Tourism trio partners with regions to drive capability

Three tourism experts are joining forces to build operator capability in some of the most dynamic and fast-changing areas of the industry.

Dylan Rushbrook, Tony Boot and Alex Bayes are collaborating with four Regional Tourism Organisations to present the Tourism Transforming Workshop throughout the country in late March.

Created to help tourism operators embrace and leverage change for business growth, the initiative has been commissioned by various RTO’s to up-skill operators in digital marketing, attracting/retaining talent, and catering to non-English speaking markets.

Delivered in three parts, Rushbrook will cover tourism’s current and future resourcing challenges, sharing practical tips on how to be an attractive employer and how tourism businesses can get the best from their team.

“The sourcing, retaining and development of talent in tourism has been a long-term source of discussion and a topic I’ve been passionate about for many years,” says Rushbrook.

“I can’t wait to share that passion and some key pointers operators can use to improve in this area.”

Boot will explore the changing ethnic composition of both domestic and international travelers, covering key ways to promote to these markets as well as ideas to improve their visitor experience for the non-English speaking guest.

Understanding what the changing ‘face’ of travelers means for both marketing and product experience will help operators make the most of increasing arrival numbers from countries that are non-English speaking, says Boot.

“New Zealand is one of the most culturally and language diverse countries in the world, both in terms of the people who live here, as well as the people who visit. There’s huge opportunity for tourism to better cater to this diversity – both in marketing and in customer experience.”

A segment on embracing and leveraging online travel research and booking trends will be presented by Bayes. Operators will come away with a framework for a digital activity plan that they will begin in the workshop.

Bayes says online research and booking behavior is changing at a rapid rate - requiring regular up-skilling and learning.

“Digital empowers tourism operators to lift online sales, deepen brand messages and delight guests at every stage. Best practice in 2019 looks very different to what it was five years ago – which is why there’s such a need for this kind of up-skilling.”

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