First Week at Tourism WA - Bentley

My first week at Tourism Western Australia (TWA) started with a warm welcome. I am working within the Destination Public Relations and Media Team, given a title Media and PR Intern. I was really excited to find that I had a title, and signature already set up to my email, this made me feel welcome and apart of the team.

For the first few hours I was given reading material to familiarise myself with the position. I was happy to be given a few hours to educate myself on the different regions within Western Australia. Through my extensive family travel I had a fair idea on most attractions in WA, however after reading up for a few hours I proved myself wrong! At TWA they break WA into the following regions:

- Australia’s North West
- Australia’s Golden Outback
- Australia’s Coral Coast
- Australia’s Great Southern
- Australia’s Experience Perth

The aim of Destination PR is to create positive exposure of the destination in travel and lifestyle media, in order to educate and inspire potential travellers about the extraordinary holiday experiences on offer in Western Australia.

Through the reading time I discovered the 2010/2011 key objectives for Destination PR, these including:

1) Leverage key EventsCorp events (such as Red Bull and One Movement) and Screen West projects (such as Red Dog) as additional PR hooks for the destination, including promotional activity and inclusion in the Media program.
2) Facilitate the Media program, targeting high profile media outlets domestically/ internationally to achieve greater return on investment.
3) Leverage TWA Marketing initiatives to make additional noise in the media space about Western Australia through proactive media pitches and integrated media promotions.
4) Leverage Tourism Australia’s Global PR program (including the International Media Hosting Program and Australian Tourism Exchange) to position Western Australia as an extraordinary Australian destination.

I think it’s really important for me to understand the key objectives and then implement these through all the work I complete throughout my internship at TWA.

The team had set up a folder on the Destination server for me, where I’m expected to save any of my work whilst completing my placement. Within this folder includes a description of what is expected from a PR Media intern within the Destination team. The following points are what will be expected of me within my 20 day placement:

Through my placement I’m expected to complete the following:

- Assist with media research requests.
- Assist with media monitoring and evaluation.
- Copy writing – feature articles, as required.
- Attending briefing meetings and assisting in leveraging key marketing campaigns/events.
- Research stories for monthly e-newsletter for media – Innovations.
- Producing a portfolio of Destination PR coverage

After reading over these points I’m a little nervous about completing a feature article. I have only ever written one feature article before in PR Techniques! I’m concerned that my writing skills won’t be up to their standard? I’m also nervous about any media release writing, this I feel is my weakness area. I hope after completing my placement I’ll be more confident in these areas.

I was fortunate enough to attend the Destination weekly catch up meeting. After the meeting I developed an understanding of how much work the team is expected to complete within a working week, and it’s massive! I was delegated two feature articles to write from the first meeting. A little nervous to be given this task, but excited for the challenge.

Fingers crossed I do well. I’ll keep you posted on my Tourism WA journey.

Until my next blog……

Signing out.

Stacey Tweddle
Media and PR intern