Rediscovering Australia
(No reviews yet)
Write a Review
Rediscovering Australia
Almost 18 months since the pandemic began, we have some hope of international travel resuming in December and more destinations becoming viable for travel next year. However, in the next 6-12 months at least, there will be much focus on local travel both here in Australia and in other countries.
We asked our subscribers for feedback via our August 2021 competition. What did we learn from the collective feedback?
Local / Regional Travel
It is no surprise many of you alluded to travel within states/territories or within Australia to explore this beautiful country of ours with a bit more purpose. This ranges from identifying travel deals, especially for accommodation and camping, to discovering unusual things, hidden gems, tips on good food options in the various regions and off the beaten track experiences. This provides opportunities for regional tourism organisations to think outside the box and facilitate the sharing of such information in multiple ways. For example, how many bloggers or travel enthusiasts are promoting their regions from the point of view of a ‘local’ with tips that you wouldn’t find in a typical marketing campaign?
Community Aspect
There was considerable interest in having the opportunity to learn from other travellers and share experiences. In addition to the first-hand accounts of fellow travellers on favourite spots, what to expect in certain locations and photos for inspiration, there was substantial interest in learning how others travel during COVID and tips on what has worked. Flexibility of travel options seem to be in the top three for most people. Learning from others’ experience on cancellations and refunds is an important area for many of you, given the current situation.
Research and Information
There is quite a bit of information available online for many parts of Australia. However, a repeating theme was about the amount of time people spend on researching for a holiday. First order issue is identifying places to go to depending on your interest, personal situation (couples, families with kids or single) and budget. Second order issue is to identify the best option from many potential activities or places of interest. This is where research tools and tips from others will be highly useful, providing they are from reliable sources. While UltimateTravelMagazine.com is not associated with them, we personally found NRMA’s Trip Planner quite useful for driving holidays. It is not necessarily the only source available. If you have used other tools or sources of information that you found useful, please share via comments below!
We have our own bucket list! One of the reasons we love working in and around Travel is that there is so much more to see. You discover and then rediscover experiences that keep changing – even if we visit the same location multiple times. In fact this may be a benefit that restricted travel brings, the opportunity to revisit places and create long term memories. During the last 6 months, we have been making our own list of places to visit in Australia when the opportunity arises. We thought of sharing just a couple.
It is a geological wonder and globally significant. More than that, it is an excuse for us to experience outback Queensland and the hospitality of the Ewamian people. There are private soaking pools, caravan park and campground, accommodation, guided tours, and self-guided activities. We can’t wait to experience Yarning Circle – authentic Aboriginal hospitality and sharing stories around the firepit. It will be a bit of a trek for us from Sydney but seems worth it. Talaroo Hot Springs is about four-and-a-half hours from Cairns. We always wanted to try the Savannah Way so this will be a double bonus.
The word is that industrious locals at the Huon Valley have used the downtime in the past months to reimagine and launch new ventures. There are wild adventures, a farmhouse kitchen with cooking classes, farm tours, art and community projects and some luxe riverside cottages to just relax. Every time we think of Tasmania, we cannot plan a holiday without walking in the wilderness or get up close to wildlife and nature. Plenty of it is available at the southernmost region of Australia. It will have to be an active holiday when we get there!
Some of you wanted to keep dreaming and asked for suggestions for overseas travel that we can start researching and planning for, in the post covid world. We will be covering some of those topics in the coming months.
