competition through Destination NSW to win a short break and tour of outback NSW generated more than 1,000 entries - four to five times as many as standard competitions.
This co-operative campaign was clearly successful in bringing additional visitors to the campaign site and converting them into leads for industry.
|
Congratulations to our award winners
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service this year took out seven accolades at the NSW Tourism Awards, a great result arising out of 11 finalists.
The remarkable achievement also included Gold Awards to Lane Cove River Tourist Park, Tandara, and Coffs Coast Aboriginal Discovery.
We'd also like to congratulate our partner operators and organisations, including Tri State Safaris and Moonshadow Cruises, for their wins at this year's award.
|
Smooth Operator
Each edition, we profile one of our fantastic Parks Eco Pass tour operators and find out a little about what makes them tick!
|
Q: Name and company? |
|
A: David Warne, Unique Sydney Tours and Cruises (part of Sydney Tall Ships) |
|
Q: National park(s) you operate in? |
|
A: Sydney Harbour National Park |
|
Q: Any advice for commercial operators thinking of starting up in national parks? |
|
A: Make full use of the operations manual you prepare for your Parks Eco Pass application. It forces you to think about all kinds of scenarios that you might not have otherwise addressed and clearly sets out your response. Make it part of your induction program and carry out spot checks. Also, get to know the rangers as they are experts in their fields and can provide crucial feedback about your operation's impact on the park. |
|
Q: Any new activities or highlights for the coming peak season? |
|
A: Our Convicts, Castles and Champagne Tour is brand new in the Sydney Market. We offer a personally guided tour of Goat Island which contains some of Australia's most important and intact convict-built buildings. Participants experience the historic surrounds and see numerous buildings constructed by convicts. |
|
Q: Strangest request from a customer? |
|
A: A customer asked if he could pay extra not to eat "convict food" when booking our new Convicts, Castles and Champagne Tour. |
|
Q: What would be one of your greatest achievements? |
|
A: Rebuilding an old tall ship Southern Swan and turning her into one of the icons on Sydney Harbour with over 23,000 passengers sailing annually. The Woods and Warne families risked everything to buy our sinking authentic timber tall ship and with hard work from everyone in our company and significant investment have transformed her over the past four years from a liability into a major tourist attraction. |
|
Q: If I could change the world, I would... |
|
A: Provide everyone with food |
|
Q: Greater of two evils, plastic bags or plastic bottles? |
|
A: Plastic bags |
___
Unique Sydney Cruises, part of Sydney Tall Ships, is the latest operator to join up to the Parks Eco Pass program, with the creation of a brand new guided tour product for Goat Island in Sydney Harbour National Park. Sydney Tall Ships currently holds a one-year Parks Eco Pass.
|
Upcoming Events
|
|
|
|
