In mid-2024 we supported Destination Phillip Island in developing the Phillip Island and San Remo Visitor Servicing Strategy.

The aim of the Strategy is to guide the Council, Industry and Community on how to help visitors better connect and understand the place, have a safe, welcoming and enriching stay and encourage them to stay longer and connect with local people and businesses.

Approach

Visitor Servicing is everyone’s business so we undertook small group workshops and individual meetings (online) with key industry, council, community, and government stakeholders, many of whom we had already established relationships with through the recent development of the Destination Management Plan.

We also used existing plans and data to identify key visitor groups for visitor touchpoint optimization mapping to inform the key opportunities for activation within the Strategy. We also revisited areas of stakeholder listening we had undertaken from the DMP development to minimise consultation fatigue with community and industry, and to also help ensure the project was delivered on time and budget.

Strategy Delivery

• Strategic alignment with Victoria’s Visitor Servicing Framework, Experience Victoria 2033 and the Phillip Island and San Remo Destination Management Plan were the guiding plans informing the new Strategy.
• A current state analysis of key visitor data, current strategies, and future visitor servicing trends informed the SWOT analysis, which set the foundation of the new Strategy.
• The new Strategy was centred around a co-created vision, that was informed by the Industry, Council and Community. Nine principles were co-created to guide the delivery of visitor servicing by stakeholders across the region, while four focus areas with a prioritised action plan were developed for DPI, Council, and Nature Parks to deliver, partner or advocate to bring the vision to life.

Strategic Insights

• Connecting the Dots. We had already undertaken significant industry and community listening as part of the Destination Management Plan development, therefore we built on existing insights and relationships to explore insights specifically from a visitor servicing perspective with stakeholders.
• Contemporary Visitor Servicing Approach – From attracting Visitors to the existing bricks-and-mortar Visitor Information Centres to event activations, cruise ship welcomes and main street pop-ups, the Strategy guides how Phillip Island and San Remo can be agile, innovative and visitor-centric to meet contemporary visitor needs.

Key Outcomes

• Visitor Servicing Role Clarity – Many businesses and organizations support visitors to Phillip Island and San Remo. Stakeholder mapping identified quick wins and longer-term projects with the greatest opportunity to achieve the Strategy's Vision.
• Visitor Touchpoint Optimisation - A simple framework identified how Visitor Servicing stakeholders could support the key visitor groups (Major Event Goers, Return FIT Visitors, New Leisure Visitors, Organised Tours, Business Events Delegates and Cruise Ship Passengers) across their Plan, Book and Experience stages of travel.
• New Measures of Success – A holistic measurement framework, measuring the full positive impact of visitor servicing across Social, Environmental, Economy, Visitor Safety and Place Brand metrics were identified, with measurement mechanisms to be implemented through the Destination Management Plan measurement framework, including the new Visitor Exit Survey which was also developed as part of this Project.