Kingfisher Bay Resort Established Base Business With New Customers Through Luxury Escapes
Their Story
Kingfisher Bay Resort is an award-winning eco resort nestled on the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Fraser Island off the coast of Queensland, a 50-minute ferry ride from Hervey Bay.
Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and is a nature-lover’s paradise with multiple beaches, ancient rainforest, sand dunes and more than 100 freshwater lakes.
A favourite holiday destination for Australians, the resort features 152 hotel rooms and 109 self-contained two and three-bedroom villas, three restaurants, four bars, four swimming pools, a spa, general store, tennis courts, watersports equipment hire and a day spa.
The island and Kingfisher Bay Resort garnered media attention in 2018 when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited the island on their official Australian tour.
The property has been a partner of Luxury Escapes for several years.
“We choose to work with Luxury Escapes due to the extensive reach of the brand, consistently improved results, the willingness and cooperation of the staff and support teams, and the extremely effective marketing strategies,” says Group Revenue Manager for Kingfisher Bay Resort, Sean Hodges-Colavitto.
Their Goal
Increase Occupancy During Low Season
“Our basic objective was to increase occupancy during low-season travel periods and fill forecasted distressed inventory across a 12-month time-frame,” says Sean. “Ultimately the aim was to boost in-house numbers and heighten capture rates at the property.”
Our Solution
Luxury Escapes created a campaign to expand on the success of previous deals and direct bookings to low season and quiet periods across a 12-month window.
“Our strategy was to deliver a solid level of base business into 2019 with the focus being primarily on low and shoulder season,” explains Kristyn Williams, the Luxury Escapes Partnerships & Contracting Manager who built the campaign. “Given the success of the 2018 campaign, it was decided in consultation with the resort that we would leave the campaign price the same – however, to give the campaign something new and fresh, we added a bonus inclusion: two martini cocktails with the purchase of a main meal from Seabelle Restaurant. Not only did this add something new to the already amazing inclusions from last year, but it also gave the resort the chance to showcase their fine dining restaurant and increase incremental spend.”
The Campaign
Luxury Escapes Marketing
A carefully-curated offer page combining copywriting, imagery and video to engage, inspire and tell the story of Kingfisher Bay Resort
Social: Custom video content and image galleries across the Luxury Escapes Facebook (more than one million followers) and Instagram (200,000 followers) pages
Email: Entry in the Luxury Escapes aspirational daily EDM which goes out to a database of more than 2.6 million
Full-page print ad: A custom-made print advertisement in Australian newspapers
Campaign Impact
More than 10,500+ room nights sold
73% bookings made during need periods
Average length of stay increased by 0.23 nights
An incremental shift in in-house spend at Seabelle Restaurant due to the martini inclusion, with 31% of adults utilising the inclusion since the start of the campaign in 2019
“Collaborating with Luxury Escapes has proven an effective strategy for our property, helping to grow our direct database and improve in-house capture rates,” says Sean. “Overall, we have experienced a broadening of our market mix while establishing a solid business base across the calendar year. Each year, we see our return visitation growing due to Luxury Escapes customers who have fallen in love with our product.”
“Kingfisher Bay Resort has partnered with Luxury Escapes for several years to help move distressed inventory and expose our brand to audiences and potential guests in regions we wouldn’t be able to communicate with on our own,” he explains.
“The extensive reach of the Luxury Escapes brand, consistently increasing results, the willingness and cooperation of the staff and support teams and amazing effective marketing strategies are all reasons that Kingfisher Bay Resort will continue the collaboration into the future.”
