Visitor Economy
Solutions to grow destinations
We believe building strong, resilient and sustainable destinations and businesses is about more than great sights. It’s about great experiences. The kind of experience that keeps visitors coming back and advocating. That’s why a visitor economy strategy is so important. We offer strategic destination design and development, along with product and experience design, development and education to help build sustainable tourism industries that people talk about, visit and support.
Case Studies
Ensuring accessibility in national parks
The Department of Environment and Science, specifically the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services unit, plays an important role in ensuring that nature-based tourism experiences are accessible for all visitors. In alignment with Queensland’s Year of Accessible Tourism, Sparrowly Group were engaged to undertake a digital accessibility audit of 15 Queensland National Parks.
OUR APPROACH
We commenced by developing the access audit criteria and building an Accessible Tourism Indicator (ATI). The results of the ATI were ascertained through an audit process across the visitor journey stages of consideration, planning, experience, and sharing. It was undertaken by subject matter experts and those with lived experience and encompassed a comprehensive review of national park webpages, social media channels, complementary platforms, and third-party information sources.
The Access Audit Report focused on the importance of the digital experience for people with disabilities planning holidays - a common barrier to entry. Improvement pathways were identified to enhance the overall digital customer experience. The report identified both low-effort and high-impact pathways to achieve these improvements. Other national parks and their digital presence benchmarking was also undertaken from across Australia and New Zealand. A survey to people with disability was undertaken to further validate their experiences researching, planning and visiting national parks. These results were used to inform on-site accessible and inclusive experience development recommendations.
IMPACT
The Access Audit and Report has ensured that both the Ecotourism (Park Rangers) and Digital teams have a clear roadmap for improvement in ensuring digital experience is accessible and inclusive for all. Implementation is already underway.
This project has not only provided the insights and improvement pathways but also provided a platform to educate internal teams on access and conclusion improving their knowledge and confidence to make Queensland parks accessible for all.
Volunteers get ready for green and gold
Brisbane Economic Development Agency engaged Sparrowly Group to develop a strategy that would prepare current and future volunteers and the broader industry for the next decade leading up to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The challenge was to understand what motivates volunteers to engage in hosting visitors and what experiences visitors want in the region.
OUR APPROACH
We started with a situational analysis to understand the current landscape of Brisbane for the visitor to the region. Understanding what the destination perception is as well as the lived experience of the visitor once they land in the city and interact with industry, volunteers and locals. We reviewed volunteer programs nationally and internationally as well as the best practice framework and research.
We mapped the visitor journey and their touchpoints in region, through auditing current experiences and reviewing upcoming improvements scheduled for the region.
Extensive stakeholder engagement was undertaken across a variety of stakeholders including industry and the broader volunteer network across a number of programs.
Volunteer personas were developed to understand who the volunteer is, how to attract, communicate and retain them. Industry personas were developed to aid with ongoing engagement, leverage current partnership and develop future opportunities.
IMPACT
The Visitor Experience and Host Engagement Strategy has enabled Brisbane to leverage off the exciting opportunities leading up to the Olympics in 2032, and engage with its industry and volunteers enable actions to keep evolving.
The strategy and its associated action plan now gives Brisbane Economic Development Agency the ability to take incremental, purposeful steps to create a destination of the future.
