Tourism Matters

Tabetha Beggs: Building a Tourism Career Through Curiosity, Risk and Storytelling

• Carmen Bold • Episode 19

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Tabetha Beggs hasn’t followed a straight path - no, no.

In this episode of Tourism Matters, Carmen sits down with Tabetha Beggs, Tourism Experiences Lead at Destination Perth, to explore a career shaped by curiosity, risk-taking, and a willingness to step into opportunities before feeling fully ready.

From early ambitions in the arts to roles across tourism, local government, and destination development, Tabetha shares how each experience - expected or not - has contributed to where she is today.

This is a conversation about backing yourself, listening deeply to communities, and understanding that tourism is ultimately about people and stories.

What You’ll Take Away

  • Why applying for jobs you’re not “qualified” for can change your career
  • The role of lived experience in shaping tourism professionals
  • Why community voice matters in destination marketing
  • How regional tourism organisations are evolving beyond marketing
  • The value of saying yes to unexpected opportunities
  • Why no experience is ever wasted — even the ones that don’t make sense at the time
  • The importance of storytelling in tourism and place-making

About Tabetha Beggs

Tabetha is the Tourism Experiences Lead at Destination Perth, with a career spanning tourism, arts, local government, and destination development.

She has previously held roles with Tourism Western Australia and the City of Perth, and is deeply passionate about community engagement, storytelling, and creating meaningful tourism experiences.

Tabetha is also an active mentor, supporting emerging leaders through the Women in Tourism & Hospitality Mentorship Program.

Connecting with Tabetha

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tabetha-beggs-a57a2771/

Organisations Referenced
Destination Perth: https://www.destinationperth.com.au/
Tourism Western Australia: https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/pages/home
Royal Society of Arts: https://www.thersa.org/

Episode Chapters

00:00 – Introduction to Tabetha Beggs
00:30 – From cheese counter to career beginnings
01:20 – Applying for roles before you’re ready
02:16 – Travel, perspective, and curiosity
03:51 – Growing up in Perth Hills
06:43 – Early career ambitions and work experience
09:47 – Arts, theatre, and life experience
12:51 – The unexpected value of early jobs
16:16 – Moving to the UK and career pivots
18:39 – Taking risks and saying yes
20:35 – Why you should apply anyway
22:34 – Working across the UK in exhibitions
25:00 – Returning to Australia and career challenges
29:34 – Kalgoorlie and unexpected opportunities
36:30 – Transition into tourism
41:28 – Strategic roles and industry involvement
45:00 – Community voice in tourism
55:00 – Mentorship and career growth
60:43 – Networking and volunteering
66:18 – Open-minded travel and learning
68:43 – Storytelling in tourism
75:14 – The evolving role of RTOs
77:30 – Final reflections

SPEAKER_03

Welcome friends to the Tourism Matters Podcast, where I, Carmen Bold, explore the people, careers, and ideas shaping the tourism industry today. On this week's episode, I sit down with Tabitha Beggs. Tabitha has had such an interesting career spanning tourism, arts, and entertainment. In Tabitha's current role, she's the Tourism Experiences lead at Destination Perth and has previously held senior roles with Tourism Western Australia and the City of Perth. Tabitha continues to give back to the industry through mentoring emerging leaders through the Women in Tourism and Hospitality Mentor Insight Circle. This is a wild ride, a wild listen, folks. Tabitha certainly grabs the ball by the horns and holds on tight for the ride. I had a few good giggles during this conversation. While I've got you folks, just wanted to let you know I've started sending a weekly email to my community with interesting tidbits from the tourism industry and a selection of hand-picked jobs that certainly look interesting to me. So if you would like to receive that weekly email, you can head to my website carmanbold.com and subscribe there, or the link is also in the show notes. So, friends, enjoy the conversation and I'll see you at the end to give my two bobs and my key takeaways. Tabitha Beggs. Welcome, welcome to the Tourism Matters Podcast. Thank you for being here with me on this very rainy morning.

SPEAKER_00

It's a delight to be here with you on this rainy morning, and it's quite refreshing that we've got a bit of rain, but it is. My thoughts and prayers are with uh those in Exmouth and Coral Bay at the moment, and hope um there's not too much damage going on up there.

SPEAKER_03

Now, before we uh kick off into this conversation, I have a couple of get to know you questions because I have met you before, but I don't know you well, and perhaps my listeners don't know you. So um we're gonna break the ice here with a couple of questions, Tabitha. And first up, I would like to know when you were traveling on an aeroplane, are you sitting in the aisle seat, the window seat, or the middle seat?

SPEAKER_00

Nobody wants to sit in the middle seat, right? I don't know. I think my ex-husband used to call it the skiing seat because everyone's got their arms like that, you know, on the both of the armrests. No, I am definitely a window seater. If I can get the window seat, I am in my element because I just I love looking out the window. I love seeing the landscape passing underneath me, the way it changes. And, you know, in the the travels that I've done over the years, you know, this there's been some spectacular sights, you know. But more locally, one of the things I love is um quite often used to fly up to the gold fields in Kalgooli. And I love that kind of delineation between uh sort of the Perth Hills, and then you hit sort of the paddocks and the farmland, and it's almost like there's an actual line, and it becomes out back, and you get red dirt and you know, mining pits, and it it's and the those kind of river beds that well, dry river beds mostly, but you can see where the with river channels have gone through. And I find that fascinating, and I don't think it ever gets old for me.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's like definitely window C every time if I can get one. And are you how are you feeling then when you're needing to get up and stretch your legs or go to the bathroom? You don't care? Excuse me, get out of my way, I'm coming.

SPEAKER_00

This is probably gonna be one of those oversharing moments, but I'm like a camel, like I do not have to weave that often, but when I do, yeah, it's kind of like, excuse me, excuse me, sorry. Don't care. Um, but I'll try and hold off as long as possible. But obviously if you're on an international flight, uh bit difficult. But if I'm going long distance, I'm generally with my family, my kids. So I just like you know, climb over them and don't care too much.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you. I um yeah, one day, one day surely I'll get somebody that wants to be in the middle seat. But I like that to see. Yeah, I mean I'm gonna high-five that person. Now tell me, when you've arrived at your holiday destination and you're at the hotel buffet breakfast, what's going on your plate, Tabitha? Where are you headed to?

SPEAKER_00

My God, look, I'm not a big fan of the buffet. No. Only because you just eat too much. You just like want to try everything and then you're so full and feel bloated.

SPEAKER_03

Work with me here, Tabitha. If you are at you are starving and all there is is a hotel buffet breakfast, where are you going? The egg station.

SPEAKER_00

Love a good omelette. Yeah. Always the egg station. I'm not a pastry fan, I'm not a sweet tooth, you know, muffins or anything like that. It'll either be the egg station or yeah, a bit of, you know, bacon sausage.

SPEAKER_03

You're not shoving Danishes in your pockets to take them with you for the day.

SPEAKER_00

Although I do for the other people. Uh children get, you know, I'll be like, I'll put a couple of muffins in in case they get hungry earlier. If there's a couple of bits of fruit, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, I love it. We're all sticking Danishes in our pockets at the hotel buffet breakfast. We certainly are. I'm just not a Danish fan. I never have been. I'm not a Danish fan either. And I've I say this almost every episode, but I'm not a Danish fan, but if I'm at a hotel buffet breakfast, I promise you there will be a Danish on my plate. Never in any other aspect of my life would I steer towards a some kind of Danish, but it's I don't know what happens. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you. Right, I'm gonna go back to young Tabitha. Did you where did you grow up? No, no. So back in 2015, where did you grow up? Um, are you from Perth?

SPEAKER_00

I am born and bred Perth, yes. Um I grew up in the Perth Hills. Well, I didn't start my life in the hills. Predominantly my spiritual home is the hills. I grew up in Rolling Stone. Um, my childhood was all about the bush, the orchards, you know, scrumping for fruit. I don't think I ever paid for a piece of fruit. Um, always, you know, scrumping. Scrumping. That's when you you secretly, you know, nick into an orchard and just, you know, pick a few apricots or apples or whatever were in season and oranges, lots of oranges. I don't like to call it stealing. Scrumping. I'm gonna call it scrumping instead. It's kind of like tramping, you know, through what the Kiwis call hiking. Yeah. Scrumping is stealing fruit.

SPEAKER_02

That was public service on behalf of my listeners going, what on earth is scrumping? What are they doing there in Australia?

SPEAKER_03

I've just introduced a new word. Thank you. All right, so growing up in the Perth Hills, and then when you finished school, well, firstly, did you finish all the way through to year 12?

SPEAKER_00

I did. I did go all the way through to year 12. I did work experience as a in a travel agency and they offered me a job after two weeks that was in year 10. But I, to be honest, I didn't want to leave my friends, so I was like, no, no, I'll go, I'll keep going through to year 12. So yeah, I did do my entire tertiary education.

SPEAKER_03

Uh wow. So if you're doing work experience in a travel agency, were you studying travel or tourism at school, or that was just where you ended up for work experience?

SPEAKER_00

Okay, this is the story that I told to some TAFE students recently. So, what I really wanted to do when I left school was become a rock star or an actress or something in the arts. I mean, who doesn't? Yeah, one. And so I told my career officer this. He's, you know, that year 10, what do we want to do for work experience? And I said, Oh, I want to be a rock star. And I'm not sure how he took that. And I was like, I'm dead serious. So they found me a placement in a travel agency, which I which I assumed meant uh this was to get me used to, you know, traveling and being on my world tours. So, but no, I really that was kind of probably my first experience in tourism. So I did two weeks at a travel agency called Energy Travel. And they had a, in that uh period of time that I was doing work experience, they had a special on for barley. And um, so it was really busy. And so I kind of I guess showed my work ethic at a very early age because I was just like picking up the phone and sort of listening in to what the travel agents were saying and trying to convey information to um the people calling out, even though I couldn't book anything, I didn't have that skill. But yeah, so I think you know that that work ethic uh came at a very young age and they recognized that and offered me a position after those two weeks. But like I say, I did I didn't take it. And I often wonder, you know, how my life might have been different if I had taken those two weeks, but I didn't. So one of those no, I was yeah, determined to pursue a career in the arts and yeah, go and audition for WAPA. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Oh wow All right, so you finished high school and then what are you doing after that? So I did get an audition at WAPA.

SPEAKER_00

You did. For my listeners, can you explain what WAPA is? So WAPA is the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Hugh Jackman is probably one of the most famous people that went there. So I yeah, so I went and did my audition, and I was all of I don't know, 17, I think, at the time. And the result of that, clearly I'm not an actress on TV, so I clearly didn't get to what get into it. But look, they said to me, you know, I did a great performance. She said, they said, but you're a bit green and you need to go and get some life experience because all great actors have life experience to draw from. So I think that became a theme for the rest of my life. I was like, right, I've got to go get some some life experience. So I um I thought, right, okay, well, I'm gonna take that advice and I'm gonna go and do that. So I worked for a year um at Maya in the city, which at the time was brand new. It was they'd just built the building. So I was one of the first people to ever work in that Maya. And any young people listening to this podcast would be like, well, that was a long time ago. That Maya's been there a long time. But yeah, so that's where I worked um to save up for a year and uh bought a ticket to the UK and uh went off to get my life experience. Wow.

SPEAKER_03

So now hang on a minute because I saw this the other day. Yes, I am, because as far as I'm aware, Maya does not have a cheese counter. But according to your stories, somewhere along the line there was a cheese counter. So I just have to just spend just a minute on exploring this, please.

SPEAKER_00

All right. Well, I won't I won't I won't bore you with the details. But when I got the job at Maya, I assumed that I would be in the mist shop or, you know, some sort of fashion store, which would be really cool and, you know, impress all my friends. But back then, Maya on the bottom floor, which is now menswear, used to have a food court. So there was a food court, well, half of it was a food court, and half of it was like this gourmet uh food market. And it was absolutely stunning. And they had food from all over the world, they had a bakery, they had salad counter, pie counter, everything. Um, and they had a cheese counter. And that was the role that I got was to be on the cheese counter. And I was not happy about that. At the time, I was like, oh my God, that is like, how am I gonna tell anyone I've like got this job at on a cheese counter? But the upside of that is while at the time I didn't think it was interesting, um, I was like learning about cheeses that were imported from all over the world. Yeah. I think it was just another, another of those things in life that you don't expect and you don't think at the time that it is important or interesting until much later in life when you reflect on it and tell stories like this, that you realize just what sort of education you did get from that role.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And I talk about this with just about every guest, but you know, it's just that sort of layering, your your own unique personal and career experiences, just layer upon layer upon layer of, you know, wild experiences like working at the cheese counter and Maya, that just kind of make you you, Tabitha, and give you your uh unique lens on the world. So I think, yeah, it's I think all experience is good experience, whether it feels like it at the time or not.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I'm glad you didn't use the cliche of being cheesy. So there we go. Because I am. The reason I went to the UK was uh because I had family there. My my parents are English. In fact, all my family are English. I was the first Aussie born into our family. Um and I'm very proud of that. Um so but most, you know, most Aussies end up in London, you know, in Earl's Court and working in a bar um pub. But I went to Coventry, which is sort of, I don't know, about an hour's drive north of London, in uh where Lady Godiva is from, and they used the big car manufacturing industry there. It's not the prettiest place in the world, but that's where I was. Um and the my intention was sort of to go there, use that as a base, and then sort of backpack around the world from there. But that sort of didn't happen. Um, and the reason that didn't happen is because the night that I arrived there, um, my half-brother, he grew up in the UK. So I met up with him on the first night that I got there, and he said, Oh, look, I can't come till later because I've got this dress rehearsal for this musical that I'm in. And I said, What? You're in a musical? He's like, Oh, yeah, you can come if you want. And I was like, Yeah, oh, yeah, I'd love to come. So he comes and picks me up and takes me to this dress rehearsal of this play that he's doing. And I kind of never looked back. I I kind of I remember sitting in the theatre that night watching this amazing cast of people, young people doing this play, and thinking, I was meant to be here. This is well, this is my kind of destiny. Um, yeah, and I ended up auditioning for the theatre company, I don't know, about six months later. And while they I think about 200 people audition and they only took eight new recruits, and I was one of them. Um so I kind of got to live that sort of theatre dream alongside everything else I did. That was kind of like a part-time thing. Yeah. So but I you know, and I did work in a pub um because that's what you do, that's part of your coming of age. Yeah. I really enjoyed I actually really enjoyed working in the pub. That was really good fun.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Great way to get to meet people.

SPEAKER_03

Wow, that's amazing. What age would you have been here? So I was um 18.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I left home, I left my country, and I went off on my l life experience gaining journey. Wow. All right. How long were you overseas for? So I lived in I ended up living there for six years. So um so my six month kind of trip turned into six years.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_00

And did you do much travel while you were away? I did a little bit of travel, but not anywhere to the extent that I had thought I would. Because I ended up getting a really good job. I ended up working for the Royal Society of Arts, who were originally located in London, but relocated to Coventry because it was cheaper and they had a new business park. You know, when I got offered this role as a temp, I started off as a temp. And I don't know if people temp anymore, but um and I was like, Royal Society of Arts, yeah, that sounds like me. But I was a filing clerk. So I filed my little fingers off um and tried to impress, you know, the boss and be like, I'm, you know, I'm I'm willing to do anything. And so that role uh sort of turned into a secretarial role, that turned into a sort of officer role, that turned into probably quite a pivotal role for me, which um there's a bit of a story in that one. So at some point when I was working as an officer, there was a job ad came up on the notice board for an exhibitions officer. But it said that you had to be 26 or over to apply for the role. And I was only 21 at the time. But the role sounded so good. You got a car. Well, it wasn't even a car, it was a van to go and drive out to all these exhibition places and and go and sort of market the Royal Society of Arts. So I applied for it anyway and just thought, what have I got to lose? You know, I either get it or I don't. It'll be a good experience for the interview. And yeah, after the interview, the marketing manager said, I'm willing to adjust the age. You're perfect, you need, I think you would be great for this job. And I think one of the reasons, apart from skill set, but I think one, I had the right personality for it, but also um, I think she loved that I was an Aussie. I think she just sort of thought, oh, people are gonna love this, you know, people will love an Aussie going out there and you know, the accent and, you know, whatever the demeanour was that I had. Yeah, so they the reason it had to be 26 or over was because of the insurance on the van. Um, because obviously when you're younger, you the the premium is higher. But she was willing to pay the extra for the premium so I could have the job. So the job entailed me um traveling all over the UK, uh, up to Scotland, over to Ireland, to Belfast and Dublin, doing all these exhibitions for them in some of the probably best known exhibition and conference centres across the UK. And at some point, I don't know whether I think about it now, whether I thought about it then, but when I think about it now, I was like, this is tourism. I am traveling around in all these places, and I'm getting to see the UK in a way that I wouldn't have as a tourist. I mean, I was working I have seen more loading docks than you could count. But I love loading docks. All the interesting people are there. I love loading docks. I just think one day I'm gonna write a book called Loading Dots and Stage Doors, because I've probably seen more of them than, you know, being in the audience or being the conference delegates. Um, so yeah, so that was probably my first foray into not technically tourism, but it pretty much what I do now is the same as what I was doing then, just selling a different product.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I just did want to um just double-click on that for my listeners and just say this is not the first uh time I've spoken to somebody on this podcast that applies for a job even without meeting all the kind of selection criteria. Like you could have easily not applied for that, Tabitha, because you weren't yet 26. Um, yeah, and so I just want to reiterate to to listeners when you if you're looking to enter the industry or you're moving around within the industry and looking at changing jobs. I mean, the selection criteria, it really is more of a wish list for the employer. If you are keen on a job and feel like you're equipped to do the job, for God's sake, apply. Don't ask, don't get.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, yeah, this is just a really perfect example of, you know, you could have easily just gone, oh well, that's not me, I'll have to wait five years. Whereas putting yourself out there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um as a and we can talk about this later, but you know, as a mentor for women in tourism and hospitality and um and any anyone I'm talking to really, yeah, it's it's one point that I I really drive home is you know, just sometimes you have to take those leaps of faith because most of the time you've got nothing to lose. You're probably already in a role. So, you know, if if you you apply and you don't get it, you've you're still, you know, employed. But if you don't try, you'll never know. And and I think that is a principle I have applied in many aspects of my life. And touch wood, it's always served me fairly well. I mean, yeah, there's been di it's not like I've got every job I've been for or there hasn't been disappointment. But uh, but but am I glad that I Tried? Yeah, of course I am. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

All right. So at some point you obviously relocate back to Australia because you're sitting down the road from me. So yeah. So talk to me about what happens next after six years. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Well, um just just backtracking from that, because after I worked at the Royal Society of Arts for most of that time. But because I, as I said earlier, about my theatre passions, I got offered a job on a holiday resort, like working as an entertainer. And I really had to make a choice because I was like, well, I've got this amazing job that's paying really well. I get to travel, I'm doing all this great stuff. But I really wanted to try and see where my theatre career could go because I always had that, still had that passion and was still obviously doing it part-time with the theatre company that I was with. So I got offered a job on the island of Rhodes in Greece to go and work at this holiday resort out there. And I always say this was my sliding door moment. You know, we always have one. I didn't take the job, but I always, always wonder how my life would have changed had I taken that role. So that was my my one kind of like, oh what would have what have been what would have been different? Um so anyway, I didn't take it, but I then got offered a few months later a different job at a on a holiday resort. But this time it was in Lancashire in in up north of England, and the location was far less glamorous. But I just thought, do you know what? I've got to get this out of my system. I've got to go do it. And so yeah, I ended up on a seven-month season up in Lancashire. Wow. And what I can tell you about that role was that again, another sort of step into tourism because we, you know, it was a holiday resort. But the role was not what I was expecting at all. Um, you know, I sort of had visions of dirty dancing and I was gonna be up in the clubhouse carrying my watermelon and you know, flirting with all these gorgeous guys. Oh my god, it was so, so not that. Oh my god. It was the sort of lowest paid job for the most amount of hours. We worked six days a week. We had one day off a week. Uh it was a Tuesday. There was nowhere else to go. It was this little kind of little tiny place in the moors. And um we would be up at, you know, six in the morning doing the kids club, the tiger club, um, you know, running the sports and arts and crafts for kids. And then in the evening, we'd be running the darts competition and the bingo. And then at nine o'clock, then I put on my costume and I'd be singing and doing the entertainment. Look, it sounds fun and hilarious when I talk about it now, but uh, yeah, not a job I would recommend.

SPEAKER_02

I'm sorry, Tabitha. That sounds exhausting.

SPEAKER_00

It was so exhausting. I mean, we were literally just child minders for these people that just wanted to, you know, get rid of their kids and um, you know, have a have a nice relaxing time themselves. Yeah. But look, again, it's all part of my story, and yeah, I'm glad I did it. And so after seven months, yeah, I I decided, well, the season ended anyway, so it was a clear and cut sort of, I didn't have to leave. That was the end of the role, the contract. So yeah, then I was like, right, I'm ready to come back home. Right. And well, actually, look, I'm gonna be honest, and I, you know, because I am an oversharer, I wasn't really ready to come back home, but something happened back home, and I thought, I need I need to go home and sort this out. And so my hand was forced a little bit. So I mean this is a little bit bittersweet for me.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Well, this is I mean, and this is beautiful. This is the reality of life, you know. We our careers don't happen in isolation from the rest of our personal life. No, at all. Yeah. And so sometimes we don't get to make the decisions we want to make. And it's yeah, it's about knowing that whatever happens next happens next. So thank you for sharing that it wasn't necessarily, you know, we I just love not sugarcoating our careers and making them sound, you know, like they're perfectly formulated and, you know, have been perfectly executed from this role to another. They're messy. And so messy. Yeah, and life's messy. All right, so you come back to Australia. I just want to ask at this point, what do you identify yourself as professionally? Like what what do you think that it is that you do? That's a tough question. What do I do? I mean Well what would you you came back to Australia? What what sort of jobs were you looking for? Maybe that's an easy way of putting it.

SPEAKER_00

Like what what do you what do you Yeah, so coming back to Australia, um, I had a false sense of of importance. So I'm like, that sounds terrible. No. But I came back thinking I am gonna land any job I apply for in, you know, marketing or entertainment or any of those industries that I'd sort of been involved with because I just thought having, you know, this this on my resume was I would look so good on paper, but that was not the reality at all. Right. I came home, I applied for um I can't even remember, uh, some advertising agencies, marketing agencies. It's a while ago now, I can't remember. But everything I applied for, no response, you know, rejection. Yeah. And and I got, and I'm not generally a person that gets depressed, but if if I was ever the lowest in my life, it was then because for a couple of reasons. One, this was back in the day, long before social media, mobile phones, anything like that. So I had only kept in contact with one kind of school friend in that time that I'd been in the UK, because I'd made this whole new bunch of friends, all my theatre friends, uh, you know, work friends and all that. So I was so disconnected when I got home that I was, I just wanted to go back to England. I was like, I just want to go back where I've now established my life and the things that I love, and I had all these, you know, good jobs and good experiences. So it was really quite tough at at that point. And the I'm gonna tell you what the thing that I came home for is my my mum and dad were separating. And that was a really hard shake. I was 25 years old, um, and they weren't the couple that anyone ever expected to split up. So it was really difficult. And I found it, you know, on on top of this whole like looking for another job thing, sort of coming home, leaving behind this world that I loved and was thriving in, I thought, oh, you know, I thought I could come back and fix it. But anyway, I couldn't, and that all took its course. But I think because of that, that's what led me to the next step. So yeah, so I I worked in a cafe, then I did a bit of reception work, and the reception job I got through a friend, a family friend, and I think I'd been there about six months, and they decided they were downsizing their staff. And because I was the last one in, I was the first one out, and probably, you know, being a receptionist, they're a dime dozen. So so I sort of just got to the point where I'd reestablished some friendships, I'd made some new friendships, I'd moved out with the one friend that I kept. Um, she invited me to go and flat with her and another girl. And I remember going home, going back to the house that night, and I was all down in the dumps because they just let me go. And I thought, God, what am I going to do now? And the other friend, who is actually now my best friend, she said, Oh, God, what's wrong with you? Did you lose your job or something? And I said, Oh, I did actually. And she said, Oh gosh, you did. Um, that night, she's she said, Oh, my brother's coming down from Calgourie with some mates, you know, we're going to the pub, come with us, you know, just come and have a few drinks and have a bit of a laugh. You we'll cheer you up, sort of thing. So yeah, so I I so I went to the, it was Ogden's in Gosnells, I remember that. It was a karaoke night. I remember doing a couple of numbers. Um and I'd sort of, you know, got chatting with with the boys that had come down from Calgoourie. And they were like, oh, well, if you're not working, why don't you come up, come back to Kalgoourie with us for the weekend and just, you know, come and have a bit of fun up there. And I was like, oh no, I'm not doing that, you know, why would I I'm not going up to Kalgooury? Obviously, I'd had a few drinks that night because the next morning I'd said, no, no, no, no, no. The next morning I left a note on the kitchen bench to my two flatmates and gone to Kalgooli. So I ended up going up there with them. And that became the next six months of my life, next six months, the next six years of my life. Um, so I went up for the weekend and six years later I came back from Kalgooli. So um Yeah, that's funny. So what were we doing in Kalgooli? Again, a couple of weird things. So the first job I got was in an gold assay lab, which is basically where they analyze soil samples to find out, you know, if there's gold in them and if they should keep digging in that hole where they found the soil sample. So I think I've made Twiggy Forest quite rich. We used to do some of his samples. Did that for a bit. That was not a glamorous job working in a laboratory. About the mining industry through that as well. The the sort of turning point of that job was one night the the manager, the manager of the assay lab came into the laboratory, which he never really did, but and it was such a sexist industry because the girls worked in the lab and the boys were all worked down the back grinding rocks and doing stuff like that. And the manager walked in and he said, Hey, can anyone in here type? And I wasn't a great typist, but I was like, Yep, yep, I can type. And he's like, Oh, come in the office. The secretary's just walked out. And I was like, okay. So I um, yeah, so I went in and typed up whatever I some results, some some soil results. And yeah, I never saw the inside of the lab again after that. And then I sort of worked my way up there and became their office administrator. Um, and I did that for a few years. And what was really other than the whole learning other things, was the the guy that owned the laboratory owned four laboratories around the gold fields. And he was a pilot. So quite often he'd take me up in his little Cessna to the other labs, and it was really great going to these really remote places and felt I felt pretty special, you know, going in this seeing him and his little Cessna, and you know, that was pretty cool. And then a little bit like the whole England story, during that time I joined the local theatre there, you know, a little amateur theatre. And through doing, you know, some plays um at at the Goldfields Repertory Club, I met a lady was who became sort of the CEO for the Australia's Prospect Australian Prospectors and Miners Hall of Fame, which was a new attraction that Calgooley had kind of bidded for and won to build this sort of museum. And she approached me and said, uh, hey, I need a I need an assistant. Uh we're just about to build this tourism attraction. Um, how would you feel about coming for an interview and working for me? Um I was like, yeah, okay, sounds good. Um so yeah, so then I went and had sort of an interview with her and ended up um yeah, working for the Australian Prospect as a miners Hall of Fame, uh, which I saw, you know, built from the ground up. It was just a patch of dirt when we started. And um, you know, and it being uh it wasn't so much a non-f, well, I guess it was a non-for-profit, but it was, you know, it was funded by federal grants and state grants and donations from mining companies. And it was that was definitely sort of a cross certainly my first proper tourism job, I would say. Because I then got involved in uh different tourism organizations as the sort of rep for the new tourism attraction. Working with um, you know, the Kalgooli Boulder Visitor Centre was on their board for a while. Um I was part of the inaugural St. Barbara's Festival celebrations that happen each year now in Kalgooli. And yeah, so that was sort of an interesting turnaround of of of my life, I think, in Kalgoourie. Right. That's when I really got into tourism. Well, can we put a timestamp on this, Tabitha? What sort of year is it? Oh, so this was 1999, I think. I think the Hall of Fame opened in 2000.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Right. Okay. And so are you doing that then until you return back to Perth?

SPEAKER_00

Of course.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

No one got divorced this time. Right. This was by your own free will. Sort of, you know. Sort of. Broke up with a boyfriend. I was like, that's it. Yeah, that'll do it. We've all got that in our story. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we've all had that story, right? Yeah, so and I'd I'd actually left the Hall of Fame because I this sounds really conceited, and I don't mean it in this way, but I did I got headhunted for a role with the Goldfields Tourism Association. And they asked me if I wanted to go and do some work for them. Um and I thought, oh, yeah, I'll I'll do something different. Um and I'll kind of, I guess by then I really wanted to be more involved in the the tourism industry um more succinctly. So so I took that role and I did that for, I don't know, about 12 months. And then, yeah, then it was time to come back to Perth.

SPEAKER_03

Wow. Okay. So what does the next sort of stage of your career look like then? You return to Perth, and then are you sort of more firmly embedded in the tourism industry from here?

SPEAKER_00

Uh yes and no. Um, I so I again took a couple of different roles. Yep. Worked in recruitment for a little while. It was another turning point or another industry that I'd never expected myself to be in. And the funny thing about the recruitment role was the reason I got that job was because the manager was a Calgoourie boy, and he he employed me purely on the basis that I'd just come from Calgoourie. He was like, oh, anyone that's been in Calgoourie, yep, good in my book.

SPEAKER_03

But you know, sorry, I'm just gonna interrupt there. Again, this is I I think we forget that on the other side of a job ad is a human being or human beings. Yeah, they have their own. You can put whatever you want in a job ad, but the human being or human beings behind the the piece of paper, you know, they've got their own motivations. And sometimes they're not the same motivations as what the HR team that put the job ad together is. You know, so I think this is, yeah, just another just another reason to just apply for jobs that you feel like you are well suited for and you or maybe even not. That you're interested in and you just never ever know. Um, I had a job really briefly when I first relocated to Perth in 2011 or 12, somewhere around there. I couldn't find a job in tourism, so I thought I needed to do something. And I got a job as a researcher at a mining oil and gas newspaper, and um I just applied for it because I was I was like, well, I can string a sentence together. I don't know anything about mining or oil and gas, but I can do this. But then later I found out from my boss, we were a very small team of three people, but she said, I really liked that you almost fell off the chair when you got up. You know, I was sitting in the waiting room, and she said, When I got up to get you to bring you into the office, you nearly fell off the chair that you were trying to get up out of. It was a very difficult chair to get out of, might I add. And she just said, I just I just loved that you just owned that and that you just seemed a bit silly, and I could, you know, see that you were just bright enough to, you know, string sentences together and do some research. And I thought I would really enjoy working with you because we were such a small team. It was very important to her that she um gelled well with her staff. More important than, you know, the supposed, you know, degree in uh journalism that you're supposed to have to, you know, get this job. I just saw these things listed and went, bugger, I'm just gonna apply. And and me being the type of person that she wanted on her team far surpassed my lack of journalism expertise. So that was just a very roundabout way of sort of saying, you know, you just we we need to remember when we're going through the what can sometimes be soul-destroying experience of searching for a new job, that yeah, at the end of the day, there's a human being on the other side that has their own motivation. So you were employed in a position that you felt you had no business being in purely because you just moved from Calgooley and the person hiring was from Calgoole.

SPEAKER_00

Look, I think connection is so important. And I I not all my roles have been sort of, I haven't got all my roles because I knew somebody. But I mean that that does help if if you do know somebody, but mostly it's about turning up and being your true self in an interview. And the example that you've just used about the chair, you know, I I think you don't, I I guess it really depends what industry you are applying for and what the role is, but definitely something like tourism, you know, you're allowed to show your kind of fun side and and you don't have to be an expert, as long as you're willing to learn and put yourself out there and and say, you know, look, what I don't know, you can teach me. Um that's really important.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and I think um generally from my experience is that employers are willing to teach you if you have the right attitude. You that you don't need to know everything, like yeah, yes. So anyway, I could keep talking about that for a long time, so I won't.

SPEAKER_00

But No, but uh just on that point, I just came into my mind it's that one of the reasons that and the next role I'm gonna talk about was very much a good example of this, is that I won't stay in a job if I don't get a good vibe from the team that I'm working with. It's more important to me that I enjoy the people that I work with, no matter what their skills are. I just don't want to work with miserable people or people that are too serious about anything, you know, because you spend such a big part of your life at work. I do not um I do not subscribe to the, you know, don't bring your life to work. I'm like, you spend a lot of time at work. I want to know what's going on in your life. And if you if something bad's going on, you you don't have to tell me all the details, but you know, let us know because that then we can be understanding and and sort of accommodate a little bit because of that, you know? Yeah, I I mean I maybe that's just an old fashioned kind of thing. I think that's changed a lot over the years. But yeah, the people I think part of the interview process should be, and if you don't do it, it should be part of your process. Will this person fit in with the rest of the team? Dynamic, you know, that's so important for an organization.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna say especially in our industry, but it's probably not especially in our industry, but we're such a you know it is a people-centric. Yeah. Yeah. It's very difficult to, you know, execute on showing tourists a good time. Your your team doesn't work well together, or or you don't have to get along beautifully with everyone on your team, but you do need to be able to function as a team.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

All right, well, let's keep going. All right. So you're in recruitment. In recruitment, and then I finally get a job at the city of Perth in the marketing department, and I'm like I just think this is the best thing that's ever happened to me. Okay. So, um, yeah, so I started off um as the uh sective or the assistant to the marketing manager, um, sort of like her PA. Um, how old am I now? I'm about probably 26, 27. Oh no. Was I old? No, I'd turned 30 in Calgary. No, I was in my 30s by then. So um I was probably about 35. Yeah. So did that. And then I was at the City of Perth for 12 years. Um, and during those 12 years, I took two rounds of maternity leave. I got married, I had my two kids, you know, we we traveled, we did lots of things, bought houses and all that sort of grown-up stuff. And one of the roles that I kind of ended up doing for the city of Perth was the tourism officer. So that again sort of, you know, sort of was uh a kind of grounding, grounding experience for, you know, who was who in tourism then and particularly for the city of Perth as you know the gateway to WA and what we could do to make it a welcoming city and a city that probably back then was really at the grassroots of its tourism kind of growth.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's I mean, so much has been developed since that time. But yeah, that was was kind of a role that um that I loved and you know made again, made lifelong friends through there. I still run into people, every especially in local government. So local government's become has been a bit of a theme in my life as well.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

But it's one of those industries, a bit like tourism, where you know everyone just sort of moves around in that sector and you're always running into different people, and a lot of those people end up in tourism. Yeah, so probably a story coming up later, but yeah, so yeah, city of Perth, so 12 years there. Wow. And then I decided I was gonna go out on my own and do so. I started my own little cabaret company, which kind of was based on the philosophy of I still wanted to perform. I had friends that were in the same kind of boat as me. They'd had young kids, they, you know, they'd they loved performing, but you know, it was really difficult when you know you've got young kids at home. Um, and so I said, well, why don't we start up our own little cabaret company? Um, and because I don't think that as mums we need to put our ambitions and dreams behind us. Like, let's set an example for our kids and keep going and you know, see how we can still do stuff. And so we it was, yeah, it was a really great um adventure. We did, you know, we did some fringe shows and um you know some uh different things that were really exciting. Um and um yeah, one of probably one of my proudest, well, one of my proudest moments was was having that um that company. But um, but at some point down the track, they everyone went off and did something else. Um and so I kind of my numbers kind of dwindled, and I guess at that point I was um I was doing a lot of writing, I was doing some arts reviewing. So I guess the point being is that I haven't really stayed on the one trajectory all the time. I've sort of had all these other passions and sort of tried different things, and I'm I'm really glad that I did because I think it makes people way more interesting and life more interesting and makes your story when you're doing a podcast really long. Sorry. Then I went to the Calamunda Chamber of Commerce again, whole different thing, never never expected to work for a Chamber of Commerce, and um yeah, so I became the CEO for them. Um, and I guess the reason they employed me and why I was a good prospect for them, because the the chamber had a lot of tourism businesses as their members, and they wanted to concentrate more on the tourism side of things. Um and um so the the Chamber of Commerce will sort of own and operate the Bickley Harvest Festival, the farmers markets, the Twilight Hawker Markets. So, you know, I was sort of running in charge of these events, obviously with a team of other people. So again, you know, it probably was more leaning towards tourism than the actual sort of business side of things. I mean, we did all the workshops and networking as well, but with a huge emphasis on on tourism. So yeah, so I I did that for a while, and then I got a phone call from a friend that I used to work at the city of Perth with who said, Hey, there's a job going at Tourism WA. How would you are you interested? And I was like, God, of the top five places I would want to work, probably I say top five, but it was probably one of the places that I wanted to work. Um, I said, Yeah, okay. Thanks. Thanks for the heads up. She said, Look, I'll give you the details, but you go and get it on your own merit. I'm just gonna make that connection. So yeah, so I um went and had this very odd coffee meeting with the uh executive director of marketing there. Like it wasn't a formal interview at all. It was kind of this, let's have a coffee and I'll get to meet you and you know, see where we go. And she, after that interview, the chat, she said, You're a bit overqualified for the job that I need. She said, But hang on, I'm gonna go speak to HR because we really want you. I really think you need to be working for this organization. So the next day I got an email from H tourism WA and said, Come in, we'd like to chat to you. Well, we've got another officer that wants to chat to you. Um, and because I'd had this coffee interview, I kind of just went in thinking it was going to be a coffee interview. Um, and then so I go in, I said, Oh, I'm here to see David. Oh, can't think of his surname now. Anyway, David. Um, and they were like, Oh, yeah, yeah, come through. And there's like this panel of three people at an interview. And I was like, Oh, oh God, turn on your professional head. So yeah, so I sort of in some way it was probably good because I wasn't prepared, I wasn't nervous, I was just like, oh yeah, okay. I'll just go for it and answer the questions and see what happens. And well the next thing I know, I'm employed by the uh in the Executive Services Department, answering to the Minister of Tourism at Tourism WA.

SPEAKER_03

Well, what was your job title? What was your role?

SPEAKER_00

Well, my first that's because I had a couple of roles, but okay. My first role was corporate corporate hospitality. So yeah, I was organizing all the tickets to the events that Tourism WA sponsor, all the VIP um kind of tickets for the special people that got to go into the corporate lounges and the you know, all that stuff. So that was really exciting and yeah, I really loved that role. Yeah. And then COVID hit, which was obviously an interesting time for the tourism industry, and I'm will always be incredibly grateful that they kept me on because I was only on a contract at the time, but they they kept me on. And again, I think I this is one of my sort of key points that I make in when I'm doing any mentoring, is I've always been quite good at like telling people what I where I'd like to go in life and things that I like to do, and this is what else I've done, and you know, this is you know, something I'm interested in, you know, if there's ever a opportunity, you know, let me know. Because no one can help you if they don't know where you want to go or what you want to do. So through a few conversations, um, getting involved in, you know, different working groups or whatever, I got offered to move into the stakeholder engagement area and yeah, eventually got a role working, like a permanent full-time role working in industry and partnerships for Tourism WA, which was amazing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Wow. That's such good, such good advice though, Tabitha, you know, just to, you know, voice your desires or ambitions. And um, I think a good employer will also do their best to try and understand the goals and ambitions of their staff and and see, you know, sometimes, you know, your goal might be to be a rock star and perhaps your employer can't really help facilitate that so much. But if you have a professional goal that's aligned with the role that you're doing, you know, I think a good employer will m do do their best to make themselves aware of it and then help you to grow and work towards your goal, which keeps you, you know, an engaged and motivated employee.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. That's how you that's how you maintain loyalty, you know. Once people get sick of a job or sick of not being listened to or appreciated, they will move on.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, agreed.

SPEAKER_00

All right, so tourism WA. Look, I I don't know how much how long I can keep flying this flag, but one of the best things that ever happened to me in my whole life, not just at Tourism WA, but it happened to be because of Tourism WA. As I said, it was kind of during COVID. And because, and this is a good example of, you know, talk to people, tell them what you want. Who cares if they're like, shut up, you know? I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna keep telling you this is what I do and what I love. So I had um been quite vocal about the fact that I had liked to write. Um, I'd had a few things published by this point, some short stories and a little novella that I'd written. Uh, yet to get to have a best-selling novel, but it's coming, people, it's coming. So the managing, the executive director of marketing who I'd had that coffee chat with that that uh first time, she approached me and said, Hey, we need someone to kind of go out on the road and help us shape our new marketing campaign. We we want to hear, we we want to go and talk to all these sub-regions around WA and kind of get their take on, you know, what makes each place special. So she said, How would you how would you like to do that? Um and I was like, Yes, I would absolutely like to do that. And again, not a solo mission, like it this was all, you know, a whole team of people. But but I kind of led the um the project, which was called Our Story, The Spirit of Adventure. And so, yeah, while everyone else was in lockdown, I was getting on planes and flying off to Albany and Esperance and up to the Pilboro and up to the Kimberley and running, I did 31 workshops across a couple of years and wrote 31 positioning statements for each of these places. Wow. And, you know, I got to write, which is my passion, and travel. And every time I went, every every destination, I took somebody else from around the organization with me. So I got to know all these people in a, you know, I I often say, you know, we started the day we go on this ad adventure, you know, we start off as colleagues and we come back as, you know, friends because you got six hours in a car or on a plane and you just chat and you talk. And you know, again, I think, you know, that sort of experience not only lent itself to my tourism skill set, but it lent itself to my writing skill set as well. I mean, I've got so much to draw from, you know, from the people I've met, not just the people I traveled with, but the people I met in these locations, in these towns, talking about their passion for their town and how they wanted us to talk about what was beautiful about those regions, not just us sitting in an office in Perth, never having been to that location. Right. You can't promote anything authentically without having your feet on the ground there, in my opinion. Yeah. So that was the most amazing role that I've ever had. The most amaz I I just ran out of places to go eventually, unfortunately. Otherwise, I'd I'd still be out there doing it, I think.

SPEAKER_03

Wow. Well, listen up, other STOs around Australia. Yeah. Tabitha needs more places to go.

SPEAKER_00

I need more places to go. I'm I'm willing to travel anywhere. Yeah. Just put me on a plane. I don't care where I go.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Well, and I think just I just wanted to touch on there quickly what you said, you know, not only um, you know, can you not adequately promote a destination if you haven't had some experience there, but also being respectful and understanding of how the community wants the destination promoted. Yeah. And like you said, listening to the community and listening to what what their thoughts are and their um feelings are about how their destination should be promoted. So that's very powerful and very forward thinking, I think, on behalf of Tourism WA to take that approach.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, look, it was was a really um probably a different approach. But one of the so many things I could tell you about that particular thing, but I won't bang on about it because you know, we're I'm probably way over time already. What was beautiful about that moment was that listening to generally what we think of a place, we have a perceive that you know our own perception of what we've seen or read. It's nothing compared to being there and talking to the people in the community and all sorts of people. You have to travel with an open mind. And it's not just about the destination. Nine times out of ten, it's about the people you meet there and them telling you their stories. That's so important. And do you know what? That's what I was gonna say. I remembered. There were so many times, in fact, I I'm gonna say nearly every time, when I left a destination, people would come and hug me, and they would be like, Thank you so much for coming here. No, no, but we feel like nobody ever sees us, but we feel seen, like this is amazing. Thank you for coming and listening to us. And that's what it was, it was listening.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's perfect. I mean, that's what it's all about, isn't it? On so many levels. Yeah. All right, so you're obviously not with tourism WA anymore. No, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

No, I know I said that in a bad way. Look, it weirdest decision of my life leaving Tourism WA. Um, not sure why I did that. Um I'm gonna blame menopause. Um, am I allowed to say menopause? Is it a taboo word? Uh let's talk more about that. But no, I yeah, had a really weird moment. Things were happening in my life. Um, and yeah, I was just like sometimes there's time. Okay, gonna do something else. Well, actually, what I left to do was write a book. I was like, that's it. I'm gonna write, I'm going to go and write my this book that I've been banging on about forever. And so I went to do that again. Life took a turn. Um, and I got a phone call from another friend that I used to work with at the city of Perth. He said, Got a job going at the city of Armadale for a tourism specialist. We need someone to come and write our tourism uh strategy. We'd love it if you would consider the role. Um, and it was only like two days a week for a for a year's contract or something. And I was like, okay, yeah, I reckon I could do two days a week and write my novel in the other three days. So yeah, so I went for an interview for that job, got it, and two days turned into three days a week. The one-year contract turned into a three-year contract. After a while, I was there four days a week. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'd written the tourism strategy and then they needed someone to well, I I might have written my own role into the strategy a little bit. Yeah. Uh, you know, here's your strategy. Now you're gonna need someone to roll it out. Smart move. Yeah. Well played, Tabitha, well played. Well, you know, you've got to serve your own interests sometimes. Um, and and of course it'd come full circle because I grew up in Rollystone, and Rollystone was part of the uh local government of um City of Armadale. So I was really passionate about tourism, I was passionate about the location, and I also felt it was kind of an underrated location and not talked about enough, so I was really keen to really showcase a lot more of what the Perth Hills had to offer. So uh kind of a good fit there. Yeah, right. And then how I ended up at Destination Perth. So I'd done three years at Armadale, went on a holiday to Spain with my kids, and when I got back from Spain, I was just looking through LinkedIn and I saw Destination Perth post. There was this new job there, and but it was a brand new role for a tourism experiences lead. And I sort of looking at the criteria and I was like, oh, I think this job's got my name written all over it. So uh so yeah, I thought, well, you know, I've got nothing to lose. I've got this great job at Armadale, but you know, maybe this might be something different and you know, extend my skills a little bit further. And so yeah, I applied and here I am. Wow. Six months, is it? Uh yeah, I started in September last year. So maybe just over six months.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Oh, so well, let's just talk about that quickly then. Tell me, what does a tourism experiences lead do for a regional tourism organization?

SPEAKER_00

So for the regional tourism organizations, as hopefully most of the listeners will know what one of those are is, so uh effectively they're sort of a marketing agency for that region. Um but over time there's been more sort of I don't want to say pressure, but more emphasis on the RTOs to sort of get into more uh destination development roles. So I think with that in mind, Destination Perth leaned into that and thought, well, why don't we get an experience lead in here to come and sort of develop some of that tourism, those destinations and tourism product and tourism experiences. So so basically I kind of, you know, go out and I identify the kind of gaps in in our our products and experiences. What does Perth, what have we got? What do we need more of? How can we sort of extend what we have? So yeah, so I I've just come back from two days in the Avon Valley actually, and sort of talking to, you know, the tourism operators out there and sort of seeing what their view is of their town and and how Destination Perth can kind of assist in a advisory kind of role to sort of look at yeah, how what they're doing and how maybe they could improve it. So that's sort of essentially what I've been doing. Yeah. Um and yeah, I I probably will be doing more of that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Yeah. All right, interesting. Yeah, I think the RTOs play a very important role.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I did previously was sitting on the board of AGOs, so I kind of already had that experience. Well, yeah, I had that experience. I obviously already knew what an RTO did. Plus, one of my roles at Tourism WA was looking after the partnership contracts, the funded contracts for the RTOs. So I kind of already had quite a wealth of knowledge about what RTOs did and who they were. So, you know, my first day at Destination Perth didn't really feel like a new job. It was just like, oh, I'm just gonna go work with some other friends now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I kind of already knew everybody, which was really nice. And yeah, that is nice.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Wow. All right, and here we are then in 2026. Yes, yes. Who knows what's next? Who knows? Yeah. I know that's uh one of the beautiful things about this industry of ours. And one of the reasons I started this podcast is because stories like yours that span different countries and different parts of the industry, and even we all have well, many of us have times where we dip out of the tourism industry and then back in, and we're led by what's happening in our lives. You know, it's just makes for interesting stories and yeah, for for young people or career changers out there that are considering the industry. It's um it's just such a fun and dynamic and inspirational industry to work in. So thank you, Tabitha, for sharing your story so openly today.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you for having me. It's um it's been nice to walk through my life in the work sense.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Have you got anything you'd like to say before we sign off today?

SPEAKER_00

I would encourage anyone to pursue a career in tourism, but um but also make sure you keep your passions for other things too, because they will lend a hand somewhere down the track. Everything you learn in life is important and don't underestimate or Devalue any of it. Even the cheese counter at Maya. Even the cheese counter.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I would love to come for a platter at your place. Anytime you run up the road, I'll invite you. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I want to see the full array of cheeses and charcuterie.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Well, let's wait for a nice sunshiny day when we can have wine and some cheese and and I won't bore you with any of my work things because you already know everything now.

SPEAKER_03

No, I love it. It's not boring to me. That's why I have these conversations. I love it.

SPEAKER_00

And and I'm so uh look, I'm really good at like not telling a short story. I think um anyone that knows me knows that. But you know, I haven't even touched on some of the boards that I sit on, and it you know, that's another thing I would say to people volunteer on boards and do do volunteer work. It really does pay in so many ways, and it's a great way to get experience if you don't have it. Yeah. People people love to have you on board, people want to help you. So yeah, just go out and do fun stuff.

SPEAKER_03

Agreed, Tabitha. All right, well, thank you once again for being here with me today, and yeah, thank you for sharing so openly. And uh I'll be sure to put your LinkedIn contact information um or your LinkedIn profiles. People can reach out to you if they want to connect.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks, Carmen, and thanks for this podcast. It's really important. Tourism does matter. Oh, thanks, Tabitha.

SPEAKER_03

I appreciate that. All right, you enjoy your day. Okay. Thanks. Goodness, May, thank you so much to Tabitha Beggs for um providing an hour's worth of entertainment for me and having such a insightful and honest conversation about her very uh wide-spanning career, wide-spanning in terms of the experiences that she's had and also geographically. Oh man, I love went to Kalgoourly for the weekend and came back six years later. I think that um perfectly summarizes Tabitha's view on life and saying yes to opportunities. And I think um we all have something to learn from her story. So thank you again, Tabitha. Uh, if folks, if you enjoyed this episode, please share with colleagues or friends. The tourism industry deserves to be seen as a reputable and a viable career choice. And my aim is to use the podcast to help the industry be seen in that light. Uh, I'm on the lookout at the moment for some tourism entrepreneurs to guest on the podcast as well, so we can start to pull the curtain back a little bit on what it takes to run a business in the tourism industry. So if you're listening and this is you, please contact me on LinkedIn or send me an email, carmen at gather events.com.au. Or if you know somebody that fits the bill, please get them in contact with me. So make sure you hit all those buttons download, follow, share, like, subscribe, all the rest. And friends, until next time, let's all remember that tourism matters. See you next week. Thanks for listening.