Stop Selling Tickets And Start Selling Trust

Travel is still happening, but the way people choose outdoor experiences is shifting under our feet. We’re seeing it in Canberra, across NSW, and in every conversation with operators: visitors are more selective, more anxious about wasting money, and far less patient with clunky booking paths. We call it a value of living crisis, not just a cost of living crisis, and it forces all of us in outdoor tourism and outdoor education to get sharper about what we offer and how we explain it.

We break down what current tourism research signals about today’s visitor, why overnight stays matter so much to the visitor economy, and how destinations can win when operators collaborate instead of competing in isolation. Then we get practical: mapping the visitor journey, finding friction points by booking your own product, and strengthening “bookability” as search moves toward the no click revolution where AI can answer weekend plans without sending people to your website.

We also share what we’ve learned from years of tourism awards judging, including how to prove impact with evidence, tell a story with real passion, and use recognition or award programs as a genuine professional development process. Finally, we walk through the AAAS review: where to download the draft standards and good practice guides, how to use the feedback portal, key consultation dates, and what to expect from the upcoming AAAS guidance hub.

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Transcript

Welcome And Acknowledgement Of Country

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to the Outdoors New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, weekly Outdoor Industry Connect and Share Forum. Where ideas thrive, collaborations spark, and our industry comes together to grow. Let's connect, share, and make an impact. This episode is recorded live with our professional outdoor friends and provided post-event as a resource for the outdoor industry.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Good morning everyone. Welcome to our Connect and Share this morning. And it's the 3rd of July, which means all the teachers across New South Wales and ACT are breathing a sigh of relief. They've got to the end of term two and have a couple of weeks of leisure ahead of them. So well done for getting through term two, everyone. We are here on Duragland today, and I've been on Nunnawal Country, and I can see we've got quite a spread of countries represented here today, and I'd love to acknowledge the traditional owners and the lands on which we all come from today. And may extend a gratitude and thanks and respects for all our Aboriginal elders, past, present, and those emerging. Okay, I think we're all going to be getting up very early tomorrow. Well done for the Socceros. We're really excited that they've got through this far. We're proud of them no matter what the result, but let's hope they win as well. So good luck and uh we'll see you on the other side.

Canberra Catch Ups And Advocacy Work

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Uh this week I've been in Canberra, and uh thanks to those that rocked up to our Canberra Meet meetup in uh the beautiful Kingston Hotel. Some new faces, some not so new faces, but it was great conversation and always good to find out what's happening around the grounds down in the ACT. Um so, yes, thank you for coming along. Just before that, Pete and I had uh had the privilege of meeting with a Chinese delegation who wanted to talk about outdoor education. So we had a great opportunity to have some good discussion around what happens in New South Wales and the ACT when it comes to outdoor ed, as China are looking at their emergency service procedures when it comes to outdoor education. So they wanted to get a bit of a feel for what happens down here and uh what they could either learn from or take away and implement in China. So it was good to build some relationships across the world and um yeah, showcase what we do so well down here in Australia. I also caught up with some few parliamentary friends running around the halls of parliament, making sure we've got our uh our message very loud and clear around uh the outdoor council of Australia and trying to advocate for more opportunities that the outdoor industry could provide. Also jumped in and saw the guys at Scouts out at Cottermouth, which was great to see uh how good that place is looking. Um, and uh yeah, they've got some good projects on the boil and some very exciting things coming up in the future. So well done to Joe and uh and Sammy and all the guys at Camp Cottermouth. And then

Tourism Forum Takeaways From Canberra

SPEAKER_01 3:15

I presented yesterday at the Canberra Regional Tourism Forum with many hats I was wearing in the day. I think I was meant to represent Chair of Judges for the Australian Tourism Awards, but of course, as I always do, I try to get a few outdoor messages in there and uh support uh the growth of tourism in Canberra by connecting with nature experiences and uh the importance of how just one night's accommodation can make a big difference to an economy when it comes to tourism. So um, yeah, I was co-presenting with the wonderful Matt from the Australian War Memorial, what an inspiration person he is, and the amazing stories that come from the war memorial. Uh he had most of the audience in tears, so I can't wait to get back down and uh experience it for myself. But uh his vision and his legacy certainly uh lives on in that wonderful establishment. Um I thought I'd take you through the presentation, so sorry, Rowan, you're gonna have to sit through it again, but I thought I'd give you a bit of a snapshot of uh of what I covered because it's always it's always good to resonate um with us, you know, anywhere where we are on the changing landscape that is from our tourism market. So, what I highlighted was that the market is moving and the visitor uh is actually changing. Um, excellence is also quite visible across the country, and we need to learn from some of those experiences and showcase them as well. Certainly, Canberra and New South Wales have a huge opportunity to lead in this space with capitalising on that market move and how the visitor has changed. And then I gave everyone a challenge to do three actions by the end of July. So let's see if any of this resonates with you. And just to precurse this, this is obviously a very tourism uh-driven presentation. Um, so for those that uh are just in the education field, um, still have a look. You might see some things in here around some of the market wants and needs will still resonate with um with the education market. So

Visitor Trends And Overnight Spend Reality

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Canberra's um stats are quite interesting. Across the board, the forecast for tourism is actually very quite promising. Um, the actual targets for the uh the tourism dollar uh is actually very close to the forecast. So we're challenging everyone to lift our opportunity here and really push some targets from the government and see if we can't strive for something a little bit greater than what's just forecast. But the good news is everyone's still planning travel and everyone is wanting to include that no matter the cost of living crisis, they're always wanting to factor in that leisure experience. So domestic overnight visitors is actually 82% of the whole of Canberra's economic spend. And uh when you look at that in comparison to day trips, obviously it's it's significant. So you can see there that ACT has gone down in its number of domestic overnights, but it actually has risen quite substantially in its spend for day trips. So this is a really interesting uh dichotomy that they're they're facing in the fact that while they're increasing um spend, it is a very, very small part of the market. So it's not sustainable for um for the ACT or Canberra. So what I wanted to really hit home was that this is an opportunity really for operators to earn that um that dollar and uh try to convert that into that overnight stay, as I mentioned. So we need to show value, we need to show that we're worth that spend, and I'll tell you exactly how we do that on this slide. So all the research through Tourism Research Australia from Tourism Australia Futures, uh, Oz Trade, TripAdvisor, Expedia, they're all saying the same thing that these five things are incredibly important in today's visitor. And that uh that one on the bottom left-hand side, the nature and well-being, has crept in in the last five to ten years and is increasing, uh, particularly the well-being side. And uh certainly all of the government um uh research agencies and departments are trying to understand, you know, the potential of this market. We only know too well in our in our scenario how important that is. So we need to factor obviously our messages very clearly and directly through this. But our

Value Crisis Plus No Click Booking

SPEAKER_01 7:39

visitor is looking for value, and um, as I said, it's cost of living crisis, is what you see on headlines. Um, I like to term it it's a value crisis. So it's about trying to understand where my money is being put versus where it has to be. And um, I think if we explain our value a lot better, um certainly we will get better cut-through. But that meaning you can't discount. It's about understanding your story, your place, your identity. And this even comes into some of the things uh in clubs and uh you know, paddle clubs and bushwalking clubs and things like that, where we're trying to get more people involved. Telling those stories is incredibly important to resonate with our potential audience because that's what's going to bring them in, and that's when they start seeing that value. But the ease of booking is just as important, and um I know I've gone through this with some of you, some of our members in our strategy sessions, and you know, navigating your booking engines, looking at your website. Um, this is now even more important than ever before because we're in this no-click revolution. That means that when someone goes into Google and they say, What can I do this weekend? AI will tell them exactly what they can do this weekend. And that means that they may not even click on a website to book. They may just take that information and just uh turn up and see what happens. So we've got to get it very clearly through our systems about that content, and using AI is a great way to do that because you're feeding that engine with the information that uh that you have. So um trust is that last one there. And this is incredibly important. You've probably heard me speak about this from the McCrindle research as well, that um, you know, people are willing to transact if they trust the professionalism, the confidence. Uh I used an example which was very real that day. I had a bank issue and trying to talk to someone to deal with a bank issue where my money is, you know, I had no trust in that process because I wasn't actually contacted by anyone. I was told to go to a bot all the time. Um, I tried six times to call, telling them different words, hoping that someone would be put me through. But um, you know, that just eroded that trust and confidence I had in the bank to fix my issue. So, really, all our best operators are not just selling a ticket, a room, or a tour. They're actually trying to really sell a confident story that people are going to know is a great experience and they want it. They're going to reduce that anxiety and cut through. And then

What Awards Reveal About Excellence

SPEAKER_01 10:24

we talked about the awards. So, this is something that I've been judging for 20 years now. Yes, I started when I was 12. Um, and um, that has been a great process in understanding um really what resonates with our customers today, but what is excellence in our tourism industry? So the things that we look for as judges is if the business actually knows their customer. You know, the three rules of marketing were always know your customer, know your customer, know your customer. So, you know, really that's so important because when that customer changes their perspective, wants something different, you are able to react to that. So that is incredibly important. Tell the story, be the passion behind your story. And yes, I know AI can write these submissions, but I've got to tell you the judges see through that because the passion and what is connecting to the owner or the manager or the staff just isn't present. So having that passion in there is incredibly important and resonating with that story and collaboration. We um we need to see more collaboration in destinations if we're going to really keep people that extra night. It's that connection to all the experiences that people might want to have a look at or be part of, and it could be a nice little rounded package that makes it a little bit easier for them to transact with. Measuring impact is incredibly important because that comes down to judges assessing the success of that business and certainly improving that visibility and innovation and sustainability and really good practice. So if you are entering awards, I give you this little tip at the bottom. The context is around the question. So when they ask you a question, give them the context and how it relates to your business. What action did you take on that? What was the result? But the most important thing of any award submission is if you don't prove it, then you might lose substantial marks. So it's actually saying, yes, here's a testimonial that says what I've just said is true. Here are the results, here's the graph, here's the data that verifies this is actual. So then we talked about Canberra's advantage, and like I say, New South Wales has got this advantage too, because we've got lots of events, we've got lots of food and wine, and we have some amazing, amazing experiences. So it's about not being one thing and selling a destination, and that's what's going to resonate with people because they get to feel that they're coming to a place that's got lots on offer, not just the one experience. But it needs to be obstacle-free. As I said at the forum yesterday, who has actually booked their own product? I think about 20% put their hand up. So I challenge the other 80% to do that because then they'll actually understand the friction points that they are experiencing booking their own tour or experience. Try to lessen that friction because that's so, so important today. So the five moves for operators, certainly looking at packaging around events and other things that are going on in your destination. Turn it into longer stays by combining that experience and definitely strengthen that bookability. How easy is it to access? What are the information points? Where can I clarify all the content that people need? And then building that cross-referrals to, you know, three to five operators if you want to challenge yourself, or if it if you are already doing that, just do one more. But entering awards and any sort of recognition program, you've got to treat it like a professional development exercise, not just a recognition platform, because it's reviewing what you've done that's going to help you think about opportunities that might come into the future. And I've witnessed some amazing organizations that are mum and dad businesses go through the awards process and have just come out the other end with an amazing product. And they do put it down to the process they go through in entering these awards. But I did bring a word of caution that we're not all bells and roses at the moment. Um, we do have some challenges, and unfortunately, the media has been in control of this. So we're going to have some rocky times. But you know, if we as the industry knows what's happening, we can tell our story, we know our numbers on what is break-even and what is where the profit is. If we know our risks and we know our story, it's a lot easier to then cut through. So this is really the leadership shift that I talk about when it comes to tourism operators in today's world. So by the end of July, I said to them, right, review your visitor journey, map it out, let's see where the friction points are and remove them. Second one is build that new partnership. How do you reference someone else's experience that is going to entice your experience to be something more than what it is? And then start the evidence trial. Start collecting all those things that, you know, gets you your opportunity to review your business and then um put it into the awards. You never know how you'll go. So, yeah, that was my presentation to uh to the audience yesterday. I hope you got something from that. But let's go on to more news. And

Jobs Events And Industry Updates

SPEAKER_01 15:43

just a reminder that uh Jesse and the board from Bushwalking New South Wales are hiring. They've got a part-time role there uh for someone to step in and uh help out the operations of Bushwalking New South Wales. Did you want to say anything else on that, Jesse? No, oh good, covered it for you. Great, and just I wanted to congratulate again our wonderful finalists for the top tour guide award. This is not being announced till August, um, but we just want to highlight the how many great adventure operators are in our top tour guide awards this year. So well done, team, for all of your efforts and good luck. And this is another reminder around the vet qualification review. So the outdoor leadership and uh recreation qualification review is hitting ground on the next round on the 21st of July, which means if you're not registered for the project updates, you may not get this in your inbox. So if you're interested, make sure you register for those project updates just off the Human Ability website. And our events are just around the corner. Yes, I've got a little croaky voice at the moment. I'm just getting my cold out of the way, so there I'm going to be totally fine for my events from the 15th of July. But these are looking amazing. Um, I've seen a lot of bookings come through this week, so I'm looking forward to getting through that today and seeing where we're landing with numbers, but they look incredible. And uh don't forget we've got the fabulous Maggie Dent joining us on uh Friday morning, the 17th of July. So that's going to be a treat for everyone uh who's attending. There is only eight positions left for the Pinnacle Leadership Programme, and this will close in a couple of weeks. So if you know someone that wants to take advantage of this uh heavily discounted opportunity for the Pinnacle Leadership Program, please let them know and we'll hook them up with an opportunity. Now

AAAS Review Drafts And Feedback Steps

SPEAKER_01 17:42

I wanted to take you through the AAAS review. I'm actually delivering this presentation at midday, so if you're registered for it, you may not need to attend now because I'm actually giving it to you here. Um, this is an incredibly important um document and uh resource for the outdoor industry. It has been in existence since 2018, and uh this was a significant time frame to just review where it sits and uh where it's up to. So the process has been going since March last year, and we are now at the stage where, as of this morning, it hit the airwaves with the draft documents. So, this is your opportunity to have a look at them, pull them down off the website, and uh and certainly to have your say. So, let me take you through what um we will be covering. Uh, this is our board, our current board for the OCA, and uh we have an incredible skills base around the table who really forging forward with the uh the vision for what the outdoor industry can be. So incredibly thankful that I have a fabulous board behind me on this project. So the review. The review release, as I said, was released at 9am this morning. I'll take you through how to access the draft documents. I'll then take you through how to lodge feedback through the process and the consultation timeframe. We'll also look at what support is available for the industry during the consultation period and then what is the future with our new AAAS Information Hub. So here is the website, outdoorcouncilastralia.com slash AAAS Review. That will take you straight to the best source of all the content that you will need. You can see there that it takes you to the AAAS Review website. And when you scroll down, you will see all of the standard, the core good practice guide, and all of the activity good practice guides for you to download. There's just a couple that we'll be uploading in the next hour, but uh most of them are there. So you can start downloading and having a good look. So once you've had a look and you have some feedback, you can follow the link, which is just under that on the website, to the feedback portal. As you go through that, you can see those boxes on screen there. You literally tap on the one that you want to comment on and it takes you into a survey platform. It looks like this. So you have an option to comment on all sections of the document, all one, or a couple. Um, so go through the process. You can start with one section of the document, and then that will actually ask you, okay, which line area, subsection are you talking about? And what is your feedback? Is it keep it as is, is it clarifying, is it absolutely changing it? Uh, what is the feedback you would like to give? After you've conducted that, it's actually going to say, do you want to continue with the core or do you want to exit? And that'll take you back to the feedback portal. If you want to continue, then you can have a comment on management of risk or planning or diversity, equity, excuse, etc. So it should be relatively simple to navigate, um, and hopefully you'll be able to jump in and have your say. And here's the key time frames that you need to know. So it opened today, it closes on the 31st of July. August will be our consolidation period, and then to amend anything according to the comments and the feedback that we get, and then we'll be releasing it in September, just in time for the National Outdoor Education Conference, because we will be there and be able to answer any questions or support industry in understanding some of the elements. And here is the support for you. So, as I say, today I'll be doing exactly what you're hearing right now: a bit of an intro briefing on how to access and what to navigate. Uh, that will happen at 12 o'clock Sydney time on today, the Friday, the 3rd of July. Then there is a whole series of webinars, which it doesn't mean you have to be in Victoria if you want to join the Victorian one, and it doesn't mean you have to be in Queensland if you want to join the Queensland one. You can join any of them that you want to. It will have exactly the same content, but it might be the time zone that suits you. So jump in and you can register off the website to attend any of those webinars. And those webinars will take you through the changes. It'll tell you exactly what we've been concentrating on in the review and some of the key changes that have been instigated. And then the final one on the 28th of July, again hosted by myself, will be the National Synthesis. So that'll give us a really good clear direction on where the themes of the comments are coming from, and also an opportunity for QA. So if anyone has any things that they want to clarify at that point, that's a great opportunity to do it. And the

AAAS Guidance Hub And Final Wrap

SPEAKER_01 22:53

most exciting news is that we are building the AAAS guidance hub. So this won't be available for the draft, but it will be available for the final release. So this is a curated GPT, if you want to call it that, that will be secured by the AAAS documents. So it's not going to bring in some unfactual items, it's not going to pull from other standards and things like that. It is purely your AAAS guidance hub. So this gives you a great opportunity to throw up your own risk management plans and say, how do these compare with the current AAAS? Where are the gaps in my own risk management processes to the AAAS? Here is our policy on XYZ. How does that relate to the AAAS? So it's going to give you a great tool to be able to refine your processes. What it won't do, and this has been a very conscious decision, is provide your risk management plan. As we know, templates are the worst thing we can do in environments like ours because people don't own that mitigation and that risk. So they tend to just uh you know put it on the shelf and it's there. And it also will just help you guide in what page numbers to refer to, um, what things to think about. So, yeah, that'll hit the ground in September. It will be a great resource for everyone that is in the outdoor industry. So there we go. Happy reading on all of the GPGs and the core and the standard, and um looking forward to receiving a lot of those content items from yourself about the feedback. So that's all we had for you today in today's Connect and Share. So I might close off the recording. Thank everyone for being here, and we will see you all next week. Have a great weekend, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Thank you for joining the weekly Outdoor Industry Connect and Share Forum. Brought to you by Outdoors, New South Wales, and Australian Capital Territory, your peak body for the outdoor industry. Together with our members, we're shaping the future of the outdoors. See you next week for more insights and collaboration.