In May 2026, I headed to Carnarvon to speak at the 2026 Perth Airport WA Tourism Conference — three days, one of the best rooms in the WA tourism calendar, and a audience of operators, government leaders and industry professionals who had exactly zero patience for fluff. Perfect.
My keynote session was called Stop Scrolling, Start Booking: Social Media That Converts, and it covered what tourism operators across Australia are wrestling with right now: social media is louder and more crowded than ever, algorithms shift before you’ve had your coffee, and most operators are trying to keep up while also, you know, actually running a business.
The session cut through all of that.
What we covered
Social media isn’t broken. But the way most tourism businesses are using it is. There’s a gap between showing up online and actually converting that presence into bookings — and that gap is costing operators real revenue.
In the keynote session, we worked through three practical levers that any tourism operator can pull, regardless of budget or team size. The first is about getting the human-to-AI balance right — because travellers are increasingly using AI for logistics, but they’re still choosing experiences based on human connection and real storytelling. The second is about stopping the scroll in a feed that’s fighting for attention every second of the day. The third is about building the kind of confidence in a potential guest that turns a “maybe” into a booking.
No theory. No generic advice that applies to every industry equally and none of them particularly well. Just practical, immediately usable strategy built specifically for tourism.
The WA Tourism Conference from the Tourism Council WA
The WA Tourism Conference has been running in its current format since 2015 and brings together tourism operators, national and state government representatives, industry leaders in marketing, events, aviation and accommodation, plus researchers and academics from across Western Australia. It’s a genuinely engaged audience — people who have skin in the game and want to walk away with something they can use.
Carnarvon was the host town for 2026, and it made for an incredible backdrop. The conference team did a brilliant job of weaving the region into the program itself, from a sunset networking event at Quobba Station to a closing celebration at the One Mile Jetty Precinct. It’s hard not to be inspired when the destination is doing that much of the work for you.
Why this session matters right now
Tourism is at a genuinely interesting inflection point. Social advertising has overtaken search in Australia for the first time. Travellers are turning to word of mouth and social proof before they book, more than they ever have. And at the same time, AI is reshaping how people research and plan travel — but not in the ways most people assume.
The operators who understand what’s actually changing, and adjust accordingly, are the ones who will convert their social presence into a genuine revenue channel. The ones who keep doing what they’ve always done will keep getting the same results.
This is the conversation I think every tourism business in Australia needs to be having right now. And it’s the conversation I love bringing to conference rooms, industry events and in-house teams.
Bring this session to your event
If you’re running a conference, industry summit, association event or team offsite and your audience includes tourism operators, hospitality businesses or destination marketers, I’d love to talk.
Looking for someone to chat all things social media? I’m your gal.
Get in touch and let’s discuss how I can add value to your conference.
