June 11, 2025 • 16 mins
In this enlightening episode of the Tourism Hub Podcast, host Despina Karatzias engages in a thought-provoking conversation with Dana Ronan from Nourish Group. They discuss exciting developments in the tourism industry, including the announcement of the 2025 ART Convention set to take place in the beautiful Adelaide Hills, just a short drive from Adelaide's city centre.
Listeners will gain insight into Nourish Group's groundbreaking partnership with Australian Regional Tourism, focusing on the social impact and value tourism brings to local communities. Dana elaborates on the innovative use of the Australian Social Value Bank, a tool designed to quantify the social benefits of tourism, moving beyond traditional economic metrics to encompass the broader well-being of communities.
The discussion highlights the significance of measuring social impact, with Dana explaining how tourism can contribute to community well-being and resilience. She emphasises the importance of looking at tourism through a lens that values the distribution of benefits to local residents, rather than solely focusing on visitor numbers and spending.
This episode is a must-listen for tourism professionals eager to understand the evolving landscape of the industry and the critical role of social value in shaping sustainable tourism practices. Tune in to discover how embracing a holistic view of tourism can lead to lasting positive change in regional communities.
01:44 - Nourish Group working with Australian regional tourism to measure social value
09:24 - You co-designed the National Agri Tourism Strategy Framework in 2022
11:16 - Dana says art convention is tailored to regional tourism stakeholders
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Show hosted by Despina Karatzias and brought to you by Tourism Hub in association with Institute Of Excellence.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Despina Karatzias (00:05):
Welcome to the Tourism Hub podcast, a podcast devoted
to you and your excellence,
providing inspiration and education for the
entrepreneurs, experience makers and
excellent seekers of our industry to take
your tourism business and m career to a whole new
level.
>> Dana Ronan (00:29):
Hello.
>> Despina Karatzias (00:30):
Thank you for joining me. Dana Ronan everybody,
from Nourish Group. So there's been
two wonderful announcements this
morning. I'm going to give the drum roll next year's
2025. I just missed it to share it with you
live. Where are we going to next year, Dana?
>> Dana Ronan (00:46):
We're going to the Adelaide Hills. Beautiful
Adelaide Hills. Only 20 minutes out of the city of Adelaide
and a stunning regional destination on
the cusp of a big city.
>> Despina Karatzias (00:56):
On the cusp of a big city. So
2025 art convention, Adelaide
Hills start. do we have a date yet? I miss that.
>> Dana Ronan (01:04):
I don't think we have a date.
>> Despina Karatzias (01:05):
But it's normally around similar time each.
>> Dana Ronan (01:07):
Year, the October next year.
>> Despina Karatzias (01:08):
So just, you know, tentatively block your diaries
for now until the more firm dates come.
>> Dana Ronan (01:14):
Absolutely.
>> Despina Karatzias (01:15):
Dana, you've been doing incredible work. I've loved
meeting you. I only met m you yesterday, but I feel like
I've known you for a long, long time.
Thank you. Another shout out to G girl doing
incredible things also. Giovanna,
you're here mate. You're here.
>> Dana Ronan (01:31):
You're with us.
>> Despina Karatzias (01:32):
You're with us. So you've made a
great and very significant
announcement in some work that you're doing
in collaboration with Art. Please share.
>> Dana Ronan (01:43):
Thanks Despi.
Look at really exciting partnership that Nourish Group have
formed with Australian regional tourism. And
we're looking I guess at the next advancement of the
ESG journey or environmental, social and governance
journey that many regions, local
governments, private businesses are going on. And
we're looking at the s the social aspect of social impact
(02:04):
and social value that tourism has within local and
regional communities. So we formed a fantastic new
partnership which is to use a fabulous tool called
the Australian Social Value bank to start to look at
quantifying social value, which many people
I'm sure have been measuring, I guess the softer
measurement aspects of social value. But there's not always
(02:25):
been hard, I guess sentiment aspects that can be
quantified, particularly down to
say, some sort of cost benefit analysis
or ratios that can be compared similar to an
economic impact ratio. And so in
partnership with the Australian Social Value bank, we're working
together to be able to offer regions
packages, to be able to undertake their first steps,
(02:47):
tentative steps forward in quantifying social value.
>> Despina Karatzias (02:51):
Well, a, lot to unpack m there.
>> Dana Ronan (02:53):
There's a lot to unpack there. Yes.
>> Despina Karatzias (02:54):
No, I loved. It's this focus on
going beyond the visitor dollar,
isn't it? The value, when we're talking about
social impact and the value
of that, it's really extending to what
does this mean for these communities. Would I be
right? Absolutely saying that.
>> Dana Ronan (03:13):
You're absolutely right. So social in this context doesn't
mean let's get them to the pub and have a wine
and cheese platter. Social means in this case,
the social distribution of the benefits of tourism
across the wider community. So we're
thinking now more, rather than thinking from the lens
of generating more visitors in the context of
(03:33):
visitor numbers and visitor spend, it's actually about the
distribution of the contribution those visitors
make to the communities. And also I guess
on the B2B side of tourism, those industry
development programmes, capability building,
capacity building, industry strengthening that so many
regions and local governments do all the time, it's
actually thinking and quantifying the long term
(03:56):
benefits of those, of those skills
developments on the residents in their community, the
impact it has and I guess
the growth over time that those impacts make
to people's wellbeing. And so this is
the measurement metric that we're using is a social
wellbeing index. Because what we're looking for is for
tourism to make a contribution to an improved
(04:18):
wellbeing of our communities.
>> Despina Karatzias (04:21):
And in the case study that we just heard earlier
the concept of over tourism, it was,
you know, Sunshine coast and Nusa in specifically,
there's also in those regions where
there's a little bit more
community, I guess challenges
around embracing what
(04:42):
visitation has done to
their smaller beautiful regional
areas. This can also have a
benefit to counteract that as
well.
>> Dana Ronan (04:53):
absolutely. So this is engaging with
residents as opposed to, I guess asking
residents what they think of tourism,
actually sharing with residents the impact that
tourism has beyond the visitors
they see in the street. So it's that beyond the economic
impact of our tourists spend this much in our economy.
(05:13):
It's actually that, well, actually having tourism
benefits you through in a wellbeing sense.
That the organic nature of having visitors around,
the visitors spend, the training programmes we do
creates I guess a sense of wellbeing, a growing
self esteem, an ability for
people who participate in these programmes to then
(05:34):
also participate more fully in the community more
broadly. and so I think as you know, that the Noosa
example, without the visitors around,
you as a resident wouldn't then have people who then
clean your pool or mow your Lawns
because the ability for the, the actual
community to function benefits
(05:54):
from the overall well being that tourism creates within
the community.
>> Despina Karatzias (05:58):
Dana, this is so important. Like, this
is really, really good piece of work.
>> Dana Ronan (06:03):
Yeah.
>> Despina Karatzias (06:04):
And you've, your background, you've been
involved in a lot of interesting projects like this.
So for this particular. Do you have a model? Like, is
this the first. Do we have something to go on
as a model or another case study of where this
is benefited?
>> Dana Ronan (06:21):
Not a specific one like the partnership we've just formed at
Art. I think what is exciting is that we're
leaning into other industries and I love seeing that
maturing of tourism's thinking about
itself as an industry that contributes to the broader
economy and community. I think sometimes we can be
our own worst enemy a little bit. We do present ourselves as
(06:41):
a good time and a fun and an entertaining
industry and can be really joyful
to work in tourism. but at the same time, our
communities that we work in have many complex social
challenges that exist across the board.
and I think that what I love about this piece of work
is that we're leaning into comparing ourselves to
other industries like health, like community services,
(07:04):
like the ndis, those sorts of things to
share, I guess, in the contribution that we can make
to the wellbeing of our, communities which then
rises. So it's a new language
for us as a tourism sector. it's a new way of
thinking about ourselves, not just in the
output of what we do in terms of developing a
(07:24):
toolkit or developing a plan or
even running an event. it's actually really
thinking through those things to the impact we want
to make and the lasting legacy of so much of what we
do and how it impacts the people who live
there, not just the visitors who come and experience our
destination.
>> Despina Karatzias (07:42):
And what better way to start with
the regions, like doing this?
>> Dana Ronan (07:47):
Absolutely.
>> Despina Karatzias (07:48):
In regional destinations.
>> Dana Ronan (07:50):
Absolutely. Well, a great thing with the tool that we've chosen
to use, which has been developed by a lovely lady
called Mincito. But Australian Social Value bank
uses publicly available government data that's
been fed into and has algorithms that sit over the
top of it to develop the wellbeing index.
But it's actually all throughout the tool. Many of the
(08:11):
social impacts that it enables us to
analyse are weighted that the impact is
greater if it's a regional area.
So whilst it's not designed
for tourism, it's perfect for us as a tourism
industry.
>> Despina Karatzias (08:26):
Kudos. Congratulations. Lauren,
our chief
love, I mean this is, is definitely right
up her Alley, you couldn't find a perfect partnership
and pairing to execute this. So I wish you
all the, all the very best and good luck and
I'll be following with great interest. So next year
(08:47):
we'll have some good stuff.
>> Dana Ronan (08:48):
Thank you. Hopefully we can from
a few of the speakers. I'm a bit concerned. There seems to be a 10 year
gap between when people are invited back to speak
again. So hopefully, hopefully I may get a
Guernsey to speak at Adelaide Hills but I'll certainly be in the
audience.
>> Despina Karatzias (09:03):
Oh yeah, I think that will be.
Yeah I'll tap, I'll speak to my people.
Yeah, yeah that's the thing.
>> Dana Ronan (09:11):
They're the same people.
>> Despina Karatzias (09:12):
Yeah.
so have you been to art before?
>> Dana Ronan (09:17):
Yes, yes. So 2022 I've been. I think
this is my third one. But in 2022 I was very
fortunate. one other project I've done with art is
the National Agri Tourism Strategy Framework. So I was the
project manager and author of that and we used a very similar
methodology where I'm a co design
facilitator and human centred designer. and so
(09:37):
we very much co designed the national every
industry. So we interviewed more than
100 operators and 50 other stakeholders across
the 12 months that that project come
about. And yes, so in 2022
I was at the conference that was the one.
>> Despina Karatzias (09:53):
That Ballarat that was launched. Yes it was.
>> Dana Ronan (09:56):
And then we launched. Yes we had a National Agri Tourism day
and we launched that strategy at the
2022.
>> Despina Karatzias (10:03):
Excellent. And you've done some local work in
your hometown in Ballarat with Sparrowlea
around. That was an agri tourism
inspired project too. So good on you
too. Shout out to Tourism Midwest.
>> Dana Ronan (10:16):
Absolutely. Tourism Midwest Victoria is doing some great work
and yes I'm now currently mentoring three new
farmers into the who are exploring opportunities
or improving their existing
opportunities in agri tourism to grow their visitor economy
for their own little farms.
>> Despina Karatzias (10:32):
Incredible. Well done, well done. So you would have really
enjoyed the forum on Wednesday as well.
>> Dana Ronan (10:38):
Yeah, great work. And I know Kate chilling really well.
>> Despina Karatzias (10:41):
Yeah.
>> Dana Ronan (10:41):
and she's doing some fabulous work in really spearheading this.
I think from Tourism Australia's perspective the indications are
certainly that this is far bigger than what they
anticipate as a sector opportunity and
agritourism is a sector that Australia has an
opportunity to shine at on a global
scale. So it's really exciting times.
>> Despina Karatzias (11:00):
Really exciting times.
Now you're a former human of
ta, you've Been to a lot of
tourism conferences regionally,
nationally, state conferences. How
in your experience, how does
this convention compare? And what would
you like to share with anyone that might
(11:21):
be on the fence about, you know, maybe they haven't been before. It's
been a while to give them some
more inspiration about considering
coming to join us in Adelaide Hills.
>> Dana Ronan (11:32):
That's a great question. What I love about the
art convention is how tailored
it is to their stakeholders. They really understand who their
audience is. And you know we quite often see
Tourism Australia speaker. We quite often see our
stos speak. I love the
tailoring of people's insights to the regional
(11:52):
audience that's in the room. But also even more
granular the audience that is rtos
and local government who have a very different, quite
often have a very different take on tourism compared to
say the supplier side or the
industry side who are operating at the coal base.
and it's always a balancing act when you get multiple audiences in
a room. so you go to something like a destination Australia
(12:15):
for tourism Australia's one of their signature
industry events. and that's fantastic at bringing
together eight or nine hundred people plus people online.
But when you get that level of scale you always have to
compromise in terms of the messaging. It becomes really
broad. art convention is just such a
fantastic, thoughtful, tailored, insightful event
(12:35):
that is really tailored for regional tourism
organisations, local, government,
representatives of tourism, people running events in local
and regional areas. And I think takes out quite often what we
see the bias of city based tourism or those
states where perhaps it's more. Hutton spoke around a city.
This is local people talking about the needs of local and
(12:55):
regional people.
>> Despina Karatzias (12:57):
So beautifully articulated.
>> Dana Ronan (12:59):
Thank you.
>> Despina Karatzias (13:01):
I want to run a session on AI you need no AI
girl. There you go.
>> Dana Ronan (13:06):
there you go.
>> Despina Karatzias (13:07):
I'm going to use that as an example.
>> Dana Ronan (13:10):
There you go. Maybe I'll start my chat. Chat Dana instead of
chat. There you go.
>> Despina Karatzias (13:14):
Chat D. Yeah, I'll get a bit of that for
my. Any, any. Yeah, that's.
Thank you.
>> Dana Ronan (13:23):
Thank you.
>> Despina Karatzias (13:23):
No, thank you for the work that you're
doing. You'll continue to do.
And you're a Victorian tourism sister.
>> Dana Ronan (13:32):
I am a Victorian tourism sister. Have lived in Victoria most.
I did have a short live few years in Sydney and a few years in
Adelaide. and I've been really fortunate that across
my, almost my entire career I have
focused on domestic tourism. So I started life with
AAT Kings as a trainee manager with AAT
Kings. and very quickly got into the inbound
side to understand inbound tourism. didn't feel
(13:54):
the need to go and work in international destinations because
the inbound side of our industry fulfilled
the conversations with the international and
global tourism space. But I've always loved
Australia as a product and, the
evolution of Australia from products to
experiences and the embracing of our nature
based assets and the beautiful things we have to share and
(14:17):
showcase in regions. Why would you do
anything else?
>> Despina Karatzias (14:21):
They've got so much goodness, so much good going
on.
>> Dana Ronan (14:24):
Yeah, Fabulous. No need to go anywhere.
>> Despina Karatzias (14:27):
Yeah, I hear you. Yes, yes.
Thank you.
>> Dana Ronan (14:31):
Great.
>> Despina Karatzias (14:31):
Enjoy the rest. We're on the final stretch now.
>> Dana Ronan (14:34):
On the final stretch. We are nearly. I think we're just about out
of sausage rolls. So it's time to wrap
up.
>> Despina Karatzias (14:40):
And time to wrap up. Well, thank you. I'm glad we made
this happen. And I did interrupt Dana with her sausage roll
in hand like before you take that bite.
>> Dana Ronan (14:49):
Yeah, let's do this. Let's do
this.
>> Despina Karatzias (14:53):
So thank you, thank you everyone for watching live.
Thank you for watching the replay. And yes, a
lot, A lot still to come. and that's what I
love about this. Now we've got. We've
continue the conversation not just at the convention.
>> Dana Ronan (15:06):
No, no. This is a kickoff. Well and truly a kickoff or
a soft launch, I guess. and this is a long
road similar to sustainability, social
value and social impact is going to be a long discussion
that evolves and deepens over time.
>> Despina Karatzias (15:20):
Absolutely. Thank you, Dana.
>> Dana Ronan (15:21):
Wonderful. Thanks, Deb.
>> Despina Karatzias (15:22):
Wonderful. Thank you.
>> Dana Ronan (15:23):
See you in Adelaide.
>> Despina Karatzias (15:24):
See you in Adelaide.
>> Dana Ronan (15:25):
Adelaide Hills.
>> Despina Karatzias (15:26):
Adelaide Hills.
Relax.
>> Dana Ronan (15:29):
M.
Welcome to the Tourism Hub podcast, a podcast devoted
to you and your excellence,
providing inspiration and education for the
entrepreneurs, experience makers and
excellent seekers of our industry to take
your tourism business and m career to a whole new
level.
>> Dana Ronan (00:29):
Hello.
>> Despina Karatzias (00:30):
Thank you for joining me. Dana Ronan everybody,
from Nourish Group. So there's been
two wonderful announcements this
morning. I'm going to give the drum roll next year's
2025. I just missed it to share it with you
live. Where are we going to next year, Dana?
>> Dana Ronan (00:46):
We're going to the Adelaide Hills. Beautiful
Adelaide Hills. Only 20 minutes out of the city of Adelaide
and a stunning regional destination on
the cusp of a big city.
>> Despina Karatzias (00:56):
On the cusp of a big city. So
2025 art convention, Adelaide
Hills start. do we have a date yet? I miss that.
>> Dana Ronan (01:04):
I don't think we have a date.
>> Despina Karatzias (01:05):
But it's normally around similar time each.
>> Dana Ronan (01:07):
Year, the October next year.
>> Despina Karatzias (01:08):
So just, you know, tentatively block your diaries
for now until the more firm dates come.
>> Dana Ronan (01:14):
Absolutely.
>> Despina Karatzias (01:15):
Dana, you've been doing incredible work. I've loved
meeting you. I only met m you yesterday, but I feel like
I've known you for a long, long time.
Thank you. Another shout out to G girl doing
incredible things also. Giovanna,
you're here mate. You're here.
>> Dana Ronan (01:31):
You're with us.
>> Despina Karatzias (01:32):
You're with us. So you've made a
great and very significant
announcement in some work that you're doing
in collaboration with Art. Please share.
>> Dana Ronan (01:43):
Thanks Despi.
Look at really exciting partnership that Nourish Group have
formed with Australian regional tourism. And
we're looking I guess at the next advancement of the
ESG journey or environmental, social and governance
journey that many regions, local
governments, private businesses are going on. And
we're looking at the s the social aspect of social impact
(02:04):
and social value that tourism has within local and
regional communities. So we formed a fantastic new
partnership which is to use a fabulous tool called
the Australian Social Value bank to start to look at
quantifying social value, which many people
I'm sure have been measuring, I guess the softer
measurement aspects of social value. But there's not always
(02:25):
been hard, I guess sentiment aspects that can be
quantified, particularly down to
say, some sort of cost benefit analysis
or ratios that can be compared similar to an
economic impact ratio. And so in
partnership with the Australian Social Value bank, we're working
together to be able to offer regions
packages, to be able to undertake their first steps,
(02:47):
tentative steps forward in quantifying social value.
>> Despina Karatzias (02:51):
Well, a, lot to unpack m there.
>> Dana Ronan (02:53):
There's a lot to unpack there. Yes.
>> Despina Karatzias (02:54):
No, I loved. It's this focus on
going beyond the visitor dollar,
isn't it? The value, when we're talking about
social impact and the value
of that, it's really extending to what
does this mean for these communities. Would I be
right? Absolutely saying that.
>> Dana Ronan (03:13):
You're absolutely right. So social in this context doesn't
mean let's get them to the pub and have a wine
and cheese platter. Social means in this case,
the social distribution of the benefits of tourism
across the wider community. So we're
thinking now more, rather than thinking from the lens
of generating more visitors in the context of
(03:33):
visitor numbers and visitor spend, it's actually about the
distribution of the contribution those visitors
make to the communities. And also I guess
on the B2B side of tourism, those industry
development programmes, capability building,
capacity building, industry strengthening that so many
regions and local governments do all the time, it's
actually thinking and quantifying the long term
(03:56):
benefits of those, of those skills
developments on the residents in their community, the
impact it has and I guess
the growth over time that those impacts make
to people's wellbeing. And so this is
the measurement metric that we're using is a social
wellbeing index. Because what we're looking for is for
tourism to make a contribution to an improved
(04:18):
wellbeing of our communities.
>> Despina Karatzias (04:21):
And in the case study that we just heard earlier
the concept of over tourism, it was,
you know, Sunshine coast and Nusa in specifically,
there's also in those regions where
there's a little bit more
community, I guess challenges
around embracing what
(04:42):
visitation has done to
their smaller beautiful regional
areas. This can also have a
benefit to counteract that as
well.
>> Dana Ronan (04:53):
absolutely. So this is engaging with
residents as opposed to, I guess asking
residents what they think of tourism,
actually sharing with residents the impact that
tourism has beyond the visitors
they see in the street. So it's that beyond the economic
impact of our tourists spend this much in our economy.
(05:13):
It's actually that, well, actually having tourism
benefits you through in a wellbeing sense.
That the organic nature of having visitors around,
the visitors spend, the training programmes we do
creates I guess a sense of wellbeing, a growing
self esteem, an ability for
people who participate in these programmes to then
(05:34):
also participate more fully in the community more
broadly. and so I think as you know, that the Noosa
example, without the visitors around,
you as a resident wouldn't then have people who then
clean your pool or mow your Lawns
because the ability for the, the actual
community to function benefits
(05:54):
from the overall well being that tourism creates within
the community.
>> Despina Karatzias (05:58):
Dana, this is so important. Like, this
is really, really good piece of work.
>> Dana Ronan (06:03):
Yeah.
>> Despina Karatzias (06:04):
And you've, your background, you've been
involved in a lot of interesting projects like this.
So for this particular. Do you have a model? Like, is
this the first. Do we have something to go on
as a model or another case study of where this
is benefited?
>> Dana Ronan (06:21):
Not a specific one like the partnership we've just formed at
Art. I think what is exciting is that we're
leaning into other industries and I love seeing that
maturing of tourism's thinking about
itself as an industry that contributes to the broader
economy and community. I think sometimes we can be
our own worst enemy a little bit. We do present ourselves as
(06:41):
a good time and a fun and an entertaining
industry and can be really joyful
to work in tourism. but at the same time, our
communities that we work in have many complex social
challenges that exist across the board.
and I think that what I love about this piece of work
is that we're leaning into comparing ourselves to
other industries like health, like community services,
(07:04):
like the ndis, those sorts of things to
share, I guess, in the contribution that we can make
to the wellbeing of our, communities which then
rises. So it's a new language
for us as a tourism sector. it's a new way of
thinking about ourselves, not just in the
output of what we do in terms of developing a
(07:24):
toolkit or developing a plan or
even running an event. it's actually really
thinking through those things to the impact we want
to make and the lasting legacy of so much of what we
do and how it impacts the people who live
there, not just the visitors who come and experience our
destination.
>> Despina Karatzias (07:42):
And what better way to start with
the regions, like doing this?
>> Dana Ronan (07:47):
Absolutely.
>> Despina Karatzias (07:48):
In regional destinations.
>> Dana Ronan (07:50):
Absolutely. Well, a great thing with the tool that we've chosen
to use, which has been developed by a lovely lady
called Mincito. But Australian Social Value bank
uses publicly available government data that's
been fed into and has algorithms that sit over the
top of it to develop the wellbeing index.
But it's actually all throughout the tool. Many of the
(08:11):
social impacts that it enables us to
analyse are weighted that the impact is
greater if it's a regional area.
So whilst it's not designed
for tourism, it's perfect for us as a tourism
industry.
>> Despina Karatzias (08:26):
Kudos. Congratulations. Lauren,
our chief
love, I mean this is, is definitely right
up her Alley, you couldn't find a perfect partnership
and pairing to execute this. So I wish you
all the, all the very best and good luck and
I'll be following with great interest. So next year
(08:47):
we'll have some good stuff.
>> Dana Ronan (08:48):
Thank you. Hopefully we can from
a few of the speakers. I'm a bit concerned. There seems to be a 10 year
gap between when people are invited back to speak
again. So hopefully, hopefully I may get a
Guernsey to speak at Adelaide Hills but I'll certainly be in the
audience.
>> Despina Karatzias (09:03):
Oh yeah, I think that will be.
Yeah I'll tap, I'll speak to my people.
Yeah, yeah that's the thing.
>> Dana Ronan (09:11):
They're the same people.
>> Despina Karatzias (09:12):
Yeah.
so have you been to art before?
>> Dana Ronan (09:17):
Yes, yes. So 2022 I've been. I think
this is my third one. But in 2022 I was very
fortunate. one other project I've done with art is
the National Agri Tourism Strategy Framework. So I was the
project manager and author of that and we used a very similar
methodology where I'm a co design
facilitator and human centred designer. and so
(09:37):
we very much co designed the national every
industry. So we interviewed more than
100 operators and 50 other stakeholders across
the 12 months that that project come
about. And yes, so in 2022
I was at the conference that was the one.
>> Despina Karatzias (09:53):
That Ballarat that was launched. Yes it was.
>> Dana Ronan (09:56):
And then we launched. Yes we had a National Agri Tourism day
and we launched that strategy at the
2022.
>> Despina Karatzias (10:03):
Excellent. And you've done some local work in
your hometown in Ballarat with Sparrowlea
around. That was an agri tourism
inspired project too. So good on you
too. Shout out to Tourism Midwest.
>> Dana Ronan (10:16):
Absolutely. Tourism Midwest Victoria is doing some great work
and yes I'm now currently mentoring three new
farmers into the who are exploring opportunities
or improving their existing
opportunities in agri tourism to grow their visitor economy
for their own little farms.
>> Despina Karatzias (10:32):
Incredible. Well done, well done. So you would have really
enjoyed the forum on Wednesday as well.
>> Dana Ronan (10:38):
Yeah, great work. And I know Kate chilling really well.
>> Despina Karatzias (10:41):
Yeah.
>> Dana Ronan (10:41):
and she's doing some fabulous work in really spearheading this.
I think from Tourism Australia's perspective the indications are
certainly that this is far bigger than what they
anticipate as a sector opportunity and
agritourism is a sector that Australia has an
opportunity to shine at on a global
scale. So it's really exciting times.
>> Despina Karatzias (11:00):
Really exciting times.
Now you're a former human of
ta, you've Been to a lot of
tourism conferences regionally,
nationally, state conferences. How
in your experience, how does
this convention compare? And what would
you like to share with anyone that might
(11:21):
be on the fence about, you know, maybe they haven't been before. It's
been a while to give them some
more inspiration about considering
coming to join us in Adelaide Hills.
>> Dana Ronan (11:32):
That's a great question. What I love about the
art convention is how tailored
it is to their stakeholders. They really understand who their
audience is. And you know we quite often see
Tourism Australia speaker. We quite often see our
stos speak. I love the
tailoring of people's insights to the regional
(11:52):
audience that's in the room. But also even more
granular the audience that is rtos
and local government who have a very different, quite
often have a very different take on tourism compared to
say the supplier side or the
industry side who are operating at the coal base.
and it's always a balancing act when you get multiple audiences in
a room. so you go to something like a destination Australia
(12:15):
for tourism Australia's one of their signature
industry events. and that's fantastic at bringing
together eight or nine hundred people plus people online.
But when you get that level of scale you always have to
compromise in terms of the messaging. It becomes really
broad. art convention is just such a
fantastic, thoughtful, tailored, insightful event
(12:35):
that is really tailored for regional tourism
organisations, local, government,
representatives of tourism, people running events in local
and regional areas. And I think takes out quite often what we
see the bias of city based tourism or those
states where perhaps it's more. Hutton spoke around a city.
This is local people talking about the needs of local and
(12:55):
regional people.
>> Despina Karatzias (12:57):
So beautifully articulated.
>> Dana Ronan (12:59):
Thank you.
>> Despina Karatzias (13:01):
I want to run a session on AI you need no AI
girl. There you go.
>> Dana Ronan (13:06):
there you go.
>> Despina Karatzias (13:07):
I'm going to use that as an example.
>> Dana Ronan (13:10):
There you go. Maybe I'll start my chat. Chat Dana instead of
chat. There you go.
>> Despina Karatzias (13:14):
Chat D. Yeah, I'll get a bit of that for
my. Any, any. Yeah, that's.
Thank you.
>> Dana Ronan (13:23):
Thank you.
>> Despina Karatzias (13:23):
No, thank you for the work that you're
doing. You'll continue to do.
And you're a Victorian tourism sister.
>> Dana Ronan (13:32):
I am a Victorian tourism sister. Have lived in Victoria most.
I did have a short live few years in Sydney and a few years in
Adelaide. and I've been really fortunate that across
my, almost my entire career I have
focused on domestic tourism. So I started life with
AAT Kings as a trainee manager with AAT
Kings. and very quickly got into the inbound
side to understand inbound tourism. didn't feel
(13:54):
the need to go and work in international destinations because
the inbound side of our industry fulfilled
the conversations with the international and
global tourism space. But I've always loved
Australia as a product and, the
evolution of Australia from products to
experiences and the embracing of our nature
based assets and the beautiful things we have to share and
(14:17):
showcase in regions. Why would you do
anything else?
>> Despina Karatzias (14:21):
They've got so much goodness, so much good going
on.
>> Dana Ronan (14:24):
Yeah, Fabulous. No need to go anywhere.
>> Despina Karatzias (14:27):
Yeah, I hear you. Yes, yes.
Thank you.
>> Dana Ronan (14:31):
Great.
>> Despina Karatzias (14:31):
Enjoy the rest. We're on the final stretch now.
>> Dana Ronan (14:34):
On the final stretch. We are nearly. I think we're just about out
of sausage rolls. So it's time to wrap
up.
>> Despina Karatzias (14:40):
And time to wrap up. Well, thank you. I'm glad we made
this happen. And I did interrupt Dana with her sausage roll
in hand like before you take that bite.
>> Dana Ronan (14:49):
Yeah, let's do this. Let's do
this.
>> Despina Karatzias (14:53):
So thank you, thank you everyone for watching live.
Thank you for watching the replay. And yes, a
lot, A lot still to come. and that's what I
love about this. Now we've got. We've
continue the conversation not just at the convention.
>> Dana Ronan (15:06):
No, no. This is a kickoff. Well and truly a kickoff or
a soft launch, I guess. and this is a long
road similar to sustainability, social
value and social impact is going to be a long discussion
that evolves and deepens over time.
>> Despina Karatzias (15:20):
Absolutely. Thank you, Dana.
>> Dana Ronan (15:21):
Wonderful. Thanks, Deb.
>> Despina Karatzias (15:22):
Wonderful. Thank you.
>> Dana Ronan (15:23):
See you in Adelaide.
>> Despina Karatzias (15:24):
See you in Adelaide.
>> Dana Ronan (15:25):
Adelaide Hills.
>> Despina Karatzias (15:26):
Adelaide Hills.
Relax.
>> Dana Ronan (15:29):
M.
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