Working with VisitCanberra
The ACT Government released its Tourism 2030 Strategy (T2030) in December 2022, which sets a vision for a thriving, sustainable destination that benefits Canberrans. The T2030 also sets out four key missions and ambitious economic growth targets for 2030 aligned to the four tenets of: economy, community, place and visitor.
VisitCanberra leads the ACT and capital region tourism industry to create and implement a range of marketing and development programs that will significantly increase the economic return from domestic and international visitation.
As a stakeholder of the ACT visitor economy, there are a number of ways to know more about what is happening in your industry, leverage available opportunities, and get the most out of working with VisitCanberra.
Align with the Tourism 2030 Strategy
Read the Tourism 2030 Strategy
Read the T2030 Strategy which identifies the four key missions and focus area s for the ACT Government, as well as economic growth targets across economy, community, place and visitor.
Find the T2030 here: Tourism 2030 Strategy
Connect with VisitCanberra
Register on ATDW
To feature your business, you must be registered on the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW). Register your attraction, tour, accommodation, experiences and events on ATDW for a feature on our consumer website visitcanberra.com.au and dozens of other national tourism websites. If you are listing an event, it will also feature on events.canberra.com.au for further amplification.
See our guides: Getting Started on ATDW and Optimising your listing
For further information visit: tourism.act.gov.au/marketing/australian-tourism-data-warehouse-atdw
Subscribe to our Industry Link and consumer newsletters
Keep up to date with the latest tourism news, available grants, events, research announcements and partnership opportunities with the Industry Link newsletter. Subscribe here: tourism.act.gov.au/insights/latest-news
Subscribe to our consumer newsletter to learn about what’s on, inspiring places to visit, major events and new experiences. Subscribe here: visitcanberra.com.au/subscribe
Follow us
Follow @visitcanberra, @eventsACT on Instagram
Like and follow us on Facebook @VisitCanberra
Follow us on LinkedIn @VisitCanberra
Promote your business
Share your content with VisitCanberra
Post to our pages or use the relevant hashtags and handles to help us and others see your posts: #visitcanberra, @visitcanberra
VisitCanberra has a User Generated Content strategy. For social media tips/tricks and guidelines for image selection, see here: tourism.act.gov.au/marketing/visitcanberra-on-social-media
Share new news
VisitCanberra is always looking for new news and new experiences to include in newsletters, share with partners such as Tourism Australia, or to pitch to media and PR agencies.
Share your stories with the VisitCanberra media team at: tourism.media@act.gov.au.
Connect with the Canberra Region Visitors Centre
The Canberra and Region Visitors Centre (CRVC), located at Regatta Point, is dedicated to supporting tourism businesses within Canberra and the surrounding region. It is a fully accredited Visitor Centre, open seven days per week and receives about 180,000 visitors annually.
You can connect with the CRVC by:
- Having your experience bookable through the CRVC via the Bookeasy platform
- Providing brochures for display in the CRVC
- Advertising your business on the range of digital TV screens around the centre
- Promoting your business or event in one of the display cases or on floor and wall decals throughout the centre
- Utilising the events space to feature your product or experience. This might include special event launches, workshops, announcements, tastings or interactive activations
- Selling merchandise
For more information on these opportunities contact: crvc@act.gov.au
Get trade ready
VisitCanberra connects with a range of domestic and international tourism trade partners such as wholesalers and online/retail travel agents to encourage them to package and sell Canberra. This includes attending trade workshops and events, training retail travel agents via Tourism Australia’s Aussie Specialist Program, hosting trade famils, and providing product updates to trade partners via our Trade Hub and quarterly trade newsletter. Tourism experiences which are trade-ready can participate in these programs and be promoted as part of VisitCanberra’s trade engagement activities.
Contact VisitCanberra’s International and Partnerships team to find out more about our support programs for becoming trade ready: tourism.trade@act.gov.au
Support familiarisation visits
VisitCanberra runs two familiarisation programs (famils) throughout the year: the visiting journalists/media famil program and the tourism trade famil program. Media famils lead to exposure for the destination across key consumer touch-points including digital, social, print, broadcast channels. Trade famils aim to increase awareness of the destination amongst product managers, travel agents or inbound tour operators seeking to package and sell Canberra in key markets.
Tourism businesses are encouraged to support media and trade famils by providing your experience free-of-charge or at a discounted rate. For more information on supporting famil programs contact:
For media famils: tourism.media@act.gov.au
For trade famils: tourism.trade@act.gov.au
Review available industry support tools
Develop your tourism experience with our industry development resources
The Industry Toolkit is an online hub of industry development resources designed to support tourism business in the Canberra region. It includes a number of ‘how to’ guides with practical information for developing, marketing, and selling your tourism experiences.
Find the Industry Toolkit here: tourism.act.gov.au/industry-resources/tourism-toolkit
Understand your customer with the Future of Demand Research
Tourism Australia commissioned global tourism research into the experiences that will drive Australia’s tourism demand now and into the future. A series of reports and fact sheets have been produced for use by tourism operators.
Find the Future of Demand Research here:
tourism.act.gov.au/insights/research
Read the latest industry research and tourism snapshots for the ACT
Tourism Research Australia releases the National Visitor Survey and the International Visitor Survey every quarter. These surveys provide a tourism snapshot for the destination including visitor numbers, visitor nights and visitor expenditure.
Find the Tourism Snapshots here:
tourism.act.gov.au/insights/research
Use our image and video gallery for marketing and promotions
VisitCanberra has a suite of images and videos showcasing Canberra's attractions, events, food and wine, shopping, beautiful scenery and much more. The content can be used for destination promotion.
Access the image and video gallery here: images.visitcanberra.com.au
Keep up to date on grant opportunities
Review grant guidelines and apply where relevant
The ACT Government runs a number of grant programs, these can be found here: act.gov.au/grants.
VisitCanberra currently runs the Tourism Product Development Fund. Access further details on this funding opportunity here: tourism.act.gov.au/funding
Connect with fellow industry
Attend the VisitCanberra annual conference
VisitCanberra holds an annual conference for the tourism industry. Subscribe to the industry newsletter to receive updates on the annual conference including date, venue and program.
Subscribe here: tourism.act.gov.au/insights/latest-news
Attend the Canberra Region Tourism Advisory Forum
The Canberra Region Tourism Advisory Forum is an opportunity to connect with tourism industry colleagues and hear updates from different speakers each month. The Forum is supported by VisitCanberra.
Sign up to attend the Advisory Forum here: https://www.tlforum.com.au/tourism-advisory-forum
Attend VisitCanberra’s biannual industry briefings
VisitCanberra holds industry briefings for tourism operators twice a year. These are an opportunity for VisitCanberra to share the latest research and insights, update the industry on our marketing activity domestically and internationally and talk about upcoming events and activities.
Subscribe to the industry newsletter to receive details on the industry briefings. Subscribe here: tourism.act.gov.au/insights/latest-news
Connect with other industry groups
There are a number of tourism and events industry groups with the shared goal of growing visitation to the ACT. Some of these include the National Capital Attractions Association (NCAA), Canberra Convention Bureau (CCB), Australian Hotels Association (AHA), National Capital Educational Tourism Project (NCETP), and the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC).
Access a list of industry groups and websites here: https://tourism.act.gov.au/industry-resources/other-resources