Attracting New Tourists To Keep Businesses Thriving In The Heart Of Mornigton
The cosy beachside suburb of Mornington has been known as Melbourne’s summer playground for millions of families over the decades.
Boasting gorgeous beaches, a bustling cafe front and unique fashion stores, Mornington is the front door to the well known Mornington Peninsula Region.
However, despite it’s strong reputation and tourism pull, since the COVID-19 Pandemic hundreds of the businesses on Main Street Mornington have struggled to stay afloat.
In 2023, The Mornington Chamber Of Commerce reached out to Fixon Media Group to craft a social media content suite to bring in customers to a number of the street’s traders.
Client:
Main Street Mornington, Mornington Chamber Of Commerce
Year:
2023-2024
Location:
Mornington, Victoria
The Challenge
In 2023, the Mornington Peninsula region received over 8 million visitors. A number which increased by 8% from 2022 numbers, and increased by almost 2 million visitors from pre-COVID levels.
Despite these strong tourist numbers, many of the traders on Mornington’s main strip, (many of whom are family run small to medium businesses), have struggled to stay afloat.
The spending of visitors has decreased, and with 75% of the 8 million visitors being day-trippers, appealing to tourists to stick around and spend money at local establishments has been increasingly difficult.
The Solution
With the aim to encourage day-trippers to stay the night, and to experience all that Mornington has to offer, we recommended the creation of a suite of short social media content pieces to be posted on the Main Street Mornington Instagram and Facebook pages.
Main Street Mornington has a mix of large national chains and family run small-medium businesses.
Knowing that the national chains have a large budget and ample resources to support themselves, it was decided that the investment into content should be focused around promoting the smaller, family run businesses on Main Street.
In the lead up to the busy summer months, and throughout summer, the Main Street Mornington Instagram and Facebook pages would promote 10 traders a month.
The Result
Between September and December 2023, Fixon Media Group visited over 40 of Main Street’s traders to produce a short and exciting piece of social media content.
This ranged from highlighting the award winning Winey Cow and their cheeky ‘boozy brunch’, to the indie performances seen at one of the street’s most popular venues, God’s Kitchen.
A number of businesses were also captured as part of ‘Collaborated Reels’, mixing and matching similar businesses together in one reel, providing viewers with a possible itinerary for a trip to Mornington.
Of the trader’s who took part in the Chamber’s initiative, the feedback received was majority positive, with many receiving positive customer growth over the summer months.
Although at the time of writing (June 2024), official data is yet to be released in relation to Mornington’s summer tourism spends, it is anticipated by the Mornington Chamber Of Commerce that the campaign was a success, and able to assist the smaller and medium sized traders of the street in improving business, during what has been a difficult past few years.