New tourism and marketing future for the Murray River

Discover Murray has acquired the Murray River Website.
This means a new future for Tourism Marketing nationally for the Murray River. A borderless tourism experience.

Hi and welcome to Discover Murray.

This strategy has been in development for nearly 3 years. Discover Murray has a unified plan and vision for the Murray River nationally.

Our vision for the Murray is simple: Discover Murray is the number one sustainable tourism information provider and brand for the Murray River nationally, which ensures our community continues to prosper and grow.

Our Mission: Discover Murray is the leading supplier of quality tourism and related information and resources nationally. We promote economic regional growth and environmental protection for all Murray regions in Australia through tourism services.

• Who are Discover Murray?
• Benefits for operators, businesses and tourism
• Morgan (SA) joins the party
• Help the visitor first
• National Landscapes
• Discover Murray Trail
• Visitor Centres partnerships
• The Internet and the Murray
• Our role
• The Transfer Plan
• It's just the beginning

Who are Discover Murray?

About Discover Murray: Discover Murray has been created by a branding and marketing studio Design Train. Our passion is to protect Australia's most important natural asset while providing visitors the opportunity for a great Australian experience. I'm Shane Strudwick the creator of Discover Murray. We noticed a lack of truely great, quality national tourism marketing tools for the whole river. Using our experience and skills we have created something that really showcases our beautiful and unique part of the world. This advanced tourism marketing system for the Murray region aims to deliver an outstanding marketing and advertising channel that is both flexible and trackable while being sustainable and professional. TOP

Benefits for operators, businesses and tourism

Save money and time, while gaining flexibility. Finally you can change your content for FREE. You can easily modify your text, photos, specials, rooms / fleet, rates, map positions, menus - anything. Take control of your marketing online. Your information is secure and available through our tested and robust Username and Password log-on systems.

As a region, we need to compete with some of the best tourism locations in Australia and around the world. The Murray nationally receives approximately 6.3 million visitors per year. The new Discover Murray Trail is linking towns and states and is actively promoting longer visitation in the region. Visitors travel further along the Trail which means they are spending more to enjoy their unique Australian experience.

You also have access to our highly advanced, marketing, branding and communications systems. These systems have been design with great innovations in tourism marketing. Importantly, visitors gain additional confidence that the Murray region is a quality destination to experience because our total presentation as a region is professional, unified and visitor focused.

Our purchase of the Murray River Website and domain www.MurrayRiver.com.au ensures we'll continue to promote and grow the region as one great experience which aims to generate more opportunities for you. Click here to see more benefits or click here to register. You'll just need to create a business account and you're away. Registrations takes only 10 minutes. Payments are by credit card (Visa/Mastercard) only and sorry, no credit.

• Standard Advertising Rate is $440 per annum + GST (includes 4 rooms/houseboats) UNLIMITED CHANGES
• Additional rooms / houseboats $55 each per annum + GST UNLIMITED CHANGES
• Banner Advertising click here to see individual page rates

Help our visitor's first

To improve visitation to the Murray region, visitors and customers need to feel they'll get value. They are also seeking positive experiences when they visit. Through our quality, focused marketing and management strategies...we're aiming to deliver a promise. We want to create a deep visitor desire who want to engage and experience this great icon, the Murray.

I believe the whole Murray River is Australia's greatest tourism secret. It's a diverse ancient spirit of the Australia that is bursting at the seams with great visitor experiences. It has a real Australian affinity with its beautiful landscapes, iconic references, relaxed lifestyle and friendly culture.

Our focus is on quality. We are Tourism Accredited and award-winning. This also builds visitor trust. You can leverage off this solid foundation and gain additional value through our marketing efforts and results when you join us.

Free Event Listings: Visitors can now easily find current events along the Murray. They can better plan their travelling with things along the river. Events can be entered for FREE by any member of your community, so even the smallest towns can have events listing. Events link in directly with our accommodation and houseboats along with towns, attractions and activities, so everything you need to plan a holiday can be found in the one place.

As visitors travel with laptops and mobile technology they can access current information easily. You can promote specials, offers or availability and have full control of your message to visitors, both planning their trip and while in the region. No outdated information. This empowers visitors to make immediate choices. We will be introducing an online booking system in the near future. This will be linked to your existing booking system or you can use ours to make life easy for visitors. TOP

Morgan (SA) joins the party

Morgan in South Australia is on the Great Nor' West Bend and has a rich history and vibrant town. As part of our vision for a unified river and quality marketing, we offered to assist Morgan Community Development and Tourism to create a sustainable marketing systems and present a quality brand of their unique region.

It also allows their members the direct benefits of cooperative marketing online. Morgan, Cadell and Mannum (in development) will have their own branded town/regional websites with data flowed directly from Discover Murray : MurrayRiver.com.au. Any paid advertiser in Morgan is also nationally on Discover Murray. The local businesses can fully edit their content through the Discover Murray engine which then flows into the Morgan.org.au website. This is a great partnership that can work for any town and region.

Please contact us if you wish to know how to incorporate
your Murray River town or region into our systems.

National Landscapes

Discover Murray is participating on the Murray Mungo region Tri-State National Landscape Committee. Shane Strudwick is Chair. This is a great opportunity for the Murray region to become an international destination through marketing efforts of Tourism Australia in partnership with Parks Australia. The Landscapes region is centred around the World Heritage listed Willandra Lakes and Mungo National Park, approximately 100km north-east of Mildura. Other key assets are the great biospheres and unique riverscapes. This is a new community and marketing opportunity. If the whole region embraces this, it could create sustainable tourism opportunities for years to come. We are one river and one connected Australian experience without borders. Visitors, like the Murray, don't see the borders so this is a great Murray Tri-State regional initiative. TOP

Discover Murray Trail

We have created a new Discover Murray Trail. This is linking your business with a new Australian experience. The Trail has had great success with demand from all over Australia for copies. This is the only national map for the Murray and it's influencing visitor's travel plans. This Trail is aimed at drawing more visitors to our region and encourage movement from town-to-town along the river with longer stays. Research from both Visitor Centres and Caravan and Camping Shows indicate visitors are continuing to experience larger amounts of the whole Murray because of the Trail. As visitors utilise the Trail, they positively and consistently experience Discover Murray as a quality, tourism marketing brand. This benefit then flows directly to the region as it's positioned as professional, interesting and great value. National sponsorships opportunities are also available on the Trai. TOP

Visitor Centre partnerships

The Discover Murray Trail benefits every Murray region as the river is connected by communities and the Murray is a natural river road. Towns up and down the river cooperate in promoting the region as one network. The past has been about borders and regions. Discover Murray is about community and river. Visitor Centres are promoting the Trails and visitors are using them. The Trail has been permanently installed in Mannum, Morgan and about to be in Mildura and Renmark. Corowa are also promoting the trail to their visitors. To date we've distributed 50,000 trails nationally and that's just the beginning. Early next year we are aiming to distribute the Discover Murray Guide - The Best of the Murray River... stayed tuned! We have strong national partnerships and operators can feel confident in our strategy, as it's supported by their local visitor centre. TOP

The Internet and the Murray

The internet is changing how our society interprets, manages and receives communication. It will be the most important marketing tool of the future. Design Train has 20 years experience of tourism, branding and marketing experience. This benefits Discover Murray and the Murray River. We have distinguished new ways to build a flexible tourism marketing system and deliver powerful, relevant content. David Hancock from the Murray River website has done a great job in marketing the Murray River using the internet over the last 10 years. I'd personally like to thank him for his efforts and vision. We're now building a great brand for the region that delivers to both operators' and visitor's expectations.

Our website aims to bring respect to the region through professional branding and information, while allowing the communities' to manage their own content. We have strong Google and other search engine strategies and a high degree of quality content on the Murray, unlike many of our competitors. We understand the Murray region and intend to push hard for it's promotion long-term. TOP

Our role

By linking positive and easy to find information, both online and offline, we can better connect the region as One River, and make life easy for the visitor. Long-term this is the only National tourism strategy for the Murray region. We are committed to creating the best for and with you. As part of my commitment, I'm aiming to see the Murray region promoted nationally and thrive. We want to create a new future, especially in the face of this drought and negative perceptions created by the media. TOP

The Transfer Plan

Discover Murray is running an advanced tourism content management system. This is a completely different system to what you're used to from the older Murray River website. We will work with you to transfer your content onto the new system. This will be under the domain www.rivermurray.com temporarily, however the domain name www.murrayriver.com.au will be used long-term. The older Murray River website design will be phased out. All relevant content and links will be transferred to the new site under a new design. There will be no splash pages as you can link straight to your website. If you have an outstanding subscription this will be honored until your expiry date.

Soon we will be in contact, with your new username and password, or you can create your own account and start developing your marketing today! This will allow you to access everything you need to upload, edit and change your web page in future. We understand there will be the odd bug or two in our new system. We are now under Beta testing phase to iron the bugs out, and they will be addressed in the 2 month transition period. The current system is still running as a Beta test version.

We are aiming to have all content transferred by Friday, October 31st, 2008. If your subscription is due we will contact you. A simple credit card payment online will easily reactivate your account. TOP

It's just the beginning

This new tourism marketing system will save you time, money and increase your flexibility. You can get really smart in your marketing with Discover Murray. We believe this will be of great long-term benefit to yourself and the Murray region as we introduce these new cutting edge marketing systems and our unbridalled passion. Thank you for your patience with this transfer and please contact us if you have any questions.

I'm also looking forward to meeting you all in due time to create ways we can continually improve the marketing strength of the whole Murray River and deliver more visitors to you. I hope you join us on this journey. Please feel free to contact me anytime. TOP

Regards, Shane Strudwick
Discover Murray River Tourism Marketing

08 8363 6244 | info@rivermurray.com
0409 678 654