Living the dream in tourism - from international student to successful, diversifying Inbound operator Doddy Purwoka: Visitor Economy Profile

Doddy Purwoko - CEO of Dream Tours and Incentives Management -- an Inbound Tour Operator with main market focusing on Indonesia, Malaysia and India. We sell tour packages and operate all the logistics of it from their touch down in Australia until they take off.

Where are you from??Originally from Jakarta, Indonesia, I came to Melbourne in February 1999 to study Business in Tourism Management at Victoria University.

How long have you worked in the visitor economy? 23 years, since mid-2000, I started working for an Inbound Tour Operator as Inbound Group Consultant and moved around different companies in the industry until I started my own company in 2013.

What do you enjoy most about working in the visitor economy? Being able to work in the travel industry is like a dream come true. Travelling is my passion. So taking people from overseas around this country’s most beautiful spots and making their dream tours come true is something that I truly enjoy most. The smiles on their faces and the unforgettable memories and so many new friendships were also made along the way… priceless!?People say,?“If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life".??

Amusing story? I don’t know if this amusing or strange ?? Customers from overseas have different backgrounds, beliefs, cultures and taste. It is quite amusing to see that during a meal they must have "sambal”?or chilli paste on everything and they even put it on steaks which can taste interestingly good if you like spicy food. With this in mind we always ask our restaurant suppliers to provide sambal set up on tables and if the suppliers don’t have sambal then we would provide our own sambal for them.

What are you looking forward to and why? I am particularly looking at bringing the industry together to be able to cater for the emerging Muslim Traveller market for Halal restaurants. If unable to provide Halal restaurants, then at least it will be good to have Halal Certified Meat being served for our Muslim groups. Muslim Friendly Tourism is on the rise and the demands are growing as they become the fastest growing segment in the tourism industry. With about 26% of the world population by 2030. There are 226 million Muslims in Indonesia alone which is ironically so close but yet so few have come to Australia. If we wish to attract them to our country then we need to be prepared so Australia can be one of the most popular countries to visit by Muslim Travellers from all around the world, especially from Indonesia our closest neighbour. Are we product ready?

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?

Collaborate: We have been collaborating with all stakeholders in the tourism Industry from our overseas travel agents clients, Australian suppliers, Government and Industry bodies to hand in hand work together to create a strong brand image of Australian Tourism. How to make Tourism Packages easily and readily accessible to purchase by end customers. Educating the agents to educate their customers about Australian tourism products is one of the ways to get our product known and purchased.

Modernise: Our traditional distribution is offline channels that need to be modernised and made available using online booking technology to accommodate the demand for a fast and reliable platform to handle B2B2C which we are currently developing.?

Diversify: We are diversifying our business to new emerging markets that currently we as?a destination are missing out on, for example Muslim Friendly Tourism (MFT). I believe if the ecosystem is ready to welcome our Muslim Travellers we will grow our visitor economy substantially. We just need to prepare our suppliers and industry to be MFT product ready.

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What’s your best tip, advice, or lesson learned for the visitor economy right now? My advice is to always evolve and improve the way we do things. How do we do things differently to make sure our tour products are being promoted effectively? That means the end customers know our product details and then they can book our tour products readily and easily? How to engage and control the whole market to move and make collaborative effort to sell our Australian tour products? Establish a big network of distribution channels which are trade ready to make it work. Are we product ready? Are we trade ready??

How are you innovating to account for your workforce challenges? EFFICIENCY is key, especially during the labour shortage we’re experiencing these days. We are currently using our Tour Management Systems (TMS) which makes us much more efficient in our work, we have less manual input from our staff. This has freed up person-hours tremendously. This system can be accessed from anywhere so our operational staff can have the freedom to work from home or office or even at a holiday destination (so long as the job is done flawlessly).?

What essential goes in your suitcase when travelling for business beyond your phone charger? Lots of business cards, cameras and of course cheezels to nibble on - something from home to ease that homesickness.

Tell us how you work with First Nations’ people and business? We work with them on regular basis in our tour products and we highly regard them as we value and respect their culture. This cultural experience is uniquely Australian, which we are proud of. The reason for many people to travel is to try and experience something that is new, unique and different. Our customers wish to have cultural experience to be included in the tour package as much as possible, as they can’t find something unique like this back home in their own country.

What improvements are you making to ensure your business/activity is more inclusive and accessible for travelers with disability, different language and cultural backgrounds? We do a lot of groups with many people with disabilities. When we know this we make every possible effort to ensure all suppliers are aware and get their products ready and services ready to welcome them and meet their specific needs. We have multilingual guides and a coach with a wheelchair lift, and we can also hire a carer who can assist along the way if required.

What is your dream/recommended location (where, what specifically and why) in Australia for:

Hosting a team building event? Everywhere is fine, every region has its uniqueness, it’s like a blank canvas we can throw our ideas into it and make it a memorable team building event for every group. But most importantly it is what our customers actually want that we must deliver. We just need to educate our customers about the destinations in order to sell our ideas/products, so the customers can make the right decision on where to go. But for me personally? It will have to be Sydney, it has the facilities and the variety from a metropolitan stroll, sailing regatta, bridge climb to the iconic Opera House.

Holiday with family? Gold Coast with its world class Theme Parks and family adventure activities.

Sporting or cultural festivals? Melbourne, where so many world class events are being held, from F1, Moto GP, Tennis Open and Moomba.

Experiencing nature and First Nations’ culture? Tropical North Queensland - from throwing a boomerang to immersive rainforest activities, Cairns is the best!

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Connect with ?Doddy Purwoko on Linkedin, and please read and share our previous Visitor Economy profiles of Stepping Stone Social Enterprise’s Vanessa Brettell, Vaycayit's?Hailey Brown and Lisa McEwan, Hotel Etico's Co-founder and CEO?Andrea Comastri, Australian Amusement, Leisure and Recreation Assoc GM?Kristy Ahrens,??Queensland Airports Limited CEO?Amelia Evans, Executive Director of the Zoo and Aquarium Association Australasia?Nicola Craddock, Outdoors NSW & ACT CEO?Lori Modde, Kangaroo Island Ocean Safari Owner?Tony Coppins, Executive Chair, Australian Chamber – Tourism?John Hart, Indigenous program manager?Sharon Ninyette, TAFE business development manager?Paula Meyer, tourism survey manager?Bode Ten Buuren,?regional tourism leader?Coralie Bell, accessible tourism operator and advocate?James "Buck" McFarlane, international education expert?Karyn Kent?and Aboriginal tourist operator?Juan Walker.??

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