Ms SACILOTTO - 2005-08-23
Yesterday, you launched the Destination Darwin marketing campaign. Could you inform the House about the campaign?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am delighted to, and I thank the member for Port Darwin for the question. I cannot think of a better way to spend $1.4m than giving Darwin a marketing and destination status it deserves.
It is interesting that, four years ago, when I was talking to some pretty serious marketing people ffrom interstate, they looked me in the eye and said: ‘Darwin is not ready to be marketed’. I was a bit dumbfounded that this wonderful city would be considered unready to be marketed as a tourist destination. This was a serious view from experts in tourism marketing. I was stunned. I thought: ‘Rubbish’, and, ‘Wwe have to do it’.
Through the whole-of-government process of marketing the Northern Territory, we have been marketing Darwin as a great place to live, work and invest, and a lotmuch of that work has happened over the last 18 months. I am absolutely delighted that, finally, in a tourism sense, we are marketing Darwin to match that. What a wonderful place to market! We have 230 000 brochures – little ones, they are bold, bright and quirky – which we will be marketing from August to October. This will include all the delights and sharing the story of Darwin and Darwin people. We have some great people here.
It is not hard to find people to share the story. We have people like Jimmy Shu, one of our finest chefs and a man who is so creative about food. In this brochure, he tells of the delights of dragon fruit, markets and what you can do with the food.
We also have choreographer, Gary Lang; comedienne, Rachel Sommer; Shellie Morris, who gives views on the music world and entertainment; Greg Miles, who worked for 30 years in Kakadu, he talksing about Darwin and the region; and an icon of Darwin, the Deckchair Cinema, with Di Koser and Mel KavenaghKavanagh.
This is selling the Darwin story, sharing our story, sharing the delights of our city, and I heartily commend the marketing team in Tourism for this. The pictures are so attractive, I cannot imagine that we will not be building on the success we have had so far with bringing more tourists to Darwin. The story has been good over the last two years. We can build on it, and strategic marketing campaigns like this will certainly add to it. There is an insert in today’s NT News about Destination Darwin, and thanks to everyone who supported that.
This is not just about Darwin, though. It is a Northern Territory campaign, of which this is the Darwin component. We had Alice Springs earlier this year, and destinations from Kakadu and Katherine to Tennant Creek and the Barkly, and Alice Springs, of course, and Uluru Kata-Tjuta. These destinations are focussed, they are attractive, and we will continue to build our tourism market because of it. This is great. If you do not feel proud living in a place like this, then I do not know what I can do for you. With Destination Darwin, we are out there, we are being counted, and it is $1.4m well spent. Go, Darwin!
Madam Speaker, could I have all these booklets distributed? I believe everyone deserves one.
Madam SPEAKER: Yes, that is fine.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am delighted to, and I thank the member for Port Darwin for the question. I cannot think of a better way to spend $1.4m than giving Darwin a marketing and destination status it deserves.
It is interesting that, four years ago, when I was talking to some pretty serious marketing people ffrom interstate, they looked me in the eye and said: ‘Darwin is not ready to be marketed’. I was a bit dumbfounded that this wonderful city would be considered unready to be marketed as a tourist destination. This was a serious view from experts in tourism marketing. I was stunned. I thought: ‘Rubbish’, and, ‘Wwe have to do it’.
Through the whole-of-government process of marketing the Northern Territory, we have been marketing Darwin as a great place to live, work and invest, and a lotmuch of that work has happened over the last 18 months. I am absolutely delighted that, finally, in a tourism sense, we are marketing Darwin to match that. What a wonderful place to market! We have 230 000 brochures – little ones, they are bold, bright and quirky – which we will be marketing from August to October. This will include all the delights and sharing the story of Darwin and Darwin people. We have some great people here.
It is not hard to find people to share the story. We have people like Jimmy Shu, one of our finest chefs and a man who is so creative about food. In this brochure, he tells of the delights of dragon fruit, markets and what you can do with the food.
We also have choreographer, Gary Lang; comedienne, Rachel Sommer; Shellie Morris, who gives views on the music world and entertainment; Greg Miles, who worked for 30 years in Kakadu, he talksing about Darwin and the region; and an icon of Darwin, the Deckchair Cinema, with Di Koser and Mel KavenaghKavanagh.
This is selling the Darwin story, sharing our story, sharing the delights of our city, and I heartily commend the marketing team in Tourism for this. The pictures are so attractive, I cannot imagine that we will not be building on the success we have had so far with bringing more tourists to Darwin. The story has been good over the last two years. We can build on it, and strategic marketing campaigns like this will certainly add to it. There is an insert in today’s NT News about Destination Darwin, and thanks to everyone who supported that.
This is not just about Darwin, though. It is a Northern Territory campaign, of which this is the Darwin component. We had Alice Springs earlier this year, and destinations from Kakadu and Katherine to Tennant Creek and the Barkly, and Alice Springs, of course, and Uluru Kata-Tjuta. These destinations are focussed, they are attractive, and we will continue to build our tourism market because of it. This is great. If you do not feel proud living in a place like this, then I do not know what I can do for you. With Destination Darwin, we are out there, we are being counted, and it is $1.4m well spent. Go, Darwin!
Madam Speaker, could I have all these booklets distributed? I believe everyone deserves one.
Madam SPEAKER: Yes, that is fine.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016