in Bendigo on average were able to identify more than six potential
attractions in the Goldfields region, while their Ballarat counterparts
could identify around four attractions, resulting in a significant
difference of ‘‘P ¼0.022’’.
Other comparisons in Table 3 reveal external differences of
opinion regarding the Goldfields development potential.
However, all parties had no significant differences over the
viability and attractiveness of the Chinese tour group market. The
travel agents highlighted short tours to the Goldfields region as
being more beneficial than attraction managers (P ¼ 0.047) and
local marketing units (P ¼ 0.028). These agents in general identified
significantly fewer towns and attractions with tourism
potential in the Goldfields than the destination participants
(P ¼0.006 and P ¼ 0.008).
Although only the above-mentioned differences are statistically
significant according to the pre-set critical value of 0.05, nonsignificant
comparisons also generate some findings worthy of
notice. For instance, examination of the means shows that attraction
managers are the most supportive of group travel
(mean¼7.167) and the most optimistic about the Goldfields’ future
development (mean¼7.250) among all the interviewees. Destination
marketers prefer more balanced development between the
major attraction of Ballarat and the rest of the region
(mean¼4.750) than attraction managers and agents
(mean¼3.833 and 2.729, respectively). The latter consider that this
major attraction should still be the focus of future regional tourism
development.
During the on-site interviews in the Goldfields and China, some
respondents pointed out that Tourism Victoria had been vigorously
promoting the Goldfields to Chinese travel agencies. It devotes to
foster mutual understanding and cooperation between destination
suppliers and Chinese buyer organisations through its offices in
China, various trade shows, workshops, and exchange programs
such as the Australian Travel Mission (Tourism Victoria, 2003b). In
addition, Tourism Victoria formed a partnership with the Travel
Channel in 2007 to initiate a promotional campaign in China with
abundant media coverage of Victoria as a ‘‘free and easy