With tourism and hospitality organisations, and towns themselves, suffering over the last few months, armed with the knowledge of travel restrictions lifting Out of the Square (OOTS) wanted to do their bit to help.
In just one week, the local media agency created a self-funded initiative called Experience Hunter.
This initiative is also supported by a video and accompanying webpage built to promote and boost the businesses who contribute to the Hunter’s tourism industry.
The video content is a result of days (and nights) of scouring the internet for the most relevant footage possible that represented the Hunter Region in all its diverse glory.
When approached, so many organisations and individuals were only too happy to provide their videos given the spirit of the cause.
Managing Director of Out of The Square, Marty Adnum, said bringing the idea together was exciting and nerve-wracking as he wanted to ensure he gave it the time needed to lift it off the ground properly.
“Initially I was pretty nervous that we may not get enough great stuff in such a short period of time to do this idea justice, however in the end we had so much powerful footage it was incredibly tough to narrow down the shots used in the final two minute video,” Marty said.
“Even with the video done we knew it would not be enough on its own, in a sense we were teasing people but then leaving them to their own devices. So, we knew we had to produce a webpage to close the loop.
“The whole OOTS team rallied and experiencehunter.com.au was created. Making it easy for people inspired by the video to follow up, do more research and book a getaway via the various links on the webpage.”
The webpage offers a short description of each of the Hunter’s seven areas: Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Port Stephens, Wine Country, Upper Hunter, Barrington Tops and Maitland/Lower Hunter.
Plus, each area has direct links to the official local tourism site and Destination NSW site.
Having everything in one place was critical to selling the experience of the Hunter as a whole and getting traction for those grass roots tourism operators doing it tough.
“Given our passion for the region we felt this is something we really needed to just do. We hadn’t seen anything else out there, so we went for it. The feedback to date and knowing that something as small as this can make such a big difference to those in need has been incredibly heart-warming,” Marty said.
CEO of Destination Port Stephens, Eileen Gilliland, said initiatives like these really help local businesses see the light at the end of what has been a very dark COVID-19 tunnel.
“To rebuild our local tourism industry is vital to the local economy as tourism contributed $3.2 billion to the Hunter Region in 2019,” she said.
“The Hunter offers an amazing range of first-class experiences and we encourage locals to rediscover their own back yard and support the recovery of our local tourism and business operators.”
Founder of Coast XP, Dominic May, said that when he was approached to be involved in the Experience Hunter initiative, he got excited, especially with the idea of getting the community back together again.
“When Out of The Square approached me to be part of a region-wide campaign promoting the Hunter as a destination to visit, I was absolutely delighted as I saw this as an opportunity to come together as a community!,” Dominic said
“As travel restrictions begin to lift across NSW, now is the perfect time to get out and safely explore nature!”
Out of the Square wish to acknowledge and respect the traditional custodians of the land in these areas, the Awabakal, Worimi, Kamilaroi and Wonnaruah people.
IMAGE | Out of the Square Managing Director, Marty Adnum, in Newcastle.
