Suffoir ’ s adapted menu offering
CONCLUSION While COVID continues to challenge the industry , working collaboratively and focusing firmly on the future has allowed LGAs along the Great Ocean Road to use this time where economic activity is curtailed , to invest in local tourism operators and help prepare their local communities to prosper once borders reopen .
social media and socially connected with peer networks ( micro-influencers in their own right ) and Indian market segments in Australia , including multi-generational families .
These strategies included :
• Designated points for customers to take photos and share on social media
• An authentic and unique experience for visitors to engage with animals
• An increased outside space to cater for larger families
• An adapted menu , including , platters for takeaway , vegetarian options , warm snacks and Chai
In the future , Suffoir will add more signage in different languages and look to use popular Chinese apps WeChat and Alipay .
Michelle and Pieter are beginning to see more engagement on Facebook and Instagram after inviting customers to take photos and asking them to share these on socials . “ Visitors enjoy taking photos of the food , drinks and animals and will share these with their networks . We also encourage visitors to leave a review , which they often do ”. This helped Suffoir to gain
a larger stream of visitors from their local community which they hadn ’ t seen before .
Their advice to other businesses whose economic activity is curtailed due to COVID , “ Tourism operators can use the time to understand their customer demographics and better improve on their customer experience for the Asian market which is predicted to grow significantly .”
Their advice to other businesses whose economic activity is curtailed due to COVID , “ Tourism operators can use the time to understand their customer demographics and better improve on their customer experience for the Asian market which is predicted to grow significantly .”
When international borders re-open , Suffoir is ready !
REFERENCES
1 Tourism Research Australia ( 2020 ). State of the Industry 2018 – 19 . Retrieved from https :// www . tra . gov . au / Economic-analysis / State-of-the-Industry / state-of-the-industry
2 Deloitte ( 2021 ). The Value of Tourism . Retrieved from https :// www2 . deloitte . com / content / dam / Deloitte / au / Documents / Economics / deloitte-audae-value-of-tourism-080721 . pdf
3 Tourism Research Australia ( 2019 ) International Visitors in Australia Year Ending December 2019 . Retrieved from https :// www . tra . gov . au / ArticleDocuments / 185 / IVS _ Summary _ YE _ Dec _ 2019 . pdf . aspx
4 Grozinger , P and Parsons , S ( 2020 ). The COVID-19 Outbreak and Australia ’ s Education and Tourism Exports . Retrieved from https :// www . rba . gov . au / publications / bulletin / 2020 / dec / thecovid-19-outbreak-and-australias-education-andtourism-exports . html # fn0
5 Tourism Australia ( 2019 ) International Market Performance Statistics . Retrieved from http :// www . tourism . australia . com / en / markets-andstats / tourism-statistics / international-marketperformance . html
6 Australian Bureau of Statistics ( 2020 ) Migration , Australia . Retrieved from https :// www . abs . gov . au / statistics / people / population / migrationaustralia / 2019-20
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
CATHERINE MUDFORD Catherine Mudford is Director of Capability Development at Asialink Business . Catherine is an experienced general manager with 20 + years ’ experience in international business , gained across developed and emerging markets . She has lived in Hong Kong , Vietnam and Singapore and worked extensively across the Asia region from these bases . She is passionate about helping businesses build the awareness and insight to help them be successful as they work across borders .
SHAHIRA POPAT Shahira Popat is an instructional design expert at Asialink Business . She uses her diverse experience in learning design and research to assist in developing a wide range of training programs to support Australian organisations to engage successfully with Asian stakeholders . She has experience across Europe , the Middle East and Asia and holds a Masters degree in Education from Victoria University of Wellington , New Zealand .
VOL 14 NO 3 2021 26 www . edaustralia . com . au