VFR

In Marketing last week, we discussed the concept of how to market to the VFR ("Visiting Friends and Relatives") market. Do you market your product/attraction to the visitors or to the hosts they'll be staying with? What sorts of activities are VFRs interested in, compared with hotel-staying tourists? Should the hosts participate in activities, or send their visitors out on excursions to the penguins...?

This weekend, it was my turn to play host. Two of my Sydney friends, Saj & Gretel, came to visit for a couple of days. They've become Melbourne regulars over the past twelve months, so we're well beyond visiting the obvious tourist attractions. Our fun-filled weekend included a performance from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Youth Orchestra at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, doing the restaurant and bar scene on Fitzroy St (a favourite of mine, regardless of whether there's VFRs involved), lunch on Lygon St, and even a visit to a few Yarra Valley wineries.

In a couple of weeks' time, we'll turn the game around 180 degrees - I'm going up to Sydney for a weekend. They'll be the hosts, and I'll be the VFR. Probably not a typical sample for academic analysis though - I've been back and forward between Sydney and Melbourne at least fifty times in the past five years.