Connecting travellers with amazing Aussie experiences with a focus on sustainability, accessibility & First Nations: Quentin Long is our VE profile

Meet Quentin Long , Co-Founder and Managing Director of Australian Traveller Media who splits his time between "working with my great team on the best way we can deliver on our mission to connect Australians to their next amazing experience AND?working with clients on how we can best connect them to Australians looking for an amazing Australian experience.?I also write travel stories, undertake radio interviews on travel trends and issues and work with the TODAY Show on CH9 helping Australians find amazing travel experiences."

Where are you from? Sydney/ Warrane?

How long have you worked in the visitor economy? ? We founded the company 1 Jan 2005 and launched Australiantraveller.com and magazine 26 May 2005. So, almost 20 years.??

What do you enjoy most about working in the VE? ? Most people ask me about my favourite place to travel to which is a bit like asking me to choose my favourite kid. The travel that changed me the most as a transformative travel experience was attending Garma Festival in 2007. I am forever grateful to the Yolnju for that time which completely transformed my outlook on Australia and our ancient country and people.

There are three moments I love most about my job: 1 - When a colleague kicks it out of the park and does a story that people love and changes how Aussies view domestic travel. 2 -Where our program with a client grows their business and product thanks to our hard work.?3 - When a reader emails or calls to say they had an amazing experience thanks to us.. that their travel was infinitely better because of the work we do.??

Amusing story? Oh, too many.? One of my favourites is fishing for tuna off Lizard Island with Brutus the skipper of the resorts’ sports fishing boat. ? I (well Brutus and the team) hooked 7 but I only managed to get 3 on board. I was battling the first fish and Brutus walked over, put a harness around my waist and whispered “the fish is fitter than you”.? The 4 other fish would be on and then suddenly the line would start spooling down like a rocket. When it went slack I would pull in the 5cms head of the lure back on board. The sharks would take the tuna whole.? After 3 hours we pulled over to a reef and Brutus said – let's go for a snorkel. I was thinking “Are you crazy – I know what is in that water.” ? I couldn’t get the Jaws music out of my head as I snorkelled the famous Cod Hole. As we headed back to the resort Brutus whipped up the best tasting sashimi of my life.??

What are you looking forward to and why? ?I know it sounds a bit corporate but I love growing our audience. For every extra 1000 people we reach there are more Australians falling in love with their own country and putting more thought and then money into a domestic holiday – which is great for everyone. ?And I mean that generationally. If you take your family on a holiday in Australia, the kids will want to do that for their kids and so we can create a long-term benefit for everyone.?That is the something I am profoundly aware of - travel with families is a sacred time – parents spend quality time with their children, reconnect and create precious memories. I and all my team feel a grave responsibility that Aussie families’ trust us to tell them how to spend their money on these precious times.??

THRIVE 2030 has three themes - collaborate, modernise and diversify – can you tell us what you’re doing in these three areas to improve our visitor economy growth, quality and sustainability?? Our role is a mix of industry champion via collaboration and leader via thought leadership in content. It is in our DNA to collaborate with the industry to grow everyone’s businesses. And as a media business we are forced to modernise, sometimes through gritted teeth as Google and Facebook push us around. However carving out a space that works for the industry and readers despite these pressures is contributing to the overall modernisation of the industry.

We approach sustainability with enormous consideration. It is not an issue we do once and then move on. It is relevant and part of everything we do, not an after thought. We try to walk the walk as best we can with our sustainable paper and offsetting all our travel. ?We frame our content around ‘Conscious Travel’; we do not want to turn people off by making them feel guilty but inform them so they understand the consequences of their decisions.?

We make an active choice to profile sustainability considerations and Indigenous travel opportunities. We have embraced traditional place names as a matter of course believing that it must be part of the Australian lexicon.??

What’s your best tip, advice, or lesson learned for the visitor economy right now?? If I could wave a magic wand across the industry I would want to improve the customer facing storytelling. Visitors remember stories. They engage with stories and the emotions they evoke. So think about narrative – it has a start, middle and end and this should be part of almost all experiences. This will heighten the emotional engagement from visitors and memory creation. And that is what visitors are really buying.?

What essential goes in your suitcase when travelling for business beyond your phone charger?? A massage ball and TheraBand – really helpful to get the body moving (trust me if you have met me you know I am not a fitness freak).??

Tell us how you work with First Nations’ people and business?? We profile First Nations business as part of all our regional profiles as a matter of priority. We also include the First Nations place names in all copy. The First Nations perspective and heritage is one of our three content pillars – along with sustainability and accessibility.??? ? ?

What is your dream/recommended location in Australia for:?

Holiday with family? Oh you are killing me… ?Camping at Tathra?Gerringong beach?Noosa.? I and two mates were turning 50. We took all our families (13 in total) on a two week driving holiday around the Top End; Darwin, Katherine, Kakadu. Just magic and great family time for all of us.? ?

Cultural festival?? Garma festival – on Yolnju land on yuolnju time. This is unbroken culture at its most pure.??

Other? I honeymooned at Qualia and Longitude 131 – what a privilege! The first time I went to qualia I took my then girlfriend. It had only been open for about 8 weeks. As we were driving back to the airport on Hamilton Island after two amazing nights, she started crying. I was somewhat perplexed. “Ahhh, you ok” I gingerly asked. “I have never been somewhere so beautiful and I am not sure I ever will go again,” she said.? So we went back for our honeymoon and then again for our 10th wedding anniversary.??

You can connect with Quentin Long along with our previous VEN profiles including Melissa Brown CEO of the Australian Business Events Association , Felicia Mariani (GAICD) CEO of Victoria Tourism Industry Council (VTIC), Jonathan Kobus, PSM and Kareena Arthy of the ACT Government, Jill Abel of the Australian Cruise Association, Elizabeth Hackett chair of the Australian Adventure Tourism (AAT) Group, Dr Elaine C. L. Yang of Griffith Institute for Tourism, Creative Australia's Adrian Collette, Intrepid Travel's Brett Mitchell, Accessible Tourism professional Yasmine Gray of GetAboutAble, IVS survey interviewer Erika Schwarz, TGA - Tour Guides Australia (former) President, Leanne Saward, Rugby great, THRIVE 2030 Implementation Advisory Group member Tim Horan, Ecotourism Australia CEO Elissa Keenan,?NT Visitor Economy Exec Valerie Smith, Founder/Project Lead at the Travel Better Project Emma Pethybridge, SE Asian focused Inbound Tourism Operator Doddy Purwoko, Stone Social Enterprise’s Vanessa Brettell, Vaycayit's Hailey Brown and Lisa McEwan, Hotel Etico Australia's Co-founder and CEO Andrea Comastri, Australian Amusement, Leisure & Recreation Association Inc. GM Kristy Ahrens, Queensland Airports Limited CEO Amelia Evans, Executive Director of the Zoo and Aquarium Association Australasia Exec Nicola Craddock, Outdoors NSW & ACT CEO Lori Modde, Kangaroo Island Ocean Safari Owner Tony Coppins, Executive Chair, Australian Chamber – Tourism John Hart, Indigenous workforce professional Sharon Ninyette, TAFE business development manager Paula Meyer, TRA tourism survey manager Bode Ten Buuren, regional tourism leader Coralie Bell, accessible tourism operator and advocate James "Buck" McFarlane of Sensory Tourism Australia, international education expert Karyn Kent and Aboriginal tourist operator Juan Walker.

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