Program available now
Be part of the much-anticipated 2026 ART Convention to be held at Saltwater, Busselton, WA. Meet and engage with fellow colleagues and hear from industry professionals over a jam-packed program.
*Program subject to change
DAY ONE: Tuesday 20 October 2026
| Time | Session + details |
| 5.30pm – 8.00pm |
Welcome Reception Shelter Brewery |
DAY TWO: Wednesday 21 October 2026
Venue: Saltwater Busselton
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8.00am |
Registrations Open |
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8.30am |
Welcome Address from Master of Ceremonies Regional Leadership – The True Test of your Metal Regional tourism leadership has evolved dramatically, moving from what was once viewed as a ‘cottage industry’ to a sophisticated and highly professional sector driving economic growth, employment, infrastructure and investment across Australia. With greater government and private investment has come increased accountability, requiring regional leaders to navigate complexity, build strong connections with industry and community, and think strategically about the future. This opening address will explore what contemporary regional leadership looks like, why the expectations have never been higher, and the importance of looking beyond local boundaries to challenge the status quo, think big and consider regional tourism through a national and global lens. |
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9.00am |
Welcome Address by ART |
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9.15am |
The Future of Tourism Robin Mack, Managing Director, Tourism Australia |
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9.30am |
Office of the Visitor Economy (Austrade) Address Nicholas Dowie, General Manager, Office of Tourism and Visitor Economy |
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10.00am – 10.30am |
MORNING TEA |
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10.30am |
AI Just Stole Your Google Search Traffic. What Are You Going to Do About It? Hannah Statham, Media Mortar AI hasn’t just disrupted search, it has completely rewritten the rules. The only problem is most of us in RTO, LTO, and LGA land are still playing by the old ones. As AI-powered tools and answer engines replace traditional search journeys, brands are losing visibility in places they once dominated. Traffic is no longer guaranteed by ranking first on Google. The way people discover, evaluate, and choose has fundamentally shifted. The new reality is this – AI doesn’t rank your page. It selects your answer. And if you don’t adjust to this new reality, your destination risks being completely invisible to potential visitors. In 2026, the destination that provides the best answer to a query wins, often before the user ever visits a website. This keynote unpacks what that change really means for you. We’ll explore how consumer behaviour is evolving from keyword searches to conversational prompts, and why being “findable” now depends on how well your content can be interpreted by AI systems. It’s no longer about clicks. It’s about being chosen. Join Hannah Statham and learn how to stand out to the bots through human-centred and written content. |
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11.00am |
The ART Social Impact Project |
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11.10am |
Panel 1 – Tourism for Good Tourism can do more than attract visitors and drive economic growth, it can strengthen communities, protect culture and the environment, and improve the places people call home. This session will explore how tourism is being used as a force for good and how we can better understand and communicate its social impact. Facilitator: Professor Sarah Gardiner, Director, Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith Business School, Griffith University Cameron Tynan, Executive Manager – Property Development & Planning, Reflections Holidays Lauren Caverley, Senior Communications and Sustainability Manager, Tourism Australia |
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12.00pm |
Panel 2 – Dispersing the Opportunity: Attracting Visitors into Regional Australia Facilitator: Felicia Mariani |
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12.50pm |
LUNCH |
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Concurrent Sessions 1 |
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1.50pm |
Agritourism – Bringing your community on board What were we thinking?! Case studies from communities around the world on the intended and unintended consequences of agritourism. Festivals loved by the Locals. How AHOY Management put the community first at Taste Great Southern / Pair’d and Cabin Fever Kate Shilling – Tourism Australia Early insights on social and economic impact of agritourism from Australia’s first National Farm Tourism Survey.
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Accessible Tourism as a Regional Capability: moving from Project to Process Ryan Smith, Founder and CEO, The Access Agency Accessible tourism is often delivered through short-term projects, yet visitors do not see LGA boundaries and rarely distinguish between public and private spaces. They experience the destination as a whole. This presentation explores how local governments, regional tourism organisations and businesses can work together to embed accessibility into everyday destination management. By treating accessibility as an ongoing process rather than a series of projects, regions can provide more comprehensive visitor information, strengthen destination capability, recognise economic benefit and create more seamless travel experiences for everyone. |
More than meets the i: Technology, Human Connection and the Future of Visitor Servicing Tracey Riggs Barker, Executive Officer, Tasmanian Visitor Information Centre and Troy de Souza, Visitor Business Development & Partnerships Manager – Western Australia Visitor Centre The session will leave the audience with a broader understanding of how technology and human connection can work alongside one another as visitor servicing continues to evolve. Tracey will explore what happens beyond the initial visitor enquiry, including itinerary changes, regional dispersal, referrals to smaller tourism operators, increased visitor confidence and better-informed travel decisions, whist acknowledging the role technology and AI can play in providing accessible information and supporting visitor servicing outside normal operating hours. We also want the audience to reconsider how visitor servicing is valued and measured, particularly when much of its influence occurs after the visitor leaves the counter. Troy will follow with a Case study of “Westy” an AI agent designed for Visitor Centre’s. Troy will show how the introduction to the Western Australian Visitor Centre proved invaluable in increasing productivity and meeting visitors needs both during office hours, after closing and before they even arrived in Perth. This is not just another AI Agent … this is Westy and he will show you the Human/ AI hybrid of the future. |
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2.40pm |
CONCURRENT SESSION CHANGE OVER |
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Concurrent Sessions 2 |
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2.50pm |
Agritourism – Farmstay Focus Tim Brady – Head of Heyscape Third speaker TBC
Different ways agritourism operators collaborate to offer unique accommodation and on-farm experiences. |
RTOs Brain Trust – The Room is the Panel This one’s built for RTO leaders and their teams — not operators, not case studies, just the people doing this job across the country comparing notes honestly. RTOs are solving the same problems, mostly in isolation. This session flips that. There’s no panel — Marcus opens with something that didn’t go to plan, then it’s your turn. Share a challenge, an opportunity, or a decision you’d make differently, and hear how others in the same seat have tackled their own dilemma. If you work in regional tourism and want a session exchanging thoughts with your peers, this is it. |
Experience by design: creating tourism people love and AI recommends What makes a tourism experience genuinely memorable, commercially strong and easy for AI to recommend? Liz Ward from Tourism Tribe explores how operators can move beyond selling products to deliberately designing experiences around the right customers, their values and what they truly want from travel. Drawing on Tourism Tribe’s work with destinations across Australia, this session explores the intersection of customer insight, AI and contemporary experience development, and how these elements can be practically applied by tourism businesses and DMOs to improve experience quality, strengthen businesses and create more compelling reasons to visit. |
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3.40pm |
AFTERNOON TEA |
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3.50pm |
ART Ambassador and Ask ART Session Facilitator: Lori Modde, Lorick Management |
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5.00pm |
Day 2 Wrap up |
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5.15pm |
ART AGM Saltwater Busselton |
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DAY THREE: Thursday 22 October 2026
Venue: Saltwater Busselton
| Time | Session + details | ||
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8.30am |
Panel 3 – Crisis management and leadership through economic uncertainty Facilitator: Felicia Mariani More speakers announced soon |
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9.20am |
Research, Insights and Data In a world with more data than ever, this session will focus on the ‘so what’ and ‘now what’ – translating complex information into practical insights that help organisations make better decisions and take action. |
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10.10am |
MORNING TEA |
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10.40am |
Leadership in Regional Tourism Communities: How Collaboration Creates Thriving Destinations Sveva Falletto, Executive Director Nature-based Tourism, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), Western Australia This presentation explores how stakeholders including local, regional and state governments, commercial tourism operators, Traditional Owners and community organisations can work together to create thriving tourism destinations that deliver lasting economic, environmental, cultural and social benefits for regions. Drawing on Western Australian case studies, Sveva Falletto will demonstrate how tourism projects can act as catalysts for broader regional transformation. Beyond delivering tourism infrastructure, these projects showcase how a shared vision and collective leadership can strengthen communities, enhance visitor experiences and support long-term destination stewardship. The presentation highlights the evolving role of the WA Parks and Wildlife Service as both a land manager and an enabling partner, bringing stakeholders together to balance conservation outcomes with sustainable visitor access. It will also examine the growing importance of the change towards regenerative tourism principles, ensuring tourism contributes positively to local communities, supports conservation goals and enables meaningful involvement of Traditional Owners. |
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Concurrent Sessions 3 |
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11.10am |
Building the right tourism partnerships – cultural way and corporate way Tracey Diddams, TRC Tourism and Rayleen Brown, Kungkas Can Cook This session delves into how Aboriginal people and tourism partners can build meaningful, sustainable collaborations by balancing cultural way priorities with corporate requirements. It examines what genuine partnership looks like—where risks and responsibilities are shared, and cultural authority, community benefit and traditional protocols are foundational rather than add-ons. Drawing on real-world Aboriginal tourism examples and lived experience, the session explores common partnership models across the visitor economy and the roles various partners play in areas such as product development, operations, marketing and compliance. Key contrasts between cultural way (protecting Country, language, Lore, Aboriginal-led roles, and ecosystem stewardship) and corporate way (legal agreements, governance, profitability and network access) are highlighted, demonstrating how respectful engagement can strengthen trust and deliver mutual benefits. |
Tourism in the Council Chamber: How Do We Get Tourism Taken Seriously? Maxine Palmer, Director Economic and Business Development, City of Busselton Linda Bridges, Manager – Visitor Experience, Tamworth Regional Council Ryley Heap, Principal Economic Development and Tourism, Town of Port Hedland Kim Wildman, Scenic Rim Regional Council (Facilitator) Tourism delivers far more than visitor numbers, marketing campaigns and events. But within Local Government, its true value isn’t always understood or recognised. This candid panel discussion will explore how Tourism Managers can better demonstrate tourism’s economic, social and strategic contribution to Councillors, executives and colleagues, while building stronger internal support and influence. From competing priorities and tight budgets to breaking down silos and finding the language that resonates in the Council Chamber, our panellists will share their experiences and practical insights. If you’ve ever found yourself having to justify why tourism matters, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.
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Turning climate leadership into regional tourism value This presentation shares the first insights from Ecotourism Australia’s forthcoming Climate Leadership research, supported through the Boundless Earth EPIC Grant Program. It challenges the idea that climate action is simply about managing risk, showing instead how climate leadership can strengthen destinations, grow regional economies and create competitive advantage. The session introduces a practical framework that brings together emissions reduction, climate adaptation, nature protection, cultural stewardship, social impact and credible sustainability into a clear tourism value proposition. It also highlights how climate leadership is a driver of tourism competitiveness and resilience, protecting natural assets and reducing the growing costs of inaction.
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12.05pm |
LUNCH |
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1.00pm |
Panel 4 – The Future of DMPs Facilitator: Carolyn Childs How is destination management planning evolving to meet an age of heightened uncertainty? ART will continue its thought leadership in regional and remote destination management planning, sharing knowledge, looking at trends and hearing from some of the changemakers in this space. |
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1.50pm |
What can only happen here? How to unearth the true story of your place and use it for economic, social, and cultural growth Todd Babiak, CEO, Brand Gold Coast |
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2.40pm |
Regional Success Stories – Showcase Hear from successful tourism operators as we showcase Australia’s South West. Facilitator: Catrin Pickworth, CEO Australia’s South West Sharon Custers, Venue Manager, Saltwater Busselton Featuring sophisticated spaces with state-of-the-art technology, Saltwater is Australia’s newest convention centre and performing arts venue. Owned and managed by the City of Busselton, this modern, multi-purpose venue has been masterfully designed to host more than 1,000 people over three levels of innovation. Corrie Scheepers, Owner, Ampersand Estates & Rainfall Distillery Australia’s newest Ultimate Winery Experience – Ampersand Estates is Western Australia’s only fully integrated luxury estate. Combining a boutique winery, an artisanal distillery, premium accommodation, and immersive event spaces, the estate offers a rare blend of natural beauty and intentional design, surrounded by old-growth Karri forests and perched beside the Donnelly River. Stephné Pronk, Co-owner, Fervor Fervor is a roving dining experience well known in the media across Australia working closely with traditional custodians and local ingredients. It welcomes you to beautiful locations to share in world class cuisine with a sense of intimacy and generosity. Established in 2013 by Head Chef Paul ‘Yoda’ Iskov and his partner Stephne Pronk, Fervor is based in the Margaret River region on Wadandi Country in Western Australia. Known for the quality of its produce and local wine, this country is one bounded by white sand beaches and karri forests. From here, Fervor travels to many other places and has hosted events in Kakadu, Kununurra, Esperance, and further afield in Melbourne, Singapore, South Africa and New York. |
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3.30pm |
Convention Wrap Up |
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6.00pm – 9.00pm |
ART Convention Dinner Origins Market |
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