The Last Goodbye

It is my final week here at Tourism WA and I must say that I really am going to miss my time here. During the course of this placement, I believe that I have learnt a lot from the PR professionals here. I have learnt how to improve on my writing skills and not be too “wordy”, how to pick out the relevant bits of information in an article so as to add it to a media release and much more. The experience of working on an industry newsletter and responding to media requests is honestly one of the things that I enjoyed the most. Perhaps the biggest learning point for me during this whole experience with regards to Public Relations has to be the actual impact of Public Relations, especially in the tourism industry.

It has been said by many that the practice of Public Relations is one that establishes impressions and is unable to achieve any tangible figures. However, from what I have observed and experienced, this seems to be a point that can be contested. Here in Tourism Western Australia, the practice of Public Relations can be seen to bring about tangible results. Journalists here are brought on familiarization trips known as “famils” and the articles that they write are tracked and a value is added to these articles. The impact of these articles, both directly and indirectly on the Tourism Industry hit me as I was doing my industry analysis for my final report. The tourism industry in 2011 pulled in a total amount of over $3 billion for Western Australia, with international visitors up by about 7%.

With this in mind, one can see that in fact, Public Relations does play an important part in the tourism industry. What I mean is that in this occasion, one can see how Public Relations bring about actual figures. The logic behind this comes from the fact that the main driving force behind tourist visitations is awareness. Simply put, the generation of this awareness comes from the work of Public Relations through the famils and efforts of the people working in Tourism WA.

Although I do not profess to know all the ins and outs of the workings of Public Relations in the tourism industry, I can say that this placement has opened my eyes and helped me to begin to understand the importance of Public Relations in the industry. Beyond that, it has helped me to understand that the work of Public Relations is important not only as a tool to generate awareness and diffuse negative publicity, but is essential to the everyday running of an organization.

I now can say that I truly understand the meaning of Public Relations as a relationship management tool.

Derrick Wong

Curtin Bentley Campus