Our time on the Gold Coast was a brilliant chance to spend a few days with the legends of Australia’s adventure tourism industry. Across the Youth Tourism Conference we heard story after story of uncertainty and real innovation through the pandemic. The industry came together, backed each other, and came out the other side stronger and more connected than ever.
The Adventure Tourism Awards and Youth Tourism Conference
Keynote speakers at the half-day Australia and New Zealand Youth Tourism Conference shared plenty of insight and inspiration on how the industry can thrive in the years ahead, and how tourism can make a genuine social and environmental impact along the way.
A couple of speakers really stuck with us. Hailey Brown, founder and CEO of VacayIt, and her mission to make adventure tourism far more accessible for blind and low-vision travellers. And Mike Smith, founder and CEO of Zero Co, with his incredible story of “untrashing the planet”, turning plastic waste from coastlines around the world into zero-waste personal care and household cleaning products.
Ben had a lot of fun sharing the ins and outs of digital marketing with the group during his keynote too. We had some cracking conversations about the influence of AI, how its growing presence might shape the future of digital, and how we can all put it to work to our advantage. That last part feels more true by the day, as AI search tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI results become the way more and more people discover businesses.
That evening we were lucky enough to join the party at the Adventure Tourism Awards, celebrating with the incredible humans and businesses now thriving again after everything the last few years threw at them.
K’gari
K’gari translates to “paradise”, which is the perfect way to describe this magical island. We’d been dreaming of visiting since we started working with Hana and Mark of Drop Bear’s K’gari Adventures almost two years ago.
Our weekend kicked off with a 4WD journey along the beach highway. On an island made entirely of sand, the beach literally is the highway 😍, and a couple of dingoes trotted over to say hello.
We were on tour with the crew from The Local Eye Travel Show, who are working with Hana and Mark to encourage more eco-tourists from around the world to come and experience K’gari in all its wonder.
We visited a few of the best spots on the island, though we really only scratched the surface in the time we had:
Eli Creek, a natural spring that pours up to four million litres of clear, fresh water into the ocean every hour.
Lake McKenzie (Boorangoora), a 150-hectare, eight-metre-deep body of clear blue water fed entirely by rainwater.
Sunset on the West Coast, which we had completely to ourselves, as most of the tourism sits on the East Coast.
Wanggoolba Creek in the rainforest, with water so clear you’d be forgiven for thinking the creek bed was dry.
The Champagne Pools, once known as “the Aquarium”, a protected marine reserve just off the beach and perfect for snorkelling.
The Maheno shipwreck, which washed up on 75 Mile Beach on the island’s east coast after being struck by an off-season cyclone.
Amid all the adventuring, the most special part for us was spending time with Hana, Mark and their team of volunteers at the Eco Retreat, the beautiful accommodation every guest experiences on the three-day tour Drop Bear’s K’gari Adventures runs.
Seeing K’gari through their eyes for a couple of days is something we’ll never forget, and we feel very lucky to have had the chance.
We’re genuinely excited to keep growing the visibility of Drop Bear’s K’gari Adventures through our search work, so their eco-tourism can ripple out to even more people and the planet. And we can’t wait to come back again soon.