Key learnings from the ART Convention: a vlog from the Outside-in

There’s a famous quote from the Scottish poet Robbie Burns “O wad some Power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us!” It loosely translates to what a gift it is to have an outside perspective to inform what we do.

Sadly, not that many people who invest in tourism consulting are big Robbie Burns fans. So for simplicity, we often tend to refer to it as ‘the Outside In’ view. And it’s incredibly powerful. I’ve even had a tourism manager tell me that it changed her life. Well it certainly changed her destination’s marketing and branding in ways that delivered visitor growth against a general trend decline for competitors).

So it seemed like a wonderful opportunity when I had two interns working with me to get their perceptions on the ART Convention. Ari and Sabrina are US students who are spending 12 weeks with MyTravelResearch.com on a virtual internship. Thanks to a great add on deal for extra staff they were able to follow the whole convention in detail and fill in gaps for any sessions I couldn’t join.

But I thought they brought the outside in in lots of other ways:

• they come from very different disciplines. Ari is a marketing and psychology student so could see it from a destination marketing perspective, whereas Sabrina is studying politics so could provide a policy angle
• they are both part of the Gen Z generation. I’m passionate about what this generational cohort and its values are going to bring to tourism – and indeed to our world
• As Americans, they had no assumed level of knowledge about Australia and Australian tourism.
• Most importantly, the reason I chose them as interns was that they are both intensely curious: curiosity is one of those qualities you can foster but not create.

So here is their take out from the conference.

I found their different perspectives refreshing in so many ways. So in addition to their views on the conference, I also got them to do a little bit of a piece on what would attract them to Australia.

One take out from that was what regional means. Anyone who works in regional tourism in Australia would struggle to think of Perth as a regional destination. But to an American whose view of Australia is often bounded to Sydney and Melbourne I can easily see how that could arise. It’s a useful reminder that if we want international travellers to visit regional Australia more we need to explain to them where that is.

I also discovered my own bit of outside in. All three of us are – in different ways – ‘dark tourists’ which made me wonder about any unconscious biases I had in my own selection decisions!

Alongside the ‘outside in’ version, I like to see the ‘inside out’ view. So I’d love to hear what your thoughts are on their take outs.