For the duration of my placement I was under the impression that the evaluation stage of the HRDRI would take place in the final week of my placement (and conclude during that week or one or two after). However, I just got an email back from Kate at Hunter Tourism who has informed me that there won't be any results until March 2008 - which makes the situation a little awkward for me. In the mean time though (mostly for the purpose of the case study assignment) I'm going to conduct some of my own research into the successes/failures of the HRDRI. I have already found evidence from the APEC weekend which shows that tourism in the Hunter Region is up as a result of the HRDRI advertising! Below is an article from ABC News which demonstrates the increased tourist flow to the Hunter:
Hunter cashed up after APEC escapees' invasion
Hunter Tourism says more than 20,000 people travelled to the Hunter Valley region for the APEC long weekend.
Sydneysiders trying to avoid the city's APEC lock-down spent more than $3 million over the three days, with cafes, restaurants and cellar doors experiencing one of their busiest weekends of the year.
Hunter Tourism chief executive officer Andrew Fletcher says tourism operators across the region experienced record bookings.
"It was a boom weekend and the pleasing thing is that it wasn't just the Hunter Valley ... but right across the Hunter from Lake Macquarie through to Barrington Tops and into the Upper Hunter," he said.
"It was very hard to find a bed on Friday and Saturday nights just gone."
You can view the article properly here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/10/2028612.htm
The best I can do at the moment is keep researching and examining the advertising which was carried out - from there I might be able to make some reasonably accurate predictions about the outcome of the campaign.
That's all for now!
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