Jacaranda Festival looks to tap into Chinese market

'Last year we worked with some Chinese social media influencers and it will be very interesting to see how that impacts on the event this year.'

Tourists were drawn to Michael Hill's 1978 Nissan Patrol G60 Ute during photo shoots at Grafton's See Park on Jacaranda Thursday. Picture: Erin Brady/CVC

WITH Chinese tourists now representing the largest group of international visitors from any one country, it is no wonder that destinations around the country are scrambling to tap into the market.

The Clarence Valley is no exception, with strategies in place to entice tourists from China to come and enjoy what the region has to offer throughout the Jacaranda season.

"The Chinese tourism market is massive, it is worth $11.5billion dollars to the economy with one and a half million Chinese tourists visiting Australia annually," said Clarence Valley Council destination management officer Louise Gumb.

"Blossoms are quite popular and the festival ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to Chinese tourism

"Last year we worked with some Chinese social media influencers and it will be very interesting to see how that impacts on the event this year."

The Jacaranda Festival organisers were also aware of the opportunities brought by increased exposure internationally and were implementing strategies to tap into this lucrative market, according to Festival president Jeff Smith.

"A number of years ago we received a grant which enabled us to market ourselves to foreign tourists and from that we really started to see more coming and visiting the festival," Mr Smith said.

"Recently we have really focused on how we can engage with these people and get them to events because early on we noticed people were coming but just taking photos of trees and disappearing.

"So last year we printed and distributed programs in Mandarin, something which we had never done before. That was a major step."

Encouraging visitors to move about the whole of the Clarence Valley was also something that both Clarence Valley Council and the Jacaranda Festival saw as vital to the growth of the international tourism economy.

"The strategy has been to create the idea of the Jacaranda season, which includes two to three weeks either side of the Jacaranda Festival," Ms Gumb said.

"We have extended it to get more out of the trees because we saw a gap and we looked at how we could use it to our advantage.

"We wanted people to stay longer and think about basing themselves throughout the Clarence; the strategy is focused on dispersal."

Ms Gumb recognised that attracting a greater share of the international tourist market was a long-term plan which would be built year on year but it was made easier by having been left such a good legacy in the Jacaranda trees.

"We have been working closely with Destination NSW and Tourism Australia to make big players aware of what is here and giving them reasons to come here," she said.

Originally published as Jacaranda Festival looks to tap into Chinese market