
By Michael Sinclair-Jones
A NEW local business campaign to attract more Perth tourists to Toodyay has reached more than 20,000 people on Facebook and attracted 100 ‘shares’ in just a single week.
The Toodyay Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s latest campaign features a new 40-second promotional video (above) similar to last year’s successful Four Seasons series.
The new video is part-funded by a $5000 State Government grant to help local businesses recover from WA’s Covid-19 lockdown which forced local cafes, restaurants, hotels and other accommodation providers to shut in April and May this year.
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Chamber committee member Bob Schrader said the remaining funds would be used to promote the chamber’s Toodyay Dollars campaign to encourage more people to buy locally in the shire.
The chamber’s Facebook video was launched on August 22 and reached nearly 10,000 people in the first three days.
It was shared 100 times, including by the WA Regional Chamber of Commerce, which encouraged its 7500 members to share the Toodyay video with thousands more online viewers across the state.
The video is also being promoted on Facebook by Targa West, which has 13,500 online subscribers and is running its annual car rally through Toodyay on Saturday October 24.
Mr Schrader said the new campaign is aimed at people who live within a 75km radius of Perth’s central business district.
“We aim to encourage more people from the greater metropolitan area to take a one-hour trip to experience Toodyay,” he said.
The September promotion is being run alongside the chamber’s Toodyay Dollars campaign which was launched in 2018 and has attracted more than $10,000 in sales for the chamber’s 50 local business partners.
Toodyay Dollars can be bought – dollar for dollar – across the counter at the town’s Bendigo Bank in Stirling Terrace for use as gifts and prizes to be spent at local shops and businesses throughout the shire.
Traders can return spent Toodyay Dollars to the bank for the amount to be credited back to their accounts.
Toodyay Dollars are available as $10, $20 and $50 notes but can’t be exchanged at shops for cash.
New participants wanting to join the Toodyay ‘buy local’ scheme can do so free of charge simply by joining the chamber.
Mr Schrader said the program is being managed by local bank manager and chamber treasurer Kirsten Barrack and is separate to normal banking business.
He said Toodyay business activity had “certainly picked up” since the end of the pandemic lockdown in July, as shown by the increased numbers of weekend visitors spending their money in local shops and at other tourism outlets.