How virtual travel and the little penguins are helping Phillip Island’s post-COVID tourism recovery

Travel restrictions and lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic have had significant impacts on communities living in tourism destinations.

These communities, which rely heavily on international and domestic visitation, are vulnerable to a loss of income, with flow-on effects for social life and conservation projects.

As a response to the travel restrictions and lockdowns of 2020, some tourism organisations and operators offered virtual travel to viewers all around the world, and the popularity of live webcams grew exponentially.

Read more: View from my window: Sharing lockdown in pictures

While predominantly nature-based, the destinations and attractions featured were highly varied, and people were imaginatively transported to eerily quiet city centres and holiday resorts, inside zoos and aquaria, or to watch mesmerising lava flows and northern lights.

Phillip Island Nature Parks, a not-for-profit harnessing the tourism industry for its research, education and conservation programs, was one of the organisations to provide such an escape.

Located about 90 minutes’ drive south of Melbourne, the Penguin Parade is an iconic Victorian tourism experience, where each night at sunset, visitors can watch hundreds – sometimes thousands – of the 32,000-strong Little Penguin colony swim in and return to their burrows in the sand dunes.

All of this, of course, temporarily closed during the Victorian lockdowns, but management responded with an innovative initiative to maintain a connection with the outside world –  broadcast the wildlife event live online, which they called Live Penguin TV.

Live Penguin TV was different to a static, place-based live webcam in several ways. First, it was scheduled to air nightly at sundown for about an hour, rather than being available 24/7.

Park rangers also provided live expert commentary, and management installed two webcams, which provided a range of angles, controlled by the hosts who could respond, zoom in and focus on events in real time.

Lastly, and importantly, online audiences could ask questions and interact with hosts and other viewers via social media chat functions on Facebook and YouTube.

My research addresses how digitalisation in tourism and travel can lead to sustainable practices and outcomes, and so I partnered with Phillip Island Nature Parks to analyse the impact of Live Penguin TV.

Previous studies suggest that online experiences can reinforce travel motivation, yet there’s a lack of research that examines the use of live webcams in this regard, especially in the context of an unprecedented global pandemic. Obtaining such data would provide insights into whether or not these types of virtual travel experiences assist with post-pandemic tourism recovery for destination stakeholders, including small businesses and local residents.

The Philip Island Live Penguin TV initiative attracted incredible global media attention, and reports of a 25 million viewership. News articles featured the announcement as well uplifting events captured by the hosts, from the critical rescue of a little penguin tangled in plastic, to the Victorian Premier posting on his Facebook Page about the standoff between the penguins and a mother goose.

Analysis of social media data showed that more than 7.4 million unique users across 119 countries were reached. But not only was Live Penguin TV displayed on millions of screens, people were highly engaged and interacted with the content – liking, sharing and commenting on the posts.

The top-performing post was on launch night, with more than 771,000 viewers tuning in. Nightly viewership numbers then averaged out to about 25,000, which is a significant sustained engagement over the 112 consecutive days that it aired.

Thousands of comments and questions were posted every night – 1200 on average, but up to about 5000 on popular nights, posing real challenges for chat moderation and management.

The preliminary findings of an online survey, alongside a sentiment analysis of social media data, revealed a number of insights.

Live Penguin TV became a ritual for viewers during the lockdown in Victoria. Many respondents reported watching by themselves or with family on a nightly basis, and most at least once weekly.

A major theme was that Live Penguin TV helped viewers cope with lockdown isolation – especially for those suffering from extreme loneliness, deep depression and anxiety during that dark time.

Live Penguin TV generated a sense of community with other viewers and a sense of connection with the outside world, especially nature and wildlife, as well as a reminiscence of pre-COVID times with people reflecting on past travels, all of which supported wellbeing.

Viewers collectively referred to themselves as “Waddle Watchers”, and after the final nightly livestream aired after 112 consecutive days, they established a private Facebook group for interested viewers to keep in touch. Viewers highly valued the regular park ranger hosts, who became celebrity-like and felt like close friends, with viewers reporting wanting to visit the Penguin Parade in order to meet and thank them.

Read more: Penguins, poo and the surprising ‘junk food’ discovery in their diet

From a tourism management perspective, the findings indicate that Live Penguin TV positively influenced travel motivation and actual visitation to the Penguin Parade, as well as Phillip Island Nature Parks‘ other sites, including the Koala Conservation Centre, the Nobbies Centre and Churchill Island Heritage Farm.

Intention to travel interstate to Victoria, and internationally to Australia, were similarly motivated. The conservation messages were positively received, and many viewers were influenced to take conservation action, such as symbolically adopting a penguin and donating to the Penguin Foundation.

These findings suggest that Phillip Island Nature Parks’ innovative approach to virtual tourism experiences during travel restrictions is likely to contribute to the post-COVID recovery for Phillip Island through engaging online audiences to promote increased visitation from both domestic and international eco-centric travellers.

Interactive models of webcam travel may be adopted by other tourism operators or destination management organisations to support similar sustainable tourism and conservation initiatives for wildlife and the natural world.

This article is based on an address Dr Blaer gave at a symposium for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in April 2021.

Madelene Blaer was a lecturer at Monash University at the time of writing this article.