With an ever-growing hunger to explore and learn more about the plethora of opportunities that Australia offers, international travellers are flocking in droves to experience the country’s vibrant atmosphere, unparalleled natural scenery, and millennia-old culture.
Boasting over a decade of experience in the nation’s illustrious travel industry, Signature Experiences of Australia works diligently to assist the travel trade in negotiating the depth of premium products on offer, making it easy to entice adventures of every genre to explore Australia through unmissable, experiential travel opportunities.
Karen Fitzgerald, General Manager – Experiences at Tourism Australia, provides us with a deep dive into the company’s innovative origins, passion for representing the best of the country, and plans for promoting Australia as a first-class destination for those looking to embark upon the trip of a lifetime.
Q&A WITH SIGNATURE EXPERIENCES OF AUSTRALIA
Can you tell us about the origins, vision, and goals of Signature Experiences of Australia?
Karen Fitzgerald, General Manager – Experiences at Tourism Australia (KF): Signature Experiences of Australia launched in 2011 and was created as a distribution development initiative to entice smaller tourism businesses in Australia into international marketing programmes. We worked with industry to form marketing collectives based on the Luxury Lodges of Australia business model, now one of our partners. This collective launched in 2009 and saw the coming together of a small group of high-end experiential travel operators who wanted the world to know that Australia had a luxury travel offering through a collaborative approach which told their story in a cohesive way.
We then took that model and applied it to a variety of experience sectors that we identified through Tourism Australia’s Consumer Demand Project, which examines tourism experience drivers of demand – that is, why people are coming to Australia. Beyond beaches, nature, wildlife, food and drink, and welcoming locals, other sectors began to stand out.
It was becoming increasingly evident that premium travellers were seeking ways to integrate their personal passion points, such as hiking, playing golf, enjoying wine, and more, into their holiday experience.
All of these pillars have a competitive offering in Australia, so the programme has continued to grow over the years and now represents seven different travel sectors featuring 170 tourism businesses offering over 700 experiences.
What are the collectives within the Signature Experiences of Australia programme, and what makes each of them unique?
KF: Each collective is unique in its own way, yet united in an uncompromising commitment to excellence, the environment, people, and place. They showcase luxury experiences and they make the decision-making process so much easier, with partners selecting businesses that represent some of the best of the best across each sector.
Having these collectives provides a central resource for trade and media to guide their customers and readers.
The Signature Experiences of Australia collectives and what makes them unique include:
- Cultural Attractions of Australia encompasses galleries, museums, performing arts, sporting attractions, and more, offering exclusive behind-the-scenes experiences that engage the experts, storytellers, and guides not usually so accessible to the visitor.
- Luxury Lodges of Australia showcases the best of Australia’s luxury experiential travel and accommodation offerings, characterised by their diverse locations, privileged access, connection to place, expert guides, and personal intuitive service.
- Discover Aboriginal Experiences highlights the oldest continuous living cultures on the planet and offers deeply impactful experiences delivered by Aboriginal guides who are Traditional Custodians and knowledge holders of the region they are in.
- Australian Wildlife Journeys focuses on immersive experiences where guests can observe wildlife within their natural habitats and contribute to conservation actions designed to create a better future for them.
- Great Walks of Australia leads small groups of travellers on well-known hiking trails so they can explore Australia’s vast and diverse landscapes in style and comfort.
- Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia takes customers beyond the cellar door for unique vine-to-bottle experiences with the makers, creators, and first families of Australia’s world-famous wine.
- Great Golf Courses of Australia provides avid golfers with access to some of the most prestigious, challenging, and spectacular courses across Australia – home to ten of the top 100 courses in the world.
In what ways do these collectives represent the very essence of Australia?
KF: Around 90 percent of the experiences offered within the Signature Experiences of Australia are in regional Australia which is the cornerstone of our offering when it comes to nature, landscape, wildlife, and people (both Traditional Custodians and Australians who live, work, and play there today).
These experiences represent the essence of Australia as they come with the standard of service expected from a luxury offering, with a taste of the relaxed Australian lifestyle. They are Australian experiences delivered by Australians at iconic landscapes and landmarks.
Whether it’s regional areas, the coast, the outback, or our capital cities, Signature Experiences of Australia partners and their collective members have a noticeable ‘halo’ effect on the destinations they visit and communities they work with.
Local makers, growers, hospitality providers, tradespeople, tour guides, farmers, and creatives are all supported by Signature Experiences of Australia operators. Boosting opportunities, preserving the culture, and protecting the environment are all key pillars of the seven partners and their collective offerings, while encouraging regional dispersal, length of stay, and expenditure.
Each collective offers a point of differentiation for visitors. Can you expand upon how this collaborative model provides a single point of contact for those seeking to experience Australia?
KF: There are over 700 experiences within the seven Signature Experiences of Australia collectives. Representing these within a marketing collective like this offers luxury travel advisors and media an excellent starting point to identify the most appropriate and relevant experiences for their clients and/or readers.
“Whether it’s regional areas, the coast, the outback, or our capital cities, Signature Experiences of Australia partners and their collective members have a noticeable ‘halo’ effect on the destinations they visit and communities they work with”
Karen Fitzgerald, General Manager – Experiences at Tourism Australia
How do you promote Australia’s outstanding tourism experiences within a variety of niche areas and special interest categories?
KF: We maintain a close relationship with relevant high-end and experiential media and partners to tell our story. Our trade partners have told us that, to them, media has an increasingly large role to play when it comes to creating demand and inspiring consumers to travel. As a distribution development initiative, it’s important that we connect with our partners. We do so by attending luxury travel and tourism events, both Tourism Australia-owned and external. We continuously identify the most appropriate channels to meet luxury travel planners and advisors in order to get in front of their clients. Additionally, we explore specialist distributors unique to specific collectives – such as sport tourism providers for Great Golf Courses of Australia or hiking-focused specialists for Great Walks of Australia.
How do you market Australia as a unique and authentic travel destination that taps into the modern traveller’s passion points?
KF: For us, it’s about leaning into current trends and insights to find that competitive advantage, which our Consumer Demand Project research sheds light on, specifically regarding the motivators per market, which we then dissect to ensure we promote relevant experiences to the right consumers. We utilise this research to design how we market Australia and tell Australian stories to the world through a variety of business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) channels.
Why, in your opinion, should someone visit Australia and discover your carefully curated selection of outstanding holiday experiences?
KF: When travelling, a lot of the time people want to discover a country, its people, and the lifestyle. A visit to Australia will give travellers all of this in spades, leaving them with not only unforgettable memories, but a connection to Australia, themselves, the people they have travelled with, and those they have met along the way.
From a Signature Experiences of Australia perspective, if a traveller has a particular passion, Australia should definitely be on their list! ‘Bucket list’ experiences like playing a round of golf at Royal Melbourne, performing in an opera at the Sydney Opera House, or swimming with whale sharks can easily transfer to a ‘shopping list’ when it comes to Australia, and if they aren’t sure what they want out of a holiday, these collectives are a great way to guide them.
What trends are transforming the tourism industry in Australia, and how are you utilising them in your portfolio of premium travel offerings?
KF: There are a number of trends we have seen in regard to the luxury traveller to Australia. Travelling with a sense of purpose is one – understanding what a destination is all about and going on journeys of discovery, revelation, and inspiration. People aren’t just looking for ‘fly-and-flop’ but meaningful experiences where they learn about the destination they’re visiting. Travellers used to come to Australia and pack in as much as possible into one highlight-reel trip.
Now we’re seeing people adopt a slower pace, taking more time to visit fewer destinations but visiting them properly. We’re also seeing a push for all-inclusive planned holidays, instead of planning as many individual, separate elements.
For accommodation, we’re seeing a strong demand for self-contained options. Our Luxury Lodges of Australia are increasingly seeing success with private villas and the like, where guests can have an entire home environment but still enjoy the facilities and offerings associated with a hyper-luxury accommodation.
Wellness travel continues to surge in Australia. For example, many of our Great Walks of Australia offer mental and physical wellness and/or well-being elements in their itineraries, like yoga, ice baths, and journaling. Multi-generational and celebratory travel is also growing, with families travelling for milestone moments.
Lastly, we’re still seeing a residual desire to reconnect following the years where we couldn’t travel as we would have liked. In recent years, a strong desire to learn more about our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples has become increasingly apparent.
“When travelling, a lot of the time, people want to discover a country, its people, and the lifestyle. A visit to Australia will give travellers all of this in spades, leaving them with not only unforgettable memories but a connection to Australia, themselves, the people they have travelled with, and those they have met along the way”
Karen Fitzgerald, General Manager – Experiences at Tourism Australia
Finally, are you optimistic about the future of the tourism industry in Australia?
KF: Absolutely! During the COVID-19 pandemic when everything moved online, a luxury travel buyer said to me that what the world was missing was Australians. The allure of the Australian people is huge. People want to travel somewhere where they get warm, friendly hospitality on arrival and throughout their stay. We also have an incredible pipeline of sporting events coming up, from the Lions Tour and Ashes next year all the way up to the Brisbane Olympics in 2032 – all offering great reasons to visit. Lastly, you have to travel to a destination to know why it’s important to protect.
We have so much diversity when it comes to our landscapes, nature, culture, and people – all waiting to warmly welcome visitors Down Under to see just what is so special about Australia.
