Assessing the prospects of the regional theatre tourist market: lessons from the literature

Rural and regional communities have been and will continue to be faced with many challenges (Pritchard and McManus, 2000) including economic change (most recently petrol price increases and interest rate rises), demographic change (out migration and aging), the resulting loss of social capital, (Walmsley, 2003) and the continual environmental problems such as water shortage. Given this scenario it is not surprising that there is a strong focus on the prospective value that tourism can deliver to rural and regional communities. However, like all open markets, regional tourism is a very competitive sector and rural and regional communities need to continually explore strategies to improve the drawing power and market positioning of each region in comparison to alternative regional and urban destination choices. This paper examines the literature to assess the prospects of repositioning a presently very successful regional theatre company into a primary tourism product with standalone drawing power. The paper concludes that theatre can certainly be a standalone tourism draw card, but traditionally this has been the case in urban areas and thus the regional location creates a challenge but is not insurmountable. The author submits that this challenge can be significantly reduced when an improved understanding of the typology of this potential new market – regional theatre tourist is achieved. To this end the paper provides a detailed interpretation of this potential tourism segment and explores the potential of this market from a regional perspective. Also the paper will be a valuable source of information to assist regional tourism authorities wish to explore a stronger relationship with the cultural tourism product.