It was the first of three conferences in the Destination Development Workshops series, jointly presented by Bathurst Regional Council and the newly-formed Tourism Reference Group.

This is one of the first initiatives to be introduced by the committee, which was established to help guide the implementation of council’s Destination Manage-ment Plan (DMP).

Yesterday’s workshop was presented at Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre by Fiona Jenkins, from the Country Kids Collection web business, who was able to shed some light on the importance of people in the tourism industry having an active presence on social media.

As the workshop went for five hours, there was plenty of time to pick up online marketing tips and tools, as well as ask questions about how social media could be used to promote accommodation and hospitality in Bathurst.

Council’s destination development manager Lucy White was impressed to see Word Of Mouse attract people from a variety of local businesses, including accommodation operators, people in hospitality and representatives of local clubs.

“I guess people have chosen to take time out of their business to learn how to improve their business,” she said.

“Fiona has put up some pretty extraordinary statistics about social media and who is using it.

“The point is to get operators to know the changing wants of the consumer.”

Ms White said attendees at the workshop understood the value of the free workshop series and realised the potential to network with fellow tourism operators, a number of whom are expected to return for workshops two and three.

“A couple have enrolled in all three [workshops], but it is all about the day and time and being able to leave their business,” Ms White said.

The next workshop is about public relations and will be hosted by Claire Mountaine from Brewer PR on June 27 from 10am to 2pm, while the final workshop on July 12 will focus on designing quality visitor experiences.

Anyone who would like to attend either of these free workshops is asked to send an email to lucy.white@bathurst.nsw.gov.au or call 6333 6102.