January 31, 2025 • 19 mins
In this exciting episode of the Tourism Hub Podcast, host Despina Karatzias welcomes Hamish Fell, a visionary in the tourism tech space and a board member of the Australian Regional Tourism Network (ART). Together, they explore the future of travel and tourism, diving into how technological advancements will shape the way we travel, especially for the next generation.
Hamish shares insights from his session titled "How My Daughter Will Travel When She's 20," where he discusses the potential of high-speed travel, the evolution of drone technology, and the transformative impact of fintech innovations on the tourism industry. They delve into the seamless integration of tech solutions for regional tourism, the importance of enhancing membership offerings, and the exciting launch of ART's new website.
The conversation also touches on the challenges and opportunities in packaging experiences, the future of visitor servicing, and the critical role of content in digital marketing. Hamish emphasises the importance of preparing for these changes now to leverage future opportunities, encouraging listeners to stay ahead of the curve.
Join Despina and Hamish as they navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of tourism, offering valuable insights and practical advice for tourism professionals looking to thrive in this dynamic industry.
01:03 - Hamish's Involvement with Australian Regional Tourism Network
02:17 - Technological Innovations in Tourism
03:55 - Future of Travel and Space Tourism
05:13 - Drone Technology and Military Influence
06:08 - Hamish's Military Background
07:37 - Challenges in Payment Systems and Packaging
14:21 - Insights from the ART Conference
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LinkedIn: Despina Karatzias
Instagram: @despinakaratzias
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Show hosted by Despina Karatzias and brought to you by Tourism Hub in association with Institute Of Excellence.
Stay curious, stay adventuro
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome to the Tourism Hubpodcast, a podcast devoted
to you and your excellence.
Providing inspiration and educationfor the entrepreneurs, experience
makers and excellent seekers of ourindustry to take your tourism business
and career to a whole new level.
(00:29):
There we are.
Another legend.
Hey, brilliant session.
Congratulations.
It was a kind of standingroom only situation.
Tell everybody the titleof your session, please.
Hamish.
So it was.
How my daughter will travel when she's 20.
How my daughter will travel when she's 20.
(00:50):
Now, Hamish Vell, you're not onlyhere with, you've got an incredible
business that helps a lot of localcouncils and regional destinations
with your smarter tech solutions.
You are also on the board.
Yes.
Tell me first, so we'll start firstwith your involvement with the
Australian Regional Tourism Network.
(01:10):
What inspired you to get involved andbecome a leader within the art community?
It's interesting because I dida presentation at TWA conference
and then got asked to come andpresent that same one at ART.
And Therese Phillips, so it'sall her fault, she, they had free
tickets because it was in Tweed.
And so I came and had a great time.
(01:31):
Conference and I was like, yeah, youknow, these are my people, right?
And I hadn't been in tourism that long.
So, and I just, I learned so much, butthen also I had all this technology
that I kind of just love sharing.
And so when the pandemic was happeningand I helped out laws and the team to
kind of get the online convention going.
(01:53):
And then Lauren was like, so we didn'tget like a board application from,
you know, would you be really, and I'mlike, do you guys want me on the book?
She's like, It would be greatto get that application.
So I kind of put one in and then thatwas four years ago and then here we are.
Oh wow, here we are.
Yeah.
Making a big contribution.
And you're, so, and there's big news.
It has, it's gone live with anew website that you've led and.
(02:16):
Yep.
So that was, you know, we've kind of beentalking about this for a couple of years
that we had these two different platformsand it was all a bit confusing and we
couldn't get the memberships to line upproperly and, you know, and convention
registrations, all that sort of stuff.
So.
We have, uh, technicallysmushed the two together.
And so everything is under one domain now.
So the domain and yeah,look, it's, it's launched.
(02:41):
It's up and running,always going to be bugs.
We fix them as we find thembecause we can't find everything.
And yeah, but we've gotsome exciting stuff.
Obviously, you know, we're going tohave you on the LMS and we've got your
podcasts on there, which is awesome.
Yeah.
So, and the, the opportunityto do stuff around, like.
If you're a financial member, we cangive you access to other things that you
(03:03):
wouldn't get if you're a free member.
So it's enhancing the kind of themembership offering that ART has got.
And for the existing members, likeit's all seamless that all of their
logins were still, you know, easy.
Well done.
You might have to change like Ifyou had it stored under members dot,
you might just have to change it toregional tourism, but you know, you
(03:24):
guys are smart, you're working on it.
And tell me, so your techlevel of knowledge is on a
real, it is on another level.
Like I love tech, but even just, I wasdoing a run around trying to get all of
you and we've got Linda Tillman as well.
You all ran at the same time.
Uh, some of the things thatyou dropped on us, it was just.
(03:48):
Well, just things that I knowfor myself hadn't considered
of what travel would look like.
For your daughter or my own kids,you just kind of assume, because it
happens gradually, you know, but interms of what you shared, that will
happen in our lifetime when you'retalking about travel to Europe.
(04:08):
Yeah, I think so.
I mean, I think, look, it's technically,I think we're good in terms of,
like, that high speed travel.
I think that's going to happenbecause there's So two hours, Sydney
That's the technical capability.
Like, some mathematician has workedit out that they can get from
Sydney to London in two hours.
(04:29):
Incredible.
You know, and like, there's going to berockets in there, and vertical takeoff
and landing and all that kind of jazz.
Well, like, a few years ago,nobody had landed a rocket.
Yeah.
And now Elon Musk and SpaceX are doingit on the daily, you know, so that's it.
The technology is there.
(04:50):
Yeah.
But they crashed a few.
You kind of think like eight, 16,20 years down the line, that's,
you know, the capability is there.
It's space tourism that's happening,which, you know, I think they
should just call it space tourism.
It'd be out of this world.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, so it's got, I thinkthat's going to happen and I think,
(05:10):
um, it's just going to be crazy.
It really is shared about yourdrone technology that right at
the moment, as we know, drones aretaking beautiful aerial footage.
Yeah, look, I mean, I thinkunfortunately, like we've learned
through history, military conflictis a great driver of technology,
you know, because like urgency.
(05:30):
And so a lot of that kind of technologicaldrive is coming out the military stuff,
and it's a secondary application.
People are going, how cool is this?
We can do like heavy lift with drones.
We can do, you know, long distance drones.
We can do pilot, like, you know,driverless vehicles, like personal UAVs.
You know, there's a company that youcan technically, they're still in their
(05:50):
investment phase, but you can buy yourown drone and fly around the place, like
that you can ride in one person on CETA.
So that's, it's coming, right?
Yeah.
Um, so yeah, it's, I think this isa very exciting time in that space.
And you mentioned somethingI never knew about you.
You said, my time in the military.
Yeah.
I'm just curious now.
(06:12):
Yeah.
So that's back home?
Yeah.
Back in the UK.
Yeah.
Amazing.
I spent a little bit of time withthe military, learned a lot of stuff.
Yeah, I spent some timein the Middle East.
Um, I think you learn a lotof like good life lessons
when you have a job like that.
Yes.
And you get to meet a load of reallyinteresting people and you get to learn
like a variety of different stuff, right?
(06:32):
Um, so I think that's why I kind of enjoythe job that I do because when I was in
the military, it's learning new things allthe time and that's what my job is now.
Problem solving job just about to saythat we were talking earlier about like
I solve problems at the end of the day.
I use tech.
Yeah, to solve problems and comeup with solutions for to create
(06:53):
efficiency, whether it's internallyor through marketing initiatives,
like you've done now with the techsolution for art, there were two.
platforms.
They didn't really talk to each other,but they worked, but yeah, it was good
enough for who it was for at the time.
Yeah, yeah.
And in terms of, I mean, something elsethat piqued my interest that I thought
(07:14):
to share everyone after your session.
And this is nice because normallyI'm in the keynotes and I
can be there and take notes.
But because I was running around andin capture, but that every time I
was in there, there was the nugget.
And that's why I thought it'dbe great to have this chat so
you can share with everyone.
Even around the disruption aroundthe way that we take payment.
(07:36):
Hmm.
Yeah.
So, like, obviously, we were talking aboutRevolut, which is, it's a bank now, and
Airwallex, who are a fintech platform,and the way that these companies now
allow you to very quickly transact money.
It used to be that if you sent somebodymoney, it would take, you know, Two
hours to arrive in their account, right?
You start instant transfer ability tospin up like your own, like virtual card.
(08:02):
So if you want to pay for something, butyou don't trust that source necessarily
with your car details forever, you canjust create a virtual card, but like.
The 50 or whatever it is that you needto pay, done, burn the card, you know,
um, I think so those, and those advancesand those changes, I think, are going
to really change the way a lot of theseplatforms operate and they take money, the
(08:27):
ability to take a payment off a customerand then split it and send it to multiple
different parties is going to presentopportunities for the packaging space,
I think, because, you Historically, youwere having to kind of get all these
agreements in place and then, you know,credit lines and all that sort of stuff.
Well, now it's like, I'm just going totake it from there and then I'll just pay
(08:47):
you on your platform with a credit card.
It's always a barrier to entry.
So I come on the other side, packaging.
You're talking to my like, sopackaging has always been in terms
of experience, development for anoperator and for a region for a
unique point of difference, developingexperiences that are all inclusive.
(09:09):
But there was always like that callto action and the payment gateway.
So for myself, this is like asan operator, I found it easier
that I will just do all of that.
And then the, my partners that I'mpackaging with, but it got complicated.
Then busy work, right?
It's busy work.
So where, you know, and then you bringthe third party sellers and then as a
(09:29):
supplier, I'm now managing for everybodybecause there was not like, but still I
don't find that there's a easy solution.
Well, because there isn't.
I mean, yeah, there isn't right.
There is, there is some stuff happening,but you know, I'm telling you about that.
Um, so that wasn't true.
(09:50):
Um, yeah, look, it's, butyou're working on that.
We're working on something, something.
Yeah.
Um, and I think the bigOTA platforms do it.
But yeah, it's like.
You have to go to the OTAplatform to get it right.
That's right.
So how do you then, you know, andthere's a lot of friction can be friction
(10:14):
from operators in terms of I don't.
I don't have my inventory there.
I don't want to play with those guys.
So it's about having an inclusive optionfor just get it from where it is and
then allow the customer to book it.
Oh, and it's the same.
Like I actually did a, a, uh, a podcastthat dropped today around visitor.
(10:34):
Servicing.
Yeah.
And the fact that doesn't exist that youcan go into a visitor information center.
Well, in a lot of them, either theyhad us, they had something booking
capability there that they can managethemselves or now it's gone and
we're just delivering information.
Yeah.
No call.
And it sounds, I mean, that's interestingbecause I think, um, Local governments
(10:58):
took a look at what it was costing interms of their time ability to book,
to manage these bookings and things,and they said We'll just get rid of
it because it's what's happening.
So now, like the solutions is is nothing.
Watch this space.
Watch this space.
(11:19):
Watch this space.
So cooking up a solution becausethat's what, yeah, watch this space.
We'll have to do anotherone of these because I do.
I look that also I think at alllevels as a destination, particularly
as a regional destination, butalso is from an operator level.
You're beholden still to sometimessoftware that you're you don't
(11:43):
really have the control as well.
Yeah, I mean, and that's the kindof the solution is if you have a
channel manager or if your productis on Residue or Fair Harbor, that's
just where it should come from.
You don't like, I don't, I shouldn'tbe telling you that you need to
put it onto my platform or thatplatform in order to sell it.
Right.
Yeah.
Because.
(12:03):
One of two or three things will happen.
One, they just won't do it, soyou don't have the inventory.
Two, they'll do it butnot keep it up to date.
Yeah.
And then you'll either get out ofdate information or double bookings
or, or three, they just expectyou to look after it for them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I think, yeah, look, it's,there's things happening.
(12:23):
There's things, they're all, look,and it's very, it's great to hear.
Like, this is the first I'm hearing.
I didn't know, but as someone that'sgot a different direction than what
you thought, I know it's also, it'ssomething that I felt the pain as an
operator trying to package efficiently,then working out the only way I can
(12:44):
get it done is easy by managing itbecause there's still, there's so.
There's such a great benefitto collaboration in commercial,
commercial experience development.
And it's where things will maybe naturallysit together for a period of time.
And I would use like thefield of light thing.
This is going back some years inAlbany, but the field of light sat very
(13:07):
naturally with other experiences andyou were able to build a package around.
Yeah, so it might be that for anevent happening, things will sit
nicely together, but you don'twant to have to invest hundreds of
hours setting up complex packagingfor a very short period of time.
Yeah, and so therefore, if you're ableto do it very easily, very quickly, then.
(13:30):
Again, it allows you to leverageyour marketing and then we go back
to talk about the user experience andanything that provides convenience
for the end user is a winner.
Yeah, it's low friction, right?
Yeah, let's be honest.
Like, when are people booking holidays?
It's like 10 o'clock on a Sundaynight when the kids are, you
know, we've got to get this done.
(13:51):
Yeah, and that's so I think if youput a barrier in place, it's too
hard and it goes somewhere else.
Yeah.
And that's why the OTAs areleveraging from that perspective.
It's easier to go book a package andyeah, but then it's, yeah, there's
a detriment to the end supplierthat's delivering that sometimes.
(14:12):
Yeah, it's what we've got now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's what we're working with.
Yeah.
Wow.
Wow.
What are you looking forward to?
What have been some of your key insightsso far from what you have listened to and
conversations you've had with delegates?
Oh, there's, do you know what?
The thing with ART is there's so manygreat things you actually have to go
(14:33):
away and digest at the end of the day.
It's so true.
You know, I was saying to somebodyearlier, I have a whiteboard and
every time I go to a conference andthe whiteboard, when you walk in the
office, it's right in front of you.
And I like, I would likedigest my top five takeaways.
Yeah.
Like the action that I shouldtake from those takeaways.
Yeah.
And I write it on my board.
And it's there as like this reminderto me every morning when I go in
(14:56):
and then eventually when I'll dothat, like wipe off the board.
So, I mean, I think.
The sessions are so great in terms oflike, I really enjoyed the indigenous
panel, like, I thought that was justlike, it's so good to hear that kind of
those really positive stories coming.
I think that was great.
Yeah.
And I thought Mark Olson's.
Like he's always good, right?
(15:17):
He's always enigmatic.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Enigmatic, there's a perfect word.
And he came, he did a little interviewearlier as well, which was incredible.
But yeah, he was, yeah, really, really?
Yeah.
Really well.
Did a really great job to deliverand unpack that experience
was like, and what we can do.
(15:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think that's the key, right?
So like great presentationsare the ones that.
You're not bombarded with factsand figures, like it rattles your
thought cage, and it makes youkind of go, ah, yeah, okay, cool.
And it's like, and so you take thestuff, like, it's not like, I must go
and download this document and do this.
It's more like, uh, somethingto digest and go away with.
(16:01):
Amazing.
How can, uh, everybody find out moreabout you and what you do and engage you
and, I mean, ART, we know, but for you.
So you can, uh, so LinkedInis always a good one.
So hit me up on LinkedIn.
Hamish Fell?
Yep, Hamish Fell.
It's like, there's not many ofus called Hamish Fell out there.
Yeah.
And my face is on thething, so you know it's me.
(16:22):
Yeah.
Or you can just go visit ourwebsite, smarttourismtech.
com.
au Excellent.
Now websites, I like that youmentioned that too, just before we go.
I know, we've got another thought bubble.
It's like your website is yourmost important asset, your
most important digital asset.
That's not going away.
(16:43):
It's not.
I mean, I think we, like, we talkedabout this in the presentation in terms
of, um, even though I think that searchis going to fundamentally change, and
maybe people aren't going to go toyour website as much, I think it's
going to be really important to havethat really great conversational style
content, really accurate images, lotsof, like, different types of media.
Yeah.
You know, the audio, the visual, theimage, the written text, um, and have
(17:07):
it really well done, because It's theAI bots that are going to go to your
website, and if they can't, if theydon't get the information there, they're
just not going to return it in thesearch, you know, they're not, they're
not going to say, Oh, well, like, youknow, they do, like, if you have a tour
that you do, and you don't mention iton your website, then something that
(17:28):
you try and sell on to people when theycall you up, that's not going to work.
So yeah, I think investing time andeffort in content is never wasted.
Yeah.
And I think it's.
Rather than trying to do it all inone hit, it's one of those things
you, you know, take an hour a week.
You know, so I have like what Icall sacred time in my week, and
(17:48):
it's like Friday mornings, right?
That's your sacred time.
It's my sacred time.
Accounts get done on Friday mornings.
Yeah.
You know, and then also we do justcontent review and that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
So that's the.
Yes.
Well, your book, your title of yoursession is one of the best I've seen.
Thanks.
It was brilliant.
(18:09):
Like, when I saw that Iwas like, and it doesn't.
And yeah, it attractedfor the right reasons.
I think it was just sointeresting to have us go there.
Yeah, I'm glad to be complacent isthat was the key that I took away.
So, okay, this is whatwe're looking in the future.
What can we start doing now?
Yeah.
Like to prepare ourselves.
The opportunities that it presents.
Correct.
And you just ask yourselfwhen you see it, so what?
(18:30):
So what does that mean?
What can I get out of this?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Really well done.
Really well done.
All right.
Thank you.
Awesome.
Mr Bell.
Thanks for chatting.
Thank you everyone.
Thanks.
For joining us live andwatching the replay.
And soon it will be onthe Tourism Hub podcast.
It will.
Nice.
With art.
Nice.
All right.
Thanks.
And we'll be back with some more legends.
Welcome to the Tourism Hubpodcast, a podcast devoted
to you and your excellence.
Providing inspiration and educationfor the entrepreneurs, experience
makers and excellent seekers of ourindustry to take your tourism business
and career to a whole new level.
(00:29):
There we are.
Another legend.
Hey, brilliant session.
Congratulations.
It was a kind of standingroom only situation.
Tell everybody the titleof your session, please.
Hamish.
So it was.
How my daughter will travel when she's 20.
How my daughter will travel when she's 20.
(00:50):
Now, Hamish Vell, you're not onlyhere with, you've got an incredible
business that helps a lot of localcouncils and regional destinations
with your smarter tech solutions.
You are also on the board.
Yes.
Tell me first, so we'll start firstwith your involvement with the
Australian Regional Tourism Network.
(01:10):
What inspired you to get involved andbecome a leader within the art community?
It's interesting because I dida presentation at TWA conference
and then got asked to come andpresent that same one at ART.
And Therese Phillips, so it'sall her fault, she, they had free
tickets because it was in Tweed.
And so I came and had a great time.
(01:31):
Conference and I was like, yeah, youknow, these are my people, right?
And I hadn't been in tourism that long.
So, and I just, I learned so much, butthen also I had all this technology
that I kind of just love sharing.
And so when the pandemic was happeningand I helped out laws and the team to
kind of get the online convention going.
(01:53):
And then Lauren was like, so we didn'tget like a board application from,
you know, would you be really, and I'mlike, do you guys want me on the book?
She's like, It would be greatto get that application.
So I kind of put one in and then thatwas four years ago and then here we are.
Oh wow, here we are.
Yeah.
Making a big contribution.
And you're, so, and there's big news.
It has, it's gone live with anew website that you've led and.
(02:16):
Yep.
So that was, you know, we've kind of beentalking about this for a couple of years
that we had these two different platformsand it was all a bit confusing and we
couldn't get the memberships to line upproperly and, you know, and convention
registrations, all that sort of stuff.
So.
We have, uh, technicallysmushed the two together.
And so everything is under one domain now.
So the domain and yeah,look, it's, it's launched.
(02:41):
It's up and running,always going to be bugs.
We fix them as we find thembecause we can't find everything.
And yeah, but we've gotsome exciting stuff.
Obviously, you know, we're going tohave you on the LMS and we've got your
podcasts on there, which is awesome.
Yeah.
So, and the, the opportunityto do stuff around, like.
If you're a financial member, we cangive you access to other things that you
(03:03):
wouldn't get if you're a free member.
So it's enhancing the kind of themembership offering that ART has got.
And for the existing members, likeit's all seamless that all of their
logins were still, you know, easy.
Well done.
You might have to change like Ifyou had it stored under members dot,
you might just have to change it toregional tourism, but you know, you
(03:24):
guys are smart, you're working on it.
And tell me, so your techlevel of knowledge is on a
real, it is on another level.
Like I love tech, but even just, I wasdoing a run around trying to get all of
you and we've got Linda Tillman as well.
You all ran at the same time.
Uh, some of the things thatyou dropped on us, it was just.
(03:48):
Well, just things that I knowfor myself hadn't considered
of what travel would look like.
For your daughter or my own kids,you just kind of assume, because it
happens gradually, you know, but interms of what you shared, that will
happen in our lifetime when you'retalking about travel to Europe.
(04:08):
Yeah, I think so.
I mean, I think, look, it's technically,I think we're good in terms of,
like, that high speed travel.
I think that's going to happenbecause there's So two hours, Sydney
That's the technical capability.
Like, some mathematician has workedit out that they can get from
Sydney to London in two hours.
(04:29):
Incredible.
You know, and like, there's going to berockets in there, and vertical takeoff
and landing and all that kind of jazz.
Well, like, a few years ago,nobody had landed a rocket.
Yeah.
And now Elon Musk and SpaceX are doingit on the daily, you know, so that's it.
The technology is there.
(04:50):
Yeah.
But they crashed a few.
You kind of think like eight, 16,20 years down the line, that's,
you know, the capability is there.
It's space tourism that's happening,which, you know, I think they
should just call it space tourism.
It'd be out of this world.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, so it's got, I thinkthat's going to happen and I think,
(05:10):
um, it's just going to be crazy.
It really is shared about yourdrone technology that right at
the moment, as we know, drones aretaking beautiful aerial footage.
Yeah, look, I mean, I thinkunfortunately, like we've learned
through history, military conflictis a great driver of technology,
you know, because like urgency.
(05:30):
And so a lot of that kind of technologicaldrive is coming out the military stuff,
and it's a secondary application.
People are going, how cool is this?
We can do like heavy lift with drones.
We can do, you know, long distance drones.
We can do pilot, like, you know,driverless vehicles, like personal UAVs.
You know, there's a company that youcan technically, they're still in their
(05:50):
investment phase, but you can buy yourown drone and fly around the place, like
that you can ride in one person on CETA.
So that's, it's coming, right?
Yeah.
Um, so yeah, it's, I think this isa very exciting time in that space.
And you mentioned somethingI never knew about you.
You said, my time in the military.
Yeah.
I'm just curious now.
(06:12):
Yeah.
So that's back home?
Yeah.
Back in the UK.
Yeah.
Amazing.
I spent a little bit of time withthe military, learned a lot of stuff.
Yeah, I spent some timein the Middle East.
Um, I think you learn a lotof like good life lessons
when you have a job like that.
Yes.
And you get to meet a load of reallyinteresting people and you get to learn
like a variety of different stuff, right?
(06:32):
Um, so I think that's why I kind of enjoythe job that I do because when I was in
the military, it's learning new things allthe time and that's what my job is now.
Problem solving job just about to saythat we were talking earlier about like
I solve problems at the end of the day.
I use tech.
Yeah, to solve problems and comeup with solutions for to create
(06:53):
efficiency, whether it's internallyor through marketing initiatives,
like you've done now with the techsolution for art, there were two.
platforms.
They didn't really talk to each other,but they worked, but yeah, it was good
enough for who it was for at the time.
Yeah, yeah.
And in terms of, I mean, something elsethat piqued my interest that I thought
(07:14):
to share everyone after your session.
And this is nice because normallyI'm in the keynotes and I
can be there and take notes.
But because I was running around andin capture, but that every time I
was in there, there was the nugget.
And that's why I thought it'dbe great to have this chat so
you can share with everyone.
Even around the disruption aroundthe way that we take payment.
(07:36):
Hmm.
Yeah.
So, like, obviously, we were talking aboutRevolut, which is, it's a bank now, and
Airwallex, who are a fintech platform,and the way that these companies now
allow you to very quickly transact money.
It used to be that if you sent somebodymoney, it would take, you know, Two
hours to arrive in their account, right?
You start instant transfer ability tospin up like your own, like virtual card.
(08:02):
So if you want to pay for something, butyou don't trust that source necessarily
with your car details forever, you canjust create a virtual card, but like.
The 50 or whatever it is that you needto pay, done, burn the card, you know,
um, I think so those, and those advancesand those changes, I think, are going
to really change the way a lot of theseplatforms operate and they take money, the
(08:27):
ability to take a payment off a customerand then split it and send it to multiple
different parties is going to presentopportunities for the packaging space,
I think, because, you Historically, youwere having to kind of get all these
agreements in place and then, you know,credit lines and all that sort of stuff.
Well, now it's like, I'm just going totake it from there and then I'll just pay
(08:47):
you on your platform with a credit card.
It's always a barrier to entry.
So I come on the other side, packaging.
You're talking to my like, sopackaging has always been in terms
of experience, development for anoperator and for a region for a
unique point of difference, developingexperiences that are all inclusive.
(09:09):
But there was always like that callto action and the payment gateway.
So for myself, this is like asan operator, I found it easier
that I will just do all of that.
And then the, my partners that I'mpackaging with, but it got complicated.
Then busy work, right?
It's busy work.
So where, you know, and then you bringthe third party sellers and then as a
(09:29):
supplier, I'm now managing for everybodybecause there was not like, but still I
don't find that there's a easy solution.
Well, because there isn't.
I mean, yeah, there isn't right.
There is, there is some stuff happening,but you know, I'm telling you about that.
Um, so that wasn't true.
(09:50):
Um, yeah, look, it's, butyou're working on that.
We're working on something, something.
Yeah.
Um, and I think the bigOTA platforms do it.
But yeah, it's like.
You have to go to the OTAplatform to get it right.
That's right.
So how do you then, you know, andthere's a lot of friction can be friction
(10:14):
from operators in terms of I don't.
I don't have my inventory there.
I don't want to play with those guys.
So it's about having an inclusive optionfor just get it from where it is and
then allow the customer to book it.
Oh, and it's the same.
Like I actually did a, a, uh, a podcastthat dropped today around visitor.
(10:34):
Servicing.
Yeah.
And the fact that doesn't exist that youcan go into a visitor information center.
Well, in a lot of them, either theyhad us, they had something booking
capability there that they can managethemselves or now it's gone and
we're just delivering information.
Yeah.
No call.
And it sounds, I mean, that's interestingbecause I think, um, Local governments
(10:58):
took a look at what it was costing interms of their time ability to book,
to manage these bookings and things,and they said We'll just get rid of
it because it's what's happening.
So now, like the solutions is is nothing.
Watch this space.
Watch this space.
(11:19):
Watch this space.
So cooking up a solution becausethat's what, yeah, watch this space.
We'll have to do anotherone of these because I do.
I look that also I think at alllevels as a destination, particularly
as a regional destination, butalso is from an operator level.
You're beholden still to sometimessoftware that you're you don't
(11:43):
really have the control as well.
Yeah, I mean, and that's the kindof the solution is if you have a
channel manager or if your productis on Residue or Fair Harbor, that's
just where it should come from.
You don't like, I don't, I shouldn'tbe telling you that you need to
put it onto my platform or thatplatform in order to sell it.
Right.
Yeah.
Because.
(12:03):
One of two or three things will happen.
One, they just won't do it, soyou don't have the inventory.
Two, they'll do it butnot keep it up to date.
Yeah.
And then you'll either get out ofdate information or double bookings
or, or three, they just expectyou to look after it for them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I think, yeah, look, it's,there's things happening.
(12:23):
There's things, they're all, look,and it's very, it's great to hear.
Like, this is the first I'm hearing.
I didn't know, but as someone that'sgot a different direction than what
you thought, I know it's also, it'ssomething that I felt the pain as an
operator trying to package efficiently,then working out the only way I can
(12:44):
get it done is easy by managing itbecause there's still, there's so.
There's such a great benefitto collaboration in commercial,
commercial experience development.
And it's where things will maybe naturallysit together for a period of time.
And I would use like thefield of light thing.
This is going back some years inAlbany, but the field of light sat very
(13:07):
naturally with other experiences andyou were able to build a package around.
Yeah, so it might be that for anevent happening, things will sit
nicely together, but you don'twant to have to invest hundreds of
hours setting up complex packagingfor a very short period of time.
Yeah, and so therefore, if you're ableto do it very easily, very quickly, then.
(13:30):
Again, it allows you to leverageyour marketing and then we go back
to talk about the user experience andanything that provides convenience
for the end user is a winner.
Yeah, it's low friction, right?
Yeah, let's be honest.
Like, when are people booking holidays?
It's like 10 o'clock on a Sundaynight when the kids are, you
know, we've got to get this done.
(13:51):
Yeah, and that's so I think if youput a barrier in place, it's too
hard and it goes somewhere else.
Yeah.
And that's why the OTAs areleveraging from that perspective.
It's easier to go book a package andyeah, but then it's, yeah, there's
a detriment to the end supplierthat's delivering that sometimes.
(14:12):
Yeah, it's what we've got now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's what we're working with.
Yeah.
Wow.
Wow.
What are you looking forward to?
What have been some of your key insightsso far from what you have listened to and
conversations you've had with delegates?
Oh, there's, do you know what?
The thing with ART is there's so manygreat things you actually have to go
(14:33):
away and digest at the end of the day.
It's so true.
You know, I was saying to somebodyearlier, I have a whiteboard and
every time I go to a conference andthe whiteboard, when you walk in the
office, it's right in front of you.
And I like, I would likedigest my top five takeaways.
Yeah.
Like the action that I shouldtake from those takeaways.
Yeah.
And I write it on my board.
And it's there as like this reminderto me every morning when I go in
(14:56):
and then eventually when I'll dothat, like wipe off the board.
So, I mean, I think.
The sessions are so great in terms oflike, I really enjoyed the indigenous
panel, like, I thought that was justlike, it's so good to hear that kind of
those really positive stories coming.
I think that was great.
Yeah.
And I thought Mark Olson's.
Like he's always good, right?
(15:17):
He's always enigmatic.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Enigmatic, there's a perfect word.
And he came, he did a little interviewearlier as well, which was incredible.
But yeah, he was, yeah, really, really?
Yeah.
Really well.
Did a really great job to deliverand unpack that experience
was like, and what we can do.
(15:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think that's the key, right?
So like great presentationsare the ones that.
You're not bombarded with factsand figures, like it rattles your
thought cage, and it makes youkind of go, ah, yeah, okay, cool.
And it's like, and so you take thestuff, like, it's not like, I must go
and download this document and do this.
It's more like, uh, somethingto digest and go away with.
(16:01):
Amazing.
How can, uh, everybody find out moreabout you and what you do and engage you
and, I mean, ART, we know, but for you.
So you can, uh, so LinkedInis always a good one.
So hit me up on LinkedIn.
Hamish Fell?
Yep, Hamish Fell.
It's like, there's not many ofus called Hamish Fell out there.
Yeah.
And my face is on thething, so you know it's me.
(16:22):
Yeah.
Or you can just go visit ourwebsite, smarttourismtech.
com.
au Excellent.
Now websites, I like that youmentioned that too, just before we go.
I know, we've got another thought bubble.
It's like your website is yourmost important asset, your
most important digital asset.
That's not going away.
(16:43):
It's not.
I mean, I think we, like, we talkedabout this in the presentation in terms
of, um, even though I think that searchis going to fundamentally change, and
maybe people aren't going to go toyour website as much, I think it's
going to be really important to havethat really great conversational style
content, really accurate images, lotsof, like, different types of media.
Yeah.
You know, the audio, the visual, theimage, the written text, um, and have
(17:07):
it really well done, because It's theAI bots that are going to go to your
website, and if they can't, if theydon't get the information there, they're
just not going to return it in thesearch, you know, they're not, they're
not going to say, Oh, well, like, youknow, they do, like, if you have a tour
that you do, and you don't mention iton your website, then something that
(17:28):
you try and sell on to people when theycall you up, that's not going to work.
So yeah, I think investing time andeffort in content is never wasted.
Yeah.
And I think it's.
Rather than trying to do it all inone hit, it's one of those things
you, you know, take an hour a week.
You know, so I have like what Icall sacred time in my week, and
(17:48):
it's like Friday mornings, right?
That's your sacred time.
It's my sacred time.
Accounts get done on Friday mornings.
Yeah.
You know, and then also we do justcontent review and that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
So that's the.
Yes.
Well, your book, your title of yoursession is one of the best I've seen.
Thanks.
It was brilliant.
(18:09):
Like, when I saw that Iwas like, and it doesn't.
And yeah, it attractedfor the right reasons.
I think it was just sointeresting to have us go there.
Yeah, I'm glad to be complacent isthat was the key that I took away.
So, okay, this is whatwe're looking in the future.
What can we start doing now?
Yeah.
Like to prepare ourselves.
The opportunities that it presents.
Correct.
And you just ask yourselfwhen you see it, so what?
(18:30):
So what does that mean?
What can I get out of this?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Really well done.
Really well done.
All right.
Thank you.
Awesome.
Mr Bell.
Thanks for chatting.
Thank you everyone.
Thanks.
For joining us live andwatching the replay.
And soon it will be onthe Tourism Hub podcast.
It will.
Nice.
With art.
Nice.
All right.
Thanks.
And we'll be back with some more legends.
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