
Tourism Tasmania goody bag and prizes that I won at the event. I love prizes that are alcoholic - especially when they're illegal (it's illegal to sell Moorilla Wine in Canada)!
I’ve been working in Marketing & PR for an adventure travel company for about six months now, but I don’t think I’ve fully adjusted to being on the other side of the Client / Operator and Freelancer / Employee lines just yet.
As a travel blogger, I worked my way through destinations writing my own contracts, creating my own itineraries, and making pitches for sponsorship deals. Suddenly I’m the one being presented with pitches from companies, journalists and bloggers, marketing trip itineraries created by my boss, and working with pre-existing contracts. While at one point I had to convince tour operators to provide me with trips, I’m suddenly exposed to all sorts of “FAM” opportunities available for just about any travel operator without any distinction. It’s all a bit weird. You know what the sucky part of it is though? I can’t go on any of these trips because I have a 9 – 5! What a catch-22. LOL
I took on this position because the job description essentially outlined what I had been doing for myself the previous year, except for a company that would provide a regular paycheck. I spend most of my days on the computer writing, pitching, blogging, brainstorming, creating newsletters, interacting with past, current and potential clients, organizing events, keeping up to date with the latest industry trends, and analyzing a bunch of graphs, numbers etc. Once in a while I get to go on a trip to see what it’s all about, and check that things are operating smoothly in our destination. Most of the time, I don’t notice a huge difference in the actual work (except maybe when I’m working on ad campaigns). But I do occasionally have those “huh.” moments. Tonight was one big “huh.” moment.
Taste of Tasmania
Tourism Tasmania has been travelling around North America for about a week putting on events which showcase a handful of suppliers from wineries to accommodation services to wildlife boating and fishing tours. I attended their Vancouver Taste of Tasmania function tonight as a representative from my company.
This isn’t the first tourism-related function I’ve attended, but it’s the first one where I didn’t have time to put down my bag or sample the wine before being introduced to the Director of Marketing and Commercial Operations for an entire state and the Director of Fishing Tasmania in the same breath. Suddenly as a potential client rather than a freelance media junkie, I was someone worth introducing at an event.

Tasmanian Cheese and Appy Spread
At the same time though, the other travel company and agency representatives that I would normally be able to strike up an easy conversation with about travel services seemed automatically turned off by my presence (presumably because they thought our companies were competitors? *shrugs*). It was a strange role shift for me. I wondered at one point whether I was doing anything differently at this function compared to other events, but concluded that I was still the same ol’ me right down to my shirt (a favourite of mine that I bought three years ago at a sample sale). I took my notes on the presentations, chatted with a potential operations partner about new activities that will be available in 2011, sampled the cheeses and wine that were flown in from Tasmania (both of which were excellent – especially the smoked cheddar), and nibbled on chicken skewers, smoked tuna, and ridiculously tender lamb chops.
Working on the other side definitely has its perks, but I have to wonder how much of the attention is deserved? I’m not about to look into the measurement of return between a blogger’s word and an operator’s contract because I have enough stats to look at each week. But I like to think that if I can be a travel blogger one day and the head of marketing for an award-winning adventure travel company the next, both bloggers and company representatives should be treated equally. It’s not as if I changed, so why should you?
Please Note: This is in no way a post specifically about the people from Tourism Tasmania (which by the way are all very personable), but rather my personal insights on the tourism industry in general in regards to new media. If anything, the Taste of Tasmania event highlighted how well the team put together an event which made its guests feel very appreciated.
Thank you Tourism Tasmania for a wonderful event!