An essential conference at an essential time for Australian tourism

When viewed from above, most of the choices we make around travel actually make no sense at all. We simultaneously splurge and scrimp, we overcommit while trying to relax and have a habit of doing things – that even at the time – we know we’ll regret. 

One way to make sense of these seemingly illogical decisions is to build a better understanding of the behavioural biases that shape them. 

In this presentation, Dan Monheit, founder of Hardhat and one of the industry’s foremost experts in behavioural economics, will outline how to turn irrational human behaviours into better ads, more sales and outstanding customer experiences.

Hawaiian Airlines celebrated its 90th year as Hawaii’s leading air carrier in 2019. As it looks to the future, Avi Mannis, Hawaiian Airlines’ Senior Vice President of Marketing, will discuss how the airline cultivates service culture and brand to create memorable guest experiences. In a marketplace characterised by cookie cutter-leisure travel experiences, Mannis will share how culture, focus and thoughtful design become a source of competitive advantage.

Hawaiian Airlines is expanding its footprint in Australia and New Zealand with direct flights from Honolulu to Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland.

The tourism industry in Australia is in the midst of an extremely challenging time. With significant bushfires having devastated large portions of the country, and coronavirus preventing many from travelling, a large portion of the industry has been affected to varying degrees. 

Represented on this panel are leaders from a cross-section of the marketing industry, each with their own experiences, expertise and ideas that can change the way you and the brand you work for think and act when it comes to responding to the challenge ahead. 

From the real experiences of facing disaster head on to quick thinking and action which leads to real change and even the realities and processes when it comes to what you should do and when, this panel will open up a very relevant discussion for the industry and spark discussion, partnerships and action. 

Storytelling is now a critical component of the travel experience for consumers – whether it’s sharing their stories and experiences or getting #travelinspo from seeing others. From quick weekend getaways in the Blue Mountains to a week diving in the Great Barrier Reef or hitting the slopes in Queenstown consumers are creating, consuming and sharing mobile-first, immersive vertical video content like never before.

For travel businesses who want to execute campaigns that cut through the noise and speak directly to consumers, unlocking this trend is essential.

In this session, Facebook’s Industry Head of Travel Paul Nahoun will map the consumer behavioural shift towards creative sharing and will illustrate how brands can harness the power of storytelling to supercharge sales and build-long lasting brand affinity.

How much does it take to create marketing and customer experience strategies in today’s travel marketing landscape? This marketer led session puts a spot light on the importance of partnerships, and the role they play in realising big ideas for both long and short-term strategies.

Harnessing real examples of travel clients achieving business goals and growing year-on-year, we examine a range of marketing strategies and partnerships, big and small, that have closed the loop on customer conversion and helped to strengthen their brand in market.

One of the greatest challenges in the travel industry today is overtourism. There are several consequences of overtourism, including degradation of natural environments, increase of local rent prices and overcrowding of popular landmarks and attractions.

As marketers it is our responsibility to ensure that we can support tourism diversification by spreading out tourists and avoiding heavy concentrations in iconic locations. It is essential that we can provide travellers with as much choice as possible and encourage them to spread out and explore new places.

Jonathan Williams, Marketing Director for Australia and New Zealand at Klook, a travel activities and services booking platform, will discuss how technology can diversify tours and activities including three key ways Klook is tackling the issue of overtourism,

Based in Klook’s Sydney office, Jonathan oversees the integrated marketing efforts to build Klook’s brand presence in the ANZ region, ranging from social media campaigns and affiliate partnerships to marketing activations.

Thirty percent of the Adelaide Hills wine region has been destroyed while more than 52,000 live stock has been lost on Kangaroo Island. That is, unfortunately, just scratching the surface of the devastation that an already drought affected South Australia has experienced recently.

The media and marketing industry has become key to recovery efforts across affected areas of Australia. In the case of South Australia, a large part of that was driven by the South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) and its Executive Director of Marketing, Brent Hill. 

#BookThemOut was one of the major outcomes – a campaign that has garnered significant support and results. The campaign has supported various affected areas and been real about the extent of the damage, showcasing recent images of scorched landscapes but highlighting the positive attitudes of the business owners fighting for survival. 

Hill, who was already scheduled to speak at the Mumbrella Travel Marketing Summit, will now pivot his session to share with delegates the story of the SATC’s reaction to the emergency situation and execution of its ideas. 

He’ll illustrate how to think quick, unite the team and execute in a limited time frame.

Technology and consumer expectations are evolving at an exponential rate and with competition increasing and margins tightening, is there a recipe to profitably and how can brands win the hearts and minds of the traveller as we move in to 2020 and beyond?

At Mumbrella’s Travel Marketing Summit, Michelle Allen, Google’s Head of Travel will deep dive into current macro trends, technology advancements, travel ecosystems and the evolving consumer.

In this session, Allen will discuss how these trends are going to shape the future of the travel industry and what travel brands can do to embrace and succeed in this fast evolving future.

Optional – held during lunch

• Tourism in NSW with Jan Hutton, General Manager, Marketing, Destination NSW
• Chinese Tourism with Yin Yu, founder, ReadySetGo China
• PR and messaging with Snezna Kerekovic, Thrive PR and Bushfire PR Alliance
• Regional Partnerships with Andrea Plawutsky, Best Western Hotels Group

Originally set to discuss the growth of The Bali Bible and building a business on user generated content, Gordy Bayne will now pivot to deliver a session about growth from a number of different perspectives.

2020 will be crucial for the tourism industry in Australia, and Bayne will share 10 Travlr’s plans for the year in light of the bushfires and coronavirus.

He’ll openly discuss the crisis, the changing perceptions of travel suppliers and the customer issues that are most challenging in a fragmented marketplace. 

Bayne will still share the story of the growth of The Bali Bible and its partnership with Ten in a condensed version to allow him to discuss the revised topics.

The Baby Boomer generation is often rich in time, ambitious to travel and willing to put money towards travelling, but how exactly can travel brands and destinations tap into a market that is often marketed to in ways that assume too much about them?

This session will reveal exclusive research conducted for Mumbrella’s Travel Marketing Summit which will shed light on which media outlets are trusted and ignored, which booking services are favoured, the value of online reviews, the perceived value of travel agents, what challenges trust when making booking decisions, what devices they use to book on and whether or not face to face contact results in a higher spend. 

Hear from YourLifeChoices’ Kaye Fallick as she shares which brands are trusted the most across airlines, package holidays, guided tours, accommodation and which travel offerings attract the biggest spend with this demographic. 

Purpose driven brands have been a key talking point for the travel industry, attracting rising interest and scepticism in (almost?) equal measure. As Australian tourism faces one of the most challenging periods in its history what role can brand purpose play?

Discovering the real options and opportunities in brand purpose for travel businesses and destinations is a big challenge. It takes significant time, effort and research to make it work for a brand when time is currently more precious than ever. 

In this session, tourism research expert Carolyn Childs will explore the opportunities, engage the audience and detail the major points in terms of the value of brand purpose to Australian travel brands at the moment.

In today’s marketing landscape the consumer’s path to purchase is becoming more fragmented and nonlinear than ever before. As a destination marketing organisation, understanding this path is a key priority to deliver the right communication to the right audience at the right time.

Working with Australiantraveller.com’s audience and assets. Tourism NT set about intimately investigating the various paths to purchase to understand:

• The types of content that would move audiences through the funnel
• The best performing content at what stage of the path to purchase
• Identifying the user closest to booking travel
• The trigger points leading to conversion

As the project enters its 18th month, Tony Quarmby reveals how a lunch discussion about the difficulties of truly understanding the path to purchase to enable more effective and efficient marketing led to a reality delivering actionable outcomes and conversions. Quentin Long joins Tony to outline how Australiantraveller.com’s digital assets were reshaped into an insights and targeted lead generating marketing platform.

In a world of possibilities, there are myriad reasons why people leave their homes and travel, whether on personal quests or business trips. 

In a series of one-on-one interviews with CEOs, CMOs, product pioneers and marketing leads from across the travel industry, FutureBrand has conducted global research into travel futures. Its research reveals some of the trends shaping the future of travel and identifies which brands are best placed to prosper.

Hear from FutureBrand CEO of Asia Pacific, Richard Curtis, as he explains the findings and their potential for travel marketers. 

In a first for the Mumbrella Travel Marketing Summit, some of the industry’s most influential voices will take part in an interactive panel on the proposition that ‘all travel marketing is irrelevant’.

Thanks to the rise of technology and better, faster transportation, the world feels like a smaller place than it has in the past. Armed with inspiration from their social media feeds, travellers are also more knowledgeable and adventurous than ever. 

It’s time to consider whether travel marketing has a role to play in 2020 and beyond. When travellers are this well-informed, do travel marketers even stand a chance? Do travel marketers have to fundamentally change the nature of what they do to stay relevant? And does travel marketing add any value to visitors and the tourism economy? 

Lauren Quaintance and Andrés López-Varela, co-hosts of The Destinationists and travel marketing commentators, lead a panel discussion to answer these questions and more.

How is it interactive? There will be one spare seat on the panel ready and waiting for anyone who want to get up and join the debate by asking a question or providing a comment. Throw your hand up, jump on stage and have your say.