Current Survey results

Submitted: Wednesday, Jun 26, 2013 at 14:23
ThreadID: 102965 Views:3336 Replies:4 FollowUps:10
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With over 650 entries so far, the results are starting to stack up and some very interesting trends are emerging! For example, it appears most people's last trip away from home was just last month (probably due to the long weekend), with 76% of them choosing to camp, and 85% currently planning a camping trip!

We note some people got confused by our terminology of "camping" - which of course means any mode of portable lodging - ie. camper trailers, caravans, swags, tents where you aren't in a fixed dwelling - then you're camping!

The most common reason given for any non-camping trips was to visit family/friends.
The popular activities so far are emerging as exploring nature, relaxing, and socialising. Gem fossicking is slightly more popular than Gold prospecting followed by metal detecting and then geocaching. However MORE people go hunting (pig etc) than Geocaching! But overwhelmingly, you like to searching for nature/wildflowers and lost gravesites.
The most common reason given for not being able to plan another trip was work (how inconvenient eh?!).

I can see however that we have a lot of work to do to encourage you to share your photos though! The results show that 83% of you make a conscious effort after a trip to download and organise your photos but a dissappointing 11% say they make the effort to post them into Places. That's a shame as you all know how useful it is to see a place you're planning to visit - and Places is the most actively used part of ExplorOz on equal use with the Forum but much better for researching specific places to go so may I encourage you all to think about putting your trip pics into Places when you finish your trips (and whilst you're at it, write a quick review too). You can even send the photo to Places from your mobile phone by sending it via email to places@exploroz.com with the name of the place as your email subject (phone email account must match your registered ExplorOz email account). That way you don't even have to open the website.

So of course, when we get all the results in we will release the final results in chart form and post in our blog. You'll know about it as we'll link to it in a newsletter.

If you haven't yet done the survey, please take a moment to have your circumstances part of our results as this information really helps us make informed assessments of the makeup of our audience which helps steer us in our content directions to continue to be relevant to the majority.

Because we don't ask for your personal details in the questions, we can't know who you are, so to win you need to get to the survey via your personal copy of the newsletter sent to you last Friday by email OR take this link from the newsletter online provided you are logged in - Newsletter 291

The prize on offer is the Super Mini Booster worth $295.

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Reply By: Member - John and Val - Wednesday, Jun 26, 2013 at 17:38

Wednesday, Jun 26, 2013 at 17:38
Hi Michelle,

Some interesting things emerging. I might be among those who are confused by what is meant by "camping", and occasionally I have thought about popping the question on the forum to see what others think. The OED has it as "the activity of spending a holiday living in a tent" - that definition might be a bit narrow given the variety of "portable accommodation" options now in use. But I find it difficult to think of living in a big caravan or motorhome as "camping"?

I have put a few photos into places, but a lot more go into blogs. I wonder if there is a way to link places to photos already posted in other parts of the site? If that was (is?) the case it could speed things up a bit.

If "exploring nature" is coming through as a popular activity it would be good to see more articles supporting that. Would be happy to assist developing material related to wildflowers/vegetation, and there must be others with relevant expertise in other areas (native animals, birds, mineral, rocks etc.)

Certainly look forward to seeing the final results.

Cheers,

Val

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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - Wednesday, Jun 26, 2013 at 23:16

Wednesday, Jun 26, 2013 at 23:16
Hi Val,
Actually yes there is, but at the moment it is a system admin function only. David says he is happy to make that open for people to do also - would just need some foolproofing put into the system first so stay tuned. Thanks for your suggestion and interest in this.
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Reply By: Member - Rod N (QLD) - Thursday, Jun 27, 2013 at 07:46

Thursday, Jun 27, 2013 at 07:46
There appears to be a problem with the link to the news letter. When I hover the thumbnail shows the newsletter but when I click it loops back to this thread. In the address bar if I delete the first part of the address linking to here and leave the second half, which is the newsletter address, I get the actual newsletter. BTW I am using Firefox.
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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - Thursday, Jun 27, 2013 at 09:16

Thursday, Jun 27, 2013 at 09:16
Link to Newsletter 291

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Reply By: Robin Miller - Thursday, Jun 27, 2013 at 12:22

Thursday, Jun 27, 2013 at 12:22
I found the survey hard to answer - it seemed to have no relation to 4wding which seems to me to be one of the main site activites.

Questions 5 & 8 - asking about activites , had no options listing 4wding.

Questions 12 & 16 did not seem to have mainstream activites listed either.

Lucky the catchall "other" option was listed otherwise there was no way the survey could pick up my interest in "4wding" and "finding new tracks" .

Robin


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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - Friday, Jun 28, 2013 at 12:26

Friday, Jun 28, 2013 at 12:26
Robin,
This survey was not about 4WDing. It was about what activities people do when they are travelling. For my purposes with the data, this is the information I was interested in and I have got the results that I needed to make the decisions that will made as a result.
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Reply By: Sigmund - Thursday, Jun 27, 2013 at 18:44

Thursday, Jun 27, 2013 at 18:44
Well Michelle, the two results in your first para could then have been expected.

There's no 'of course' about what camp meant. It should've been defined in the questionnaire.

Q3: 'typically the main reason...'? This is an odd and lazy question.

Q5: options poorly defined. What does 'searching' mean. Multiple tick opportunities should've been signalled.

Q6: be interested to know if anyone spent nothing on their last trip away.

Q10: I ticked 3 and added 4 under 'other'. Was that informative?

I applaud your efforts at getting data to inform site development.

As a trained social researcher I doubt that this effort is reliable. Sorry to be blunt.

You have multiple audience and participant groups. Don't think of 'typical' or 'the majority'.
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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - Friday, Jun 28, 2013 at 12:29

Friday, Jun 28, 2013 at 12:29
I was indeed looking for majority and typical as a result of this survey. That data is very important to business, particularly in difficult economic times. When we assess added new range to our shop we need to achieve a certain turnover to ensure it is viable for our inventory. Data such as this, helps us make those decisions.
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Follow Up By: Sigmund - Friday, Jun 28, 2013 at 12:40

Friday, Jun 28, 2013 at 12:40
You have a lot of members here, and no wonder as it's a fantastic resource.

In marketing terms that means you can afford to think about different segments.

Good luck.
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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - Friday, Jun 28, 2013 at 12:49

Friday, Jun 28, 2013 at 12:49
How interesting to see an issue with the term "camping"? I certainly saw no need for defining the word "camping" when it is universally recognised as meaning you go away from home and take the necessary gear so you can sleep out of your home. Whether you chose to lie on the ground beside the fire, in a tent, in any type of towable camper or caravan, or even your motorhome, it doesn't change the fact you are camping. Sorry if it caused a problem for you.
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Follow Up By: ExplorOz - Friday, Jun 28, 2013 at 12:57

Friday, Jun 28, 2013 at 12:57
Sigmund are you new? This is the 3rd survey this year and each has had a very different focus. Perhaps you missed the previous one. We have run many surveys over the years, and we have a lot of day-to-day data flooding in all the time and we know the diversity of our audience very very well. But sometimes we feel the need to target a particular topic where the facts are not always clear, or where trends and habits change over time. Sometimes we resurvey on some of the topics we've previously covered for that same reason. Sometimes surveys serve to confirm facts we already know. Other times they pick up things we didn't expect. They always help to identify trends and what is agreed by the majority. All results are valuable.
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Follow Up By: Sigmund - Friday, Jun 28, 2013 at 13:15

Friday, Jun 28, 2013 at 13:15
I'm sorry Michelle; I appear to have got your back up.

Been here for about 4 years I think.

You need info about your market to make business decisions. The better the info the better those decisions will be.

To take camping the way you've defined it, with 40 years experience there appears to me to be several segments in that market:

1. Lightweight and/or low cost (usually walkers)
2. Stand-up tent pitchers (on- and off-road)
3. Camper trailer users (ditto)
4. Caravan and similar users (ditto)

They have varying needs and budgets. Some needs will be common (eg. nav.), some not.
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Follow Up By: Sigmund - Monday, Jul 01, 2013 at 20:39

Monday, Jul 01, 2013 at 20:39
Was that helpful Michelle?
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Follow Up By: BobT3218 - Friday, Jul 05, 2013 at 09:54

Friday, Jul 05, 2013 at 09:54
The problem with posting photos is that it's so damn difficult. Each site is different and has to be learnt. I post from Lightroom to SmugMug and Facebook and that's hassle enough. If someone can write a Lightroom plug-in for ExploreOz I'll be in it. For what it's worth, these are my Aussie landscapes http://www.bobtrlin.com/Landscapes/Landscapes-Australia/8818341_sSCQJt#!i=819808379&k=Sm6WcpH
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