The first Arival in Australia has been a dream since the early days of Arival, and now that the event has come and gone, it still feels a bit like a dream to be honest — but that’s probably the jet lag speaking.
After returning home with a camera full of Uluru sunset pictures and a suitcase full of ginger beer (within my legal limit of course), I’m still struggling with how to sum up the incredible experience that was Arival 360 | Brisbane.
We kicked off the event in a really special way with a “Welcome to Country” experience led by local Aboriginal leader Joseph Ruska, followed by an opening keynote from yours truly.
That set the scene for an energetic, focused, jam-packed three days of dynamic sessions, in-depth workshops and inspiring conversations with over 300 experience operators, tech and distribution leaders, destination representatives and more.
Here are a few of the top takeaways that stand out from the event, based on in-person conversations in Brisbane, Arival’s event survey results and dozens of LinkedIn posts!
Top Five Themes from Arival 360 | Brisbane 2026
1. Change: How Travelers Discover and Book Experiences is Changing Fast
There has been an extraordinary shift over the last few years, and even months, in how travelers discover and book experiences online. What this change looks like, and how to adapt to it in practice, was one of the key themes of the conference.
The use of AI in search, to discover things to do, has risen rapidly over the last couple of years — to the point that AI is now the top tour and attraction discovery method for affluent travelers. How do you get yourself in front of customers in 2026 and beyond when AI is turning everything upside down? Several sessions dug into this, including Brennen Bliss from Propellic’s session on “AI-First Discovery.”
Travelers may be discovering and planning through AI, but what about booking? We’ve known for awhile that online travel agencies (OTAs) are the fastest-growing booking channel for experiences, but for the Australia and New Zealand region, particularly those in attendance at Arival, coming to terms with the change from traditional travel trade channels to online was a wake-up call for many.
The types of experiences travelers are looking for is also changing, and that has important implications for experience design as well as marketing and distribution strategy. Travelers are looking for more authentic, meaningful, personalized experiences. So what does that mean for operators?
For one thing, operators need to stop optimizing for reach with their social media and digital marketing strategy, and start optimizing for genuine alignment, argued Henry Hooper, Klook’s VP of Western Markets. In his presentation, “The New Booking Funnel Is a Feed,” Hooper took us through how Klook approaches the question of promoting authentic experiences amid a “sea of sameness.”
2. AI: The “winners” of the AI Age are still up for grabs
The question of who, in the experiences sector, will benefit most from the AI age is still to be determined. Will large OTAs dominate, or does AI level the playing field for small, AI-savvy operators? And are early adopters of AI already so far ahead that it’s impossible for new entrants to catch up?
The good news is that the outcome is still yet to be determined — and it’s not too late to get on board.
But things are moving fast.
“This is the slowest year of the rest of your career,” said Christian Watts, Magpie CEO, during his presentation on the state of AI in experiences. This sense that things are changing faster than ever before was a common thread through many of the AI-focused sessions, but also the sense that operators aren’t alone in facing it — a lot of sessions focused on the practical implementations of AI for tour and attraction operators, such as Oliver Green’s .
The underlying message, however, was that the changes AI is ushering in can actually be an opportunity to level the playing field. Which brings us to “The Great Distribution Debate”: the third rendition of the debate which pitches the “OTA” and “Direct Booking” teams against one another in a discussion on who will triumph in the AI age.
Things move fast in the AI world. Join us at the next Arival 360 event for the latest on AI and the next rendition of the Great Debate!
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3. Connectivity: Experiences need to get more connected
For operators in Australia and New Zealand, the impetus to ensure your experiences are online bookable and connected to distribution channels is more than just good business practice — it’s essential to bringing travelers to the region in the first place.
This was a repeated theme in sessions and conversations around the event, and the key message of the second day’s opening keynote session led by Tourism Australia’s Jane Phillips.
The state of connectivity and the movement from traditional trade channels to a more tech-driven approach was the subject of a session featuring guest speakers John Boris from Big Red Group and Kasia Jawen from Expedia Group, moderated by Bookable Tourism’s Meredith Rangel.
“The operators that will continue to grow won’t necessarily be the ones with the biggest marketing budget,” said Rangel, reflecting on the event afterwards. “They’ll be the ones that have invested in the right technology, built a connected ecosystem, and made it easy for distribution partners to sell their experiences.”
Operators and other industry leaders in the room were keen to get on board with connectivity. The OCTO sessions on an open connectivity specification for tours, activities and attractions were heavily attended, and OCTO crossed the 100-member threshold shortly after Arival Brisbane.
“The energy behind this move to standardise such an important part of the industry was brilliant to see,” shared one attendee, referring to the “Inside OCTO” session. “My main takeaway was that Australia really needs a good presence here to ensure we have a seat at the table for such an important item.”
As Dominic Martinkevic, Head of Partnerships at Ventrata, shared during a panel on Connected Experiences, OCTO is the reason his team can run connectivity with nine people instead of forty.
Connectivity, the panel agreed, has gone from a technical afterthought to a commercial necessity. Ramon Vrieselaar, VP of Sales & Partnerships at Prioticket, offered advice to operators still on the fence: you don’t have to do everything at once, just start.
Lauren Shannon, owner of Arigato Travel, had a blunt message to operators weighing up a tech partner: ask harder questions, and don’t be afraid to walk if they don’t treat you like a partner. “Connectivity in experiences is the future,” she said.
4. Multi-Day: Not just a moment, it’s a movement
We’ve been saying for a while that “multi-day tours are having a moment.” One thing that became very apparent at this event was that it’s far more than just a moment — it’s a whole new era.
Of course, multi-day travel has been around for as long as travel has been around. But the confluence of the multi-day travel sector with the day tours, activities and attractions sector — what Arival has primarily focused on in the past — has been a natural progression as technology advances and the need for — and capabilities for — greater connectivity and collaboration grow.
Multi-day travel is a complex sector that comes with its own unique challenges. A series of multi-day specific sessions explored these, from distribution and connectivity, to expanding from single to multi-day tours, to building partnerships between DMCs, day and multi-day operators — a topic which was explored in one of the final sessions of the conference, “Better Together: How DMCs, Day Tours and Multi-Day Can Scale Smarter.”
Which brings us to the final point: bringing the experiences industry together.
5. Community: Arival is where the experiences industry gathers to “Find your people”
Easily one of the top takeaways from the Brisbane event, from in-person conversations, LinkedIn posts and our post-event feedback survey, was the benefit of getting everyone in the room together, and the magic that comes out of that — open conversations, shared knowledge, and a collaborative sense of community among operators, destinations, and leaders from the experiences tech and distribution space. Here’s a few highlights:
“For me particularly the highlight was to have operators, tech and platforms in the same room,” shared one attendee. “I was able to have the right conversations with the right people.”
“Walking into Arival felt like finding my people,” another attendee said. “Finally, a room full of operators speaking my language.”
“One of the things I love most about Arival is that the discussions are real,” another attendee shared. “People openly share what’s working, what isn’t, the challenges they’re facing and, importantly, the numbers behind it. There are very few places in our industry where that level of transparency exists. Did some conversations get a little passionate? Absolutely. But that’s exactly how our industry moves forward.”
This sense of coming together and working together as an industry isn’t just a feel good story — many recognize it’s essential to move forward as an industry.
“As an industry we’ve been quite divided,” said Graham “Skroo” Turner, founder of Topdeck Tours and Flight Centre. “Big lesson that working together is really important over the next 10 years as things continue to change.”
Onward to Arival 2027!
So how does one sum up Arival Brisbane? After pouring through all the survey responses, LinkedIn posts and comments, session recordings and my own photos and memories for this post, here at the end of all things I’m left with this deep sense of comradery. While on the one hand the industry is moving fast, as AI changes discovery and connectivity increasingly becomes more a “need to have” than a “nice to have,” on the other hand Arival Brisbane seemed to stoke this sense of a collective moving forward: no one has to deal with all of these changes, challenges and complexities alone; we’re in it together and we’re moving forward together.
The question on the minds of everyone by the end of the event was, what (and where) is next for Arival in the region? “There was definitely a first time vibe to this Arival and it will only get bigger and better from here,” said Ryan Hanly, CEO of ATDW.
We’re definitely excited to return to the region, but we can’t officially confirm a location just yet. In the meantime, check out our upcoming events in Spokane, U.S. and Bilbao, Spain, and stay tuned for an announcement about next year’s Oceania/APAC event coming soon!
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