Screw tourism as usual.

That's my takeaway from the Tourism Industry Aotearoa conference.

To give our visitors the best experiences and for NZ to stand out in a global market; we all need to embrace tourism unusual.

This looks like:

- “Systemise the extraordinary, personalise the ordinary.” A formula for success and doing things different in visitor experience design. Quote of the day from Nigel at Tourism Innovation Group (TIG).

- Forgetting assumptions. In lumpy economic times, people are traveling different. Contiki Tours with business class flights? 6 month campervan booking? While some things stay the same, consumer preferences are always changing.

- Small new things add up. Like a different offer. Amanda told a powerful story about the service station that asks, “Want a $2 kit kat with that?”. 62% say yes. 1,000+ customers a day adds 6 figures+ to annual rev. What’s your (authentic) kit kat question?

- Future travelers, different payments. Apple Pay, Google Pay, Alipay, crypto, cash, credit card... If people start asking - don't give them a reason not to buy.

- When VR tech is so good do famils look different? Of course it's not as good as the real thing but at the same time, it's also unbelievably impressive... Holger and the Otago Uni team were blowing minds between sessions with their tech demo.

- Ask different questions. Not "what can we do to improve our product?". Instead, "what would it take for every guest to tell everyone they know about us?". It doesn't have to be expensive to be memorable. This was the message of the breakout session I tried to get across. Thanks Cecil, Dave Bamford, Justine and the rest for getting involved - hope you enjoy the Unreasonable book.

The visitor experience theme was super relevant.

It's a timeless topic but it's also never static.

Because consumer preference doesn't stand still.

That's also why it's so challenging.

But here lies the opportunity: as competition grows, innovation changes and expectations increase - tourism is reinventing itself in meaningful ways.

It makes sense to be a part of that.