Geelong tourism’s online feedback positive but lagging behind competing regions

Analysis of online reviews and social media posts have revealed where Geelong rates compared to other regional markets fighting for visitor dollars, with some surprising results.

Online reviews and social media posts will be used to shape Geelong’s tourism strategy as it competes with other regional markets for visitor dollars.

Analysis of 160,000 online comments from Facebook, Twitter and review sites was recently presented to the Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine board.

It showed what attractions tourists most enjoy, and revealed some surprising results.

Starhaven Resort, Bellarine Peninsula. Geelong’s scored highly for spa experiences compared to other regional markets.

The analysis found 58 per cent of the online chatter about the Geelong region was found positive and only 2 per cent was negative, giving the region a score of 56.

However, it was below the median score of 59 for comparable regions, which included Mornington Peninsula, Ballarat and Margaret River.

Geelong tourism boss Brett Ince said it was surprising just how many people were talking about the region online, particularly in the spa sector, which attracted a score of 89 compared to the median score of 61.

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“Most of the time when people go to write about their experiences in spas and wellness, the response is going to be overwhelmingly positive and they’ll be bragging about what they’ve done in some respects,” he said. “I think it’s just about the type of experience and what that experience provides an individual in terms of how they feel after it as to how they promote it.

“We have very quality spa experiences, but the other side of it is if you’re talking about golf for example, and you’ve had a bad golf game, you probably won’t respond positively about it.”

Event and festivals generated more than 10,000 more conversations than other regions, but Mr Ince said more could be done to invoke a positive visitor experience.

The 2019 Elite Men's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race departs Geelong along Hearne Parade. Brett Ince says Geelong can capitalise more on the region’s major events. Picture: Stephen Harman

He said low scores for golf and cycling showed the city also needed to develop strategies to capitalise on big drawcards such as the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

Mr Ince said the ‘unfiltered’ nature of web-based data was invaluable to shaping future strategies, putting the onus on operators to up their game in promoting feedback opportunities on online public platforms.

“It does provide us a really good baseline on how we align our digital footprint and what we focus us, but we’ll have the discussions with our operators on ways to increase our positive conversation,” he said.

Tourism Greater Geelong and The Bellarine hopes to have a follow-up report from 2018 data by the end of the year and further seasonal data thereafter to better understand tourist habits.

Originally published as Geelong tourism’s online feedback positive but lagging behind competing regions