For that truly special, ‘wind in the hair’ experience, Compass Expeditions introduces its ‘Outback Explorer’ and ‘Australian Encompassed’ road tours showcasing the romance of the Aussie bush aboard a BMW motorbike.

Compass Expeditions is a world renowned adventure motorcycle touring company and an official BMW travel partner. For over 7 years it has operated supported expeditions to the most remote corners of the world and is now returning home to launch its two new epic itineraries that are being rolled out across Australia by award-winning tourism business experts, Parker Travel Collection.

Compass Expeditions’ 17 day ‘Outback Explorer’ departs Melbourne and combines the blue of the Great Ocean Road, beauty of the Barossa Valley and the loneliness of the Birdsville Track en-route to Darwin.

The return journey makes for the 19 day ‘Australian Encompassed’ tour. Departing Darwin, the route travels via Katherine and Alice Springs. The highlight of this itinerary is a visit to Uluru before returning to Melbourne via the remote Oonadatta Track and Wilpena Pound.

From five bikes, one battered old Toyota support vehicle and a load of enthusiasm, Compass Expeditions has grown rapidly to offer over 25 tours in 36 countries across four continents. Recognised by National Geographic for their globetrotting expeditions, company co-founder Mick McDonald said the new Australian itineraries were developed to satisfy a demand from their many fans from around the world.

“It was natural progression to offer these Australian tours as we know the destination intimately and together with the marketing efforts of Parker Travel Collection will be working hard to foster new markets and an appreciation of BMW cruising,” said Mick.

Tours are all inclusive of BMW motorcycle rental (variety of sizes), all fuel, accommodation, most meals and attraction entry fees. The tours are conducted by an experienced guide with a support vehicle.

For more information or to book, contact Compass Expeditions Tel: 1300 887 327 (within Australia) or +61 3 5368 2113 (outside Australia) info@compassexpeditions.com  www.compassexpeditions.com  

                                                                                   

Hot Air Balloon Gold Coast, a Parker Travel client, was pleased to be chosen in the top 100 Best Views in Australia, by Australian Traveller Magazine this week, with a photograph from one balloon of another balloon, floating over the Gold Coast hinterland.

Locals and visitors take off in their hot air balloons over the hinterland every day, with weekends popular to celebrate birthdays and wedding anniversaries, with their hot air balloon rides followed by a champagne breakfast at O’Reilly’s Canungra Vineyard.
The Top 100 Views in Australia, was determined by a panel of nine respected Australian photographers who ranked over 1000 entries from the magazine’s readers. Of the 100 views chosen, just two were from the Gold Coast.

                                                                            

Skytrans today announced a new service to operate between Toowoomba and Sydney. Toowoomba is one of Australia’s largest inland regional centres, and plays an integral role in servicing the agricultural and mining industries in Queensland’s mid-West.

Skytrans Managing Director, Simon Wild, confirmed the new services today whilst on a visit to Toowoomba, stating that flights are planned to commence in July 2012.

“The local business Community have lobbied for these services for some time, so it is our great pleasure, after many months of due diligence, to make this announcement here in Toowoomba.”

Initially there will be six return flights weekly to Sydney, increasing to ten in the first year of operation. Notably there will be an opportunity to depart Toowoomba in the morning, and return again in the evening after conducting a day’s business in Sydney.

“We listened to and paid close attention to the requirements of the local business Community in creating a schedule we hope will meet the needs of most people, whilst allowing for expansion.”

Morning arrival slots into Sydney airport are in great demand, and our schedule has been partially dictated by the best times we were able to secure. Having said that, Sydney Airport are also very excited about a brand new regional destination being added to their routes.

Skytrans, an airline well known in regional Queensland for its Community services, plans to bring a greater level of involvement in the region.

“We have a great history of meaningfully contributing to the Communities we fly to throughout Queensland, and although we already have established interests in Toowoomba, these new services will allow us to increase that level of involvement,” continued Mr Wild.

Skytrans intend to recruit cabin crew from the Toowoomba region initially with a medium term aim to base flight crews, engineers and aircraft in Toowoomba. Critical to this outcome will be support from the greater community in utilising these services.

Pricing and final schedule will be released during April 2012.

Skytrans is a Queensland owned company with 20 years of operating history and a fleet of Dash-8 aircraft flying to 23 ports around Queensland on scheduled and charter services. All flights feature full in-flight service, movies, and quality catering.

          “Vivid Sydney 2011, ©Dan Boud and ©David Clare”

Parker Collection is pleased to announce our engagement by Destination NSW to develop a dedicated China tactical campaign to promote the Vivid Sydney festival via the travel trade and social media mediums. The pilot programme will feature a series of itinerary clips, travel packages and destination sales materials in simplified Chinese to engage group, FIT and business delegation travel to the festival.

“This style of festival is of great interest and appeal to the Chinese market as Sydney will again be transformed into a spectacular canvas of light, music and creativity as Vivid Sydney takes over the city after dark from 25 May – 11 June 2012” stated Anthony Teng the General Manager Greater China for Parker Collection.

Vivid Sydney will colour the city with creativity and inspiration, featuring the breathtaking immersive lighting of the iconic Sydney Opera House sails, performances from local and international musicians at Vivid LIVE and a large scale multi-media outdoor exhibition of interactive light sculptures and building projections around the harbour precinct. The event will include a range of artistic collaborations, public talks and debates from leading creative thinkers from Australia and around the world, celebrating Sydney as the creative hub of the Asia Pacific. www.vividsydney.com

View Video

Please note that within China, Parker Travel Collection is referred to as Parker Collection to not cause confusion with other associated Chinese companies of a similar acronym.  

The team at Parker Travel Collection are committed to providing global in-market tourism solutions and are forging ahead with our expansion during economically challenging times by opening an office in London.

The new office will service the leisure and business sectors of the United Kingdom and European travel trade appointing Leonie Groves (pictured left) as the Business Development Manager for the region. Ms Groves was formerly the United Kingdom’s Market Development Manager for Tourism Western Australia.

Parker Travel Collection’s international sales department continues to be managed by Robbie Bastion, who along with colleague, Andrew Dineen, will support Leonie in the UK and Continental Europe. As part of this restructure Maria Haglund will complete her tenure with Parker Travel Collection at the end of this month to continue running her own consultancy firm which had been contracted to PTC over the last three and a half years. Ms Haglund played an integral role for Parker Travel Collection in servicing the European market during this time.

Whilst we face interesting times in the European zone there is still opportunity to grow business especially around special events such as the Lions and the Ashes. I recall promoting tourism in the United Kingdom 20 years ago in very difficult economic conditions and managed to generate good business with regular sales activity. Having a presence in market and a commitment to move with the times is crucial in sourcing new opportunities. We intend to expand our office in China over the next 12 months and are intent on opening in India in the not too distant future, Parker Travel Collection currently has offices in Cairns, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Guangzhou, Los Angeles, London and Seoul.

The team at Parker Travel Collection have launched a new sales promotion working in conjunction with the Cairns Accommodation Centre and Air Niugini.  This campaign expands Parker Travel Collection’s range of ‘Hot Deals’ to reach Tropical north Queensland’s growing market of Papua New Guinea (view flyer) and continues to reinforce our commitment to leisure & mining promotional tourism.
This is a new initiative that will see over 10 000 flyers distributed via 30 Air Niugini offices and multiple Corporates.
 
                                                                                 

Picture ( left to right): Todd Parker, Managing Director Parker Travel Collection, Annemarie Rhodes, Sales & Marketing Manager Air Niugini, (Nth Qld & NT) and Sam Ferguson, Commercial General Manager, Accommodation Centre.

The Accommodation Centre’s General Manager (Commercial), Sam Ferguson said they were excited to be launching this campaign in Port Moresby and around the country over the next two weeks.  “Parker Travel Collection’s Hot Deals product provides great value-add offers that in effect, will increase Papua New Guinea’s exposure of this region while forging a strong alliance with Air Niugini offices nationwide.
 
“The campaign provides a much needed boost to both the leisure and corporate sectors whilst supporting Air Niugini to grow Cairns as a destination,” he said. Air Niugini Limited is the national airline of Papua New Guinea based in Port Moresby. It operates a domestic network from Port Moresby and Lae as well as international services in Asia, Oceania, and Australia. Air Niugini currently operates daily services to Cairns.

Hyatt Regency Coolum has appointed a Guangzhou-based sales representative and introduced a raft of new measures for Chinese guests as part of a concerted push into flourishing tourism markets in China.

The resort this week launched a new Mandarin website as the latest in a series of Chinese-language marketing tools that will be used by a Guangzhou-based team from specialist sales agency Parker Travel Collection.

After 22 years, travelling the world promoting far north Queensland, Parker Travel Collection‟s International Director of Sales, Robbie Bastion will conduct his 50th sales mission to North America.

Robbie will depart at the end of the month taking in Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. He will be in North America 27 September – 13 October.

In his 22 year tourism industry career, Robbie has worked for only three organisations; Quicksilver Group of Companies, Down Under Tours and now the Parker Travel Collection 2001.

With 49 sales missions to North America under his belt Robbie has a wealth of specialised knowledge and developed loyal and long serving contacts that have been invaluable for securing business from this key market. He has visited the USA under four Presidents – Bush, Clinton, Bush Jnr and now Obama. Similarly, he has worked with several heads of Tourism Australia and Tourism Queensland in Los Angeles and yet maintains many old ties. Earthquakes, blizzards, airline dramas and even a quintessential New York mugging have all been part of the experience, an experience that Robbie catalogued in his 2007 book „In Continents – Tales of Road Warrior‟.

“I am still calling on companies and individuals I started calling on in 1989 and they have become good friends as well as work colleagues.”

Ruth Grau, President of Springboard Vacations, Los Angeles had this to say “ Seventeen years ago when I was new to the travel business, Robbie Bastion was already an industry icon. His regular visits, laugh a minute antics and passion for Tropical North Queensland translated into sales for those companies he represented. An excellent ambassador for Australia, Robbie really wrote the manual on sales success in this marketplace.”

Robbie has seen many changes in this important market to Australia – the many different marketing campaigns following the successful Paul Hogan advertisements to the „Nothing Like Australia‟ creative of today.

According to Robbie, “I have also seen the consolidation of many wholesalers into a handful but conversely the growth of the Aussie Specialist (American retail travel agents) Program continues to put Australia in front of the agent and hopefully the consumer. However, the biggest factor influencing North American visitation always has been and will continue to be aviation.

“I‟ve seen the rise and fall of airlines like Continental, American and North West try to cash in on the Australian market. Yet, the most steadying influence on the trans-Pacific sector has been Qantas Airways. Their new service into Dallas/Fort Worth will open a whole new market and is a sign of their continuing commitment to Australia. I‟ll be doing my best to emphasise this during my upcoming round of calls,” he said.

On his return to Australia Robbie will fly to Melbourne to meet with 150 Aussie Specialist agents for Corroboree USA.

Left: Kieron Keady, Executive Vice President, Nth America, Parker Travel Collection
 
The team at Parker Travel Collection are pleased to announce the opening of a new office in Los Angeles at Redondo Beach to service the North American market.

The new office will be headed up by well known Industry figure, Kieron Keady with the title, executive vice president – North America.
 
The company is very excited to have Kieron on board with his knowledge and  wealth of  Australian tourism experience and contacts in the North American travel industry.
 
Parker Travel Collection’s managing director, Todd Parker said “This new sales office continues the company philosophy of having people on the ground and in touch with the market on a daily basis.
 
“In recent years we have focussed on developing our in-market representation and tourism business services with sales offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast, Cairns, Guangzhou, Seoul and now Los Angeles.  
 
“We are committed to providing a Global tourism solution to the industry whether it be in representation or development of tourism businesses. And this trend is set to continue with plans to announce further offices in coming months,” said Mr Parker.
 
About Kieron Keady
Kieron was born and raised in Los Angeles and grew up in the travel industry; his father, Michael Keady founded Brendan Tours - the first United States operator of charter flights from the United States to Europe.  He has an English degree from UCLA and has worked in agency sales for K Lines Hellenic Cruises, then joined Australia’s Telford Hotel group as North American Sales Manager and afterwards, 14 years with AAT Kings Tours as International Sales & Marketing Manager and General Manager, North America.
 
From 2000 to 2009 Kieron headed Qantas Vacations and Jetabout Asia Vacations; moving a significant number of North American travellers to Australia, the South Pacific and Asia each year.  
 
Kieron has long and successful experience coordinating major tourism campaigns, working with NTOs, regional tourism boards, airlines and destination stakeholders in driving measurable results.  He has extensive experience in media purchase, all aspects of digital and social media, website development, television, print, radio and direct marketing campaigns.  As a company spokesperson he has broad public relations experience, appearing on national television in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti and Malaysia.
 
For the past two years Keady has headed North American sales and marketing for TravelMole, the global newswire for the tourism and travel industry, and is currently launching TravelMole Bamboo, an application that monetizes Facebook and Twitter which he will continue to manage.
 
Kieron will be attending Australian Tourism Exchange with the rest of The Parker Travel Collection sales team.

An Interview with Todd Parker, Managing Director, Parker Travel Collection  

Undoubtedly, tourism is a large part of our local economy, so we should all take an interest in what is happening in the world of tourism, regardless of our industry or business.

There are few individuals more qualified to provide insight into Cairns tourism than Todd Parker; Managing Director of Parker Travel Collection, Out of The way Experiences and Air Australia Charters & Tours. Todd has been an enthusiastic driving force behind tourism in Far North Queensland for over 20 years. An overwhelmingly positive person, Todd is passionate about travel and believes 100% in our region.

Todd has seen Cairns transition from a niche, iconic travel location, based predominately on the Great Barrier Reef & Rainforest, to a volume-tourism centre, catering for large numbers of tourists, with apartments and resorts. Aside from Parker Travel Collection, Todd is actively involved in a range of tourism organisations in our region, and is also working on the 2012 solar eclipse event and participating at Oprah's much anticipated visit to Australia.

Parker Travel Collection is Australia's leading tourism marketing and business development company, helping tourism businesses assess the design of their product for the wholesale market. Todd and his team undertake an analysis of the client's product, develop a strategy and present this to the client. What makes Parker Travel Collection stand out is Todd's consideration for how a product will satisfy the need for new experiences and fulfilment that are part of human nature.

I asked Todd what the future trends will be in tourism. Todd sees 'Volountourism', (the combination of tourism and volunteering, or philanthropy) as an opportunity for tourism providers to create packages to help tourists interact with real people. This trend is currently popular with tourists from Germany and other European countries. Todd says another popular trend is 'Agritourism', which is where farms and farming is the focus. The concept of this trend is using our current resources in a new way, helping people to connect with agriculture and learn about and appreciate our wonderful produce.

Tourism Australia's forecasts that total tourism consumption is set to increase at the rate of 2.2% in 2011, which represents 'a downward revision in growth for this year, but growth in line with previous expectations for 2011.' In terms of overseas visitors, Todd says growth areas are directly related to aviation. If airline services to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Bangkok are enhanced, we will definitely be seeing more visitors from Asia & the Northern hemisphere. Todd believes our region will also be seeing large numbers of tourists coming from China and Japan. Throughout his lifetime, Todd has witnessed the reality of tourism cycles, with destinations coming in and out of popularity.

Personally, Todd has had some unusual travel adventures; from roughing it in ex-president Tito's palace in Slovenia to being attacked by a tribe of Ibans with spears while travelling through Sarawak, Malaysia. Slovenia, France and South Korea rate highly on Todd's list of places to visit and still on the to-do list are South America and Antarctica.

The common themes throughout the stories of Todd's most memorable moments are dining and interactions with people. It is this type of thing that tourists are universally searching for. The key to tourism for Todd and Parker Travel Collection is focusing on those special experiences that people want to get out of their time on this Earth. The emotional triggers, such as remembering the song, smell, taste or feeling behind your holiday snapshots are priceless. Successful tourism companies offer an experience, or a feeling that just cannot be captured or bottled. Todd believes everyone should travel in their lifetime and he enjoys taking his children with him on holiday, because travel teaches you things you just can't get from a book. In Todd Parker's own words, travel is the University of Life.

Todd's top 3 tips for tourism businesses:

1. Develop a strategy. It is important to find a medium between finances and creative flair. Good analysis is important for small companies, but so is passion and emotion.

2. Understand your destination. Create a symbiotic relationship with the destination and your business.

3. Be interesting, unique and innovative. It's not all about creating new products and experiences. Rediscovering what is already there in a new way is exciting too.