By Tyler Wright
Businesses in the Yarra Ranges will have the chance to upskill and expand their expertise as part of a program organised by the area’s official tourism body.
Yarra Ranges Tourism’s ‘Tourism Re-Gen’ initiative consists of an extensive series of workshops and mentoring opportunities to strengthen the regional industry.
“The list of training opportunities were designed with our partners in mind to provide them with a mix of face to face and online training they could attend,” Yarra Ranges Tourism Administration Officer Natalie McCarter said.
The program was also helped after state government funding was received early this year.
“We’re trying to upskill [businesses], because a big focus through the pandemic was social media marketing – so it was just trying to digitally upskill them in that way where they felt they could promote their businesses and their products to their visitors online.”
The official training sessions commenced in March with two previously run alongside Destination Travel Management Tourism; one session held in the Dandenong Ranges and the other in the Yarra Valley.
“We had about 40 people in total who turned up for a destination and marketing package [which was] very successful and [businesses] enjoyed collaborating with each other,” Ms McCarter said.
In 2021, Yarra Ranges Tourism found the overnight expenditure for vistors to regional Victoria sat at an estimate of $6.9 billion and the intrastate overnight spend in the regions rose 8 per cent above pre-pandemic levels.
Joanne Tate, Cellar Door Manager at Tokar Estate, attended a workshop at RACV Healesville Country Club and Resort on 8 March and said it was a good opportunity to network with other local businesses and be updated on new tools in the industry.
“They broke us off into groups so that we could work on some different strategies for bundling particular tourist attractions together or ways to attract different demographics out there in the tourism world,” Ms Tate said.
“Whether you’re attracting friends or family to your property or planning a ladies’ weekend away in the Yarra Valley – it gave us an opportunity to start from scratch, work out how you get them there transport wise, how do you accommodate them and what activities you suggest to them to do.”
Ms Tate stressed important to have communication with others in the tourism industry, especially for new businesses.
“The more knowledgeable businesses can be in the region, the better it is for the visitor – we are all our own little information center and we’re all ambassadors for the Yarra Valley. We definitely do support each other in this region.”
Sam Jones from Killick Handcrafted Rum in Belgrave said the ‘Lookers to Bookers’ program he attended in March helped expand the business’s contacts.
“We’ve developed a sponsorship with Bunjil Place for the Casey Cornucopia Winter Festival, and we’ve set up a partnership with Peppers in Marysville,” Mr Jones said.
More workshops will be held throughout June including the “Secret Sauce for being a great coach and building great teams” online session with Changeable Consulting. The sessions run at a fee for businesses who are not partnered with Yarra Ranges Tourism.
“The lunchbox sessions give a brief overview of a certain skill; whether it’s staff retention or staff training…then it builds on through more in depth coaching on understanding staff in order to keep staff. And I think the skill and advantages [are] across all boards – not only in terms of marketing, but also connecting with your workers and connecting with industry,” Ms McCarter said.
