Queensland’s DestinationQ Tourism Industry Forum ‘Journey to 2032: Building on our strengths’
Tilma Group’s Director, Linda Tillman, attended Queensland’s tourism industry forum, DestinationQ, and shares her key takeaways.
Buzzwords throughout many of the sessions were headwinds, resilience, leaning into, rebound.
EarthCheck Responsible Event
DestinationQ achieved Responsible Event Status via EarthCheck’s EventCheck program.
EventCheck provides a practical framework for event organisers to measure and minimise the environmental, social, and economic impact of their events.
Through the program, the forum’s organisers captured data to calculate the forum’s carbon footprint, as well as identified sustainable goals, commited to sustainable actions, and addressed the forum’s potential impacts of the forum.
DestinationQ attendees were asked to answer a few simple questions around their travel and attendance to help calculate the event’s carbon emissions, which will be removed through native reforestation in Queensland via Reforest and GreenFleet.
Welcome to Country
Rory O’Connor and Shaun Davies introduced attendees to the Yugambeh language, and invited us to consider what we can do as tourism operators to share our region’s Indigenous language.
Premier’s opening address
The premier announced the state’s new tourism strategy and Queensland’s Year of Accessible Tourism.
Towards Tourism 2032 state tourism strategy
The Honourable Stirling Hinchliffe MP, Minister for Tourism, Innovation and Sport and Minister Assisting the Premier on Olympics and Paralympics Sport and Engagement, and Liz Savage, Tourism Industry Reference Panel Chair, discussed the new long-term tourism strategy for Queensland.
Year of Accessible Tourism
Queensland’s Year of Accessible Tourism initiatives include
$10 million Accessible Tourism Queensland Fund to help small and medium sized tourism businesses develop or enhance accessibility
Awareness and Capability program to complete a state-wide assessment of tourism infrastructure accessibility and tourism business capability; for activities that raise awareness of accessibility needs and disability services support for visitors, workers and the community; and to build the capability of tourism businesses to support workers with disability
Visitor Experience Development initiatives that promote Queensland’s accessible tourism experiences: collating information on such experiences; capturing images, videos and stories on accessible tourism businesses; and a marketing campaign.
Zack Alcott from Get Skilled Access hosts a panel discussion with Hailey Brown from Vacayit, a travel platform for travellers with a visual impairment, Naomi Miles from the Australian Age of Dinosaurs, and Nick Morris from Morris Goding Access Consulting (MGAC) and Board Member of the Spinal Research Institute on findings from recent accessible tourism projects, easy ways to make businesses more accessible for people of all abilities, and examples of accessible tourism excellence and design
DestinationIQ update
A summary of DestinationIQ, Queensland’s Indigenous tourism forum, was provided.
Led by the local First Nations people, Cairns is developing an Indigenous tourism strategy, a blueprint for other regions.
Economic Outlook for Tourism
KPMG shared that strong demand and supply disruptions will be challenging and confronting.
The economy is running very hot right now - we do want it (and need it) to slow down so business can be manageable and sustainable. Though spending will slow down overall, people will still prioritise experiences and holidays.
The long-term economic outlook is positive for tourism: as household income goes up more gets spent on travel and tourism.
There are also plenty of new markets to develop, particularly in Asia (India , Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and The Philippines). There is strong growth in these countries and rising incomes – there’s a big opportunity for tourism to take advantage of this.
Migration into Australia is very positive. A rise in temporary visa applications means we should start to see these working holiday makers in Australia very soon, which will be a big help with labour shortages.
Australia remains an attractive destination for students, and student visa applications are rising which will also help with labour shortages.
(No video is available of this session.)
Airline capacity projections
E-aircraft will be the way forward for regional travel - it will be here by 2025.
New Zealand is introducing zero-emissions aircraft into the fleet from 2030, and will have their first zero emissions flights from 2026
Understanding visitor expectations - new trends
WPP provided their research highlights, comparing 2018 to 2022
What can the Queensland tourism industry do?
Up the ante on adventure and sun
Relaxation IS Queensland so own this
Provide good value for money
Trends
Flexi-work and working while on holiday
Serious comfort - feeling a little bit special and spoilt - people want to feel like it’s worth it
Party of one - those that love travelling solo
Planning is very short term! This trend is here to stay, so we need to get our head around it
Panel discussion
Dr Sarah Hunter of KPMP, Dr Tony Webber of Airline Intelligence Research, and Rose Herceg of WPP discussed
• Solutions to staff shortages
• How operators can ride through this uncertain period
• The cause of high jet fuel prices and when they will reduce
• Working from home and working holidays – will this trend last?
Customer First Planning panel discussions
Using tech to enhance the visitor experience
Lauren Hall from iVvy, Gudju Gudju Fourmile from AppOriginee, and Greg Shaw from Mulpha discussing examples of how businesses are using technology to deliver an enhanced visitor experience.
Arts and events
John Collins from Fortitude Music Hall, Louise Bezzina from Brisbane Festival, and Kate Gould from Brisbane Powerhouse discuss the return of the arts post-pandemic, changing customer demands, how tech has changed events, and the value to the regions of the Queensland Music Trails.
Tourism skills and workforce development
Sarah Derry from Accor hosted a panel discussion with Amanda Hinton from Savannah Guides, Julie Telford from Red Cat Adventures, Jayme Cuttriss from Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on attracting and retaining workers, workforce capabilities and skills development/multi-skilling, localised solutions/adaptability, and using technology to support workforce attraction and development.
Regenerative Tourism
Andrew McEvoy, QTIC Board Director and former CEO Tourism Australia hosted a panel discussion with Simon Thornalley from Saltwater Eco Tours, Tara Bennett from Port Douglas-Daintree local tourism organisation, Ali Khan from Narrows Escape Rainforest Retreat, and Chriss Briggs from SeaLink Travel Group on increasing the sustainability of tourism businesses and destinations, particularly considering the emissions from flights from Australia’s key markets on the other side of the planet. They discussed practical ways and ideas to reduce costs, energy and waste, eco-certified destinations, increasing sustainability in tourism, and regenerative experiences.
Types of experiences in demand that Queensland has strengths in in terms of regenerative tourism:
Sun and sea – let’s reinvent the beach holiday
Culture and heritage
Adventure - which has the biggest growth in demand
Learn how your businesses can introduce changes to reduce emissions by saving money with Ecobiz by Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland
Over to you
What did you learn at DestinationQ?
What will you apply in your business?
Please share via the comments below.