John Anderson - Keynote address, Wednesday 10 September

John Anderson at the age of 22 took 25 Pounds, an idea and created a new product, an international brand name which is now a 300 Million Dollar plus business. It is an incredible story. John built Contiki Holidays through passion, brand and commitment – “we laughed as he spoke, but the passion was strong…..he cried as he delivered parts of the Contiki story, it was moving, empowering and made an impact. He had an idea, a passion, a drive, he made mistakes, he gambled, took risks, but always had a plan. He made something from nothing, built on people, a brand and a passion. An international success story, delivered with sincerity, tears and laughs. John Anderson was Richard Branson before Richard Branson.”

In 1962 with just 25 pounds New Zealander John Anderson found a way to not only see Europe, but to start his own business, Contiki Holidays. At the age of 22 John left New Zealand for England for a one-year trip overseas. He returned 20 years later with his wife Alison, four children and the international tourism business, Contiki Holidays. When John sold the company it was, and remains, an International “brand name” and one of the worlds major tour operators, (the largest catering specifically for the 18-35 year old market). From a staff of one and a beaten-up minibus, to 700 staff, operating 160 Mercedes coaches and 15 European properties including a Chateau, Hotels, camping grounds and cruise vessels. He had built brand awareness of 92% in target markets, Contiki was operating in Europe, North America and Australasia, carrying 100,000 passengers annually.

The first Contiki tour was typical of those to come - departing London on 29th April 1962, a group of 11 young strangers from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa with John Anderson as their tour leader set out on a 12 week tour of Europe. They travelled in a 12-seater minibus with their camping gear, a road map and a guidebook together with the enthusiasm to have the experience of a lifetime. The trip was a huge success and they returned life long friends. Contiki had changed their lives. In the years following over 1.7 million others (including over 850,000 Australians) have had their own Contiki experience. It has had a major impact on the lives of many people, both passengers and staff. Contiki developed young Tour Leaders and staff through training, experiences, challenges and a supportive culture. Staff have gone on to become successful in many areas of life as business and community leaders. Staff reunions that recapture the culture and excitement are not uncommon amongst ex-staff.

The Contiki story is an incredible story, which remains virtually untold, yet it's a household name in several countries around the world.

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Lainie Anderson - Convention MC

Lainie Anderson is a columnist with South Australia’s Sunday Mail newspaper, aiming to inspire, amuse and outrage by writing on topical issues such as city development (or lack of it), politics, climate change and wayward sports stars. Her 20-year media career has spanned both newspaper journalism and public relations, with extensive stints on the Herald Sun in Melbourne and The Times in London.

Since returning to Adelaide in 2000, she has worked as a public relations manager at both the South Australian Tourism Commission, and Education Adelaide (a government agency promoting the city as an international study destination).

She is now a freelance writer, living in the Adelaide Hills with her author husband Max and their twin four-year-old boys, Search and Destroy (Harry and Jack).

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Captains of Industry Gala Dinner
Guest Speaker - Peter Hurley

Peter Hurley has enjoyed a long and lucrative career in tourism, and as a businessman in the hotels industry and as an influential lobbyist, Peter has helped create the landscape that is South Australian tourism today.

Along with his wife Jenny, Hurley owns four hotels in South Australia and also owns significant shares in five other hotel developments in the State, making the Hurley Hotel Group a major player in South Australia’s regional tourism industry.

The most recent development is the $45 million Port Lincoln Hotel of which Hurley is a part owner. Catering for both the business and leisure traveler, and managed by the Hurley Hotel Group, the Port Lincoln is one of the most significant tourism developments in regional South Australia.

Currently the National Senior Vice-President and State President of the Australian Hotels Association (AHA); Chairman of Hospitality Group Training, the largest group apprenticeship and training scheme in South Australia; and Deputy Chairman of The Adelaide Football Club, Hurley’s involvement with the tourism industry in South Australia has been considerable since he first entered it in 1975 when he purchased lease of the Wudinna Hotel.

Peter Hurley served for six years as board member of South Australian Tourism Commission (1997-2003) and for four on the board of Australian Tourist Commission (2000-2004). He is a current board member of the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and Deputy Chair of the Independent Gaming Corporation.

Hurley is one of South Australia’s greatest businessmen, a prominent leader and a true Captain of Industry.

Do not miss the opportunity to meet with Peter Hurley at the ‘Captains of Industry Gala Dinner’; Tuesday 9th September 2008, 7pm, Jacobs Creek Heritage Building, Jacobs Creek Winery, Barossa, South Australia

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Jim Carreker - Convention Gala Dinner Address

Jim Carreker, along with his wife Helen, are the owners, developers and operators of award-winning regional dining and luxury accommodation venues in South Australia.
Their company, Arbutus Hospitality, purchased the Barossa’s gracious country motel known as the Hermitage of Marananga in early 2005 and began a complete renovation and repositioning, resulting in the launch of The Louise luxury vineyard retreat in its place in 2006.

In parallel, with the participation of executive chef Mark McNamara, the Carreker’s developed Appellation restaurant on the same site. Recently The Louise was named category winner for Luxury Accommodation at the 2007 National Tourism Awards and Appellation has received a series of accolades, including Best Regional Restaurant and Best Wine List in the Adelaide Food Awards.

The Carreker’s moved to Australia from San Francisco in 2003 and settled in South Australia to build and operate a world-class dining destination with colocated luxury accommodation. This is a business model with few examples in Australia, though it is common in the wine regions of France and the United States.

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Nick Baker - Tourism Australia

As Executive General Manager of Marketing, Nick is responsible for managing Tourism Australia's global marketing operations, including the global advertising campaigns, business and major events, trade events along with responsibility for domestic marketing and Australian experiences development for all markets. Nick will continue to roll out Tourism Australia’s global marketing strategy, ensuring that Australia’s tourism marketing efforts continue to cut through in the competitive international marketplace.

Nick Baker joined Tourism Australia in August 2007 after 10 years with Voyages Hotels and Resorts as Executive General Manager Sales and Marketing, where he has been responsible for developing and driving the strong positioning of the Voyages brand and properties to consumers both in Australia and internationally.
Nick has worked and lived in UK, Asia and Australia.

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Steve Kernaghan - Interactive Panel

As Executive General Manager, Communications, of the South Australian Tourism Commission, Steve will be responsible for communicating the best of South Australia to a defined target audience to ensure a growth in holidays and expenditure to the State. A major part of his new role will be to heavily influence the short break and holidays distribution system to help SA win a larger share of the national and international tourism pie.

Steve has moved from the US to Adelaide to work for the South Australian Tourism Commission, and brings a wealth of communications and tourism experience to his new role. His recent roles include Regional Marketing Manager for Tourism Australia based in Los Angeles, where he was responsible for managing Tourism Australia's Advertising and Digital activities in the United States and Canada. In this role his achievements included managing the US launch event of a global ad campaign in San Francisco, and the responsibility for multi-faceted media partnerships, including with American Express, NBC and CNN. Steve has also worked as Marketing Communications Manager for Qantas Airways, also based in Los Angeles.

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Penny Young - Interactive Panel

Penny Young is CEO for TakeABreak.com.au, a role she shares with Craig Davis.

Penny and Craig jointly drive the vision and direction for the company which is about to celebrate its fifth year in operation. Penny also is responsible for the marketing of the site which includes visitor and operator communication, search engine marketing, public relations and promotions.

Penny has worked in various capacities in the field of international marketing for almost 20 years, specialising in service marketing including the telecommunications and information technology fields. She has held senior strategic marketing roles in a number of high profile companies both in Australia and overseas. Prior to starting TakeABreak.com.au, she managed her own marketing consultancy, which specialised in servicing small business clients in a range of fields.

Penny loves to travel and it was this that led to the idea of TakeABreak.com.au. With many travellers looking for more than just a standard hotel experience, her objective was to provide them with access to as many different accommodation types as possible.

When searching for boutique accommodation such as B&Bs or holiday homes she also found the only option was calling local real estate agents or accessing local newspapers and information centres. This process was not only time consuming but sometimes yielded no results at all. She felt there needed to be a more comprehensive yet easier, streamlined and convenient search option. So in 2003, with 300 properties, the seed for TakeABreak.com.au was sown.

At the click of a mouse visitors can check availability and book their preferred accommodation, then consult relevant links to flights, car hire, maps, local weather patterns, currency converters, destination information and even local restaurants.

TakeABreak.com.au is now the only independent online travel site specialising in boutique accommodation in Australia. Over 11,000 hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses are listed on the site, complete with in-depth information and guest reviews. The properties are easily searched via experience – pet, family, seniors, gay and lesbian-friendly and geography. The booking process is quick and simple with a “Best Deal” guarantee to ensure the cheapest price for that stay. Well in advance of the company’s targets, the business began to break even in the first 12 months. In the last financial year it generated $15M in bookings.

Penny also attributes TakeABreak’s success to the strong support they give the operators who list their properties with the site. Penny’s experience in small business management has allowed her to provide this critical service including a monthly newsletter, Business Breaks which gives tips on growing their bookings and also marketing partnership opportunities.

TakeABreak.com.au has won the NSW Tourism Award in the Tourism Marketing/Media category in both 2006 and 2007.

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Alex Dobrochodow

Alex has over 25 years of local and international experience in advertising, direct marketing and corporate communications. He specialises in developing marketing and creative strategies, and implementing creative solutions. He has particular expertise in travel and destination marketing, including the highly successful ‘Seven Wonders Of New South Wales’ campaign. This also involved implementing campaigns for many of the State’s regional tourism authorities such as The Blue Mountains, Thredbo, Northern Rivers, The Outback and The Murray. The campaign is regarded as the most effective tourism campaign ever produced for New South Wales.

Alex has also worked for Cunard, promoting their QE2, Royal Viking Sun and Sea Goddess Lines, as well as Rydges Hotels, Radisson Hotels, the Capricorn Resort and much smaller operations such as Caravan Parks, Holiday Parks and Bed & Breakfast businesses.

His current work has included destination brand development and creative solutions for the Indigo Shire (Beechworth and Rutherglen), Albury-Wodonga, Macleay Valley Coast and Eurobodalla as well as the current Tourism Australia campaign. Alex’s other big brand experience in the domestic market includes the launch of Optus Mobile, Goodyear, NRMA, ANZ Bank, Qantas, Arnotts, PeopleSoft, Cadburys, American Express, Colgate, Whiskas and Heinz.

In addition to his advertising and marketing work he has developed courses for the Advertising Federation of Australia AdSchool and currently lectures in the program.

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Alysia Brandenburg

Alysia has been with Parks Victoria for nine years, initially as Regional Marketing and Communications Officer for the Melbourne Metro region and more recently as  Strategic Tourism Adviser in the corporate unit of Tourism Partnerships.  Alysia has worked in the tourism industry for nearly twenty years and has a Masters of Tourism from Monash University. 

Alysia currently manages the marketing, product development and tourism industry liaison for the very successful Great Ocean Walk.

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Ross McLennan

Whilst travelling abroad for almost four years with partner Chelsea, Ross McLennan realised the immense passion he had for the environment, superb climate and captivating culture of regional Townsville, Queensland. In 2006, this overwhelming passion led Ross and Chelsea to return to assist his parents, Ian and Bonnie with their tourism business, 103 km North-West of Townsville called Hidden Valley Cabins.

The original Hidden Valley Cabins were established in 1982 to cater for timber cutters, tin miners and graziers in the area. Ian and Bonnie McLennan bought the property in 1986 and transformed the entire business to cater to people who wanted to be at one with nature, and experience the glorious riches that regional Townsville had to offer.

Due to the remote location of their tourism business, the McLennans have had to rely on self-generated power; however, being environmentally conscientious, the McLennan family have always made a concerted effort in reducing their green-house gas emissions.

On returning to assist his parents, Ross brought with him the enormous desire and knowledge to reinvent the family business to enhance the Hidden Valley Cabins experience. Ross’s goal was also to make the business as sustainable as possible.

In December 2007, Ross and the McLennans put the Townsville tourism industry in the lime-light as they followed through with their desire to be environmentally conscious, turning off their diesel generators and switching on their solar power plant. Since then the entire resorts electrical needs have been supplied by the sun, saving the resort up to 26000 Litres of diesel and 78 Tonnes of Carbon Dioxide per year. This initiative as well as offering a superb tourism experience has led Hidden Valley Cabins to win numerous awards over the past few years, one of which was the ‘Best New Tourism Development Award’ in 2007 at the North Queensland Tourism Awards.

Ross and the McLennans have worked wonders for their own business. Due to their desires to also create an overall sustainable tourism industry, the family has established Energy Saving workshops to assist fellow tourism businesses in regional areas to overcome the pressures of rising fuel and energy prices and create an overall more sustainable tourism industry.

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Kathryn Gillies

Kathryn Gillies is a Research Analyst in the Forecasting and Analysis team of Tourism Research Australia. She has been involved in many research projects, with a particular emphasis on regional tourism. Her work includes modelling regional expenditure estimates, development of regional tourism profiles, contributing to the Australian domestic tourism research series, and contributing to the local government tourism profiles project.

Kathryn joined Tourism Australia in 2006, after working in the Tourism Division of the Department of Industry, Tourism & Resources where she gained valuable tourism policy experience. Kathryn also worked in the Australian Bureau of Statistics where she was involved in the development of the 2006 Population Census, as well as various household surveys. Kathryn has a Double Degree in Applied Economics/Tourism Management from the University of Canberra, and is currently undertaking a Graduate Diploma in Statistics.

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