The news that Bridestowe Lavender Estate has experienced a visitor increase of 38 per cent was a just reward for marketing and opportunities snapped up by the management of the tourist destination.
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In December 2018 and January 2019 the popular purple site had 58,000 people pace the fields of lavender.
Sometimes more than 2200 people a day would visit the Nabowla estate.
The Ravens family became the proud owners of the farm in 2007. Since they have worked hard to diversify the property with a boost in local and international tourism the results of their labour.
They have also capitalised on the publicity some Asian celebrities have promoted – in particular, Bobbie the bear.
An Iron Chef from Hong Kong was the first to spruik Bobbie and was photographed with the purple bear on his head. Later a Chinese starlet made some racy comments about Bobbie including the fact he was more fun in bed on a cold Shanghai night than her boyfriend, who happened to be a Chinese film star.
After the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Tasmanian visit in 2014, he went home with a Bobbie. The years that followed have seen a boom in tourism for Tasmania, not just Bridestowe, from the Chinese tourism market. The bears are so popular they’ve had issues with counterfeit Bobbies showing up in China.
Now Bridestowe is taking the marketing a step further to help the region. The Ravens are exploring ways to collaborate with the North-East tourism sector to encourage people to stay in the region for longer.
The North-West Coast has been doing this well in recent years with many businesses referring others and promoting itineraries that involved a group of Coastal tourism ventures. All designed to keep tourists in that postcode.
The numbers are there for the North-East. Now that we’ve got them, it’s time to work on keeping them longer and have the tourists add more places to their must-do list when heading to the North-East. With businesses like Bridestowe Lavender Estate leading the charge, success looks certain.