Tourism Tasmania Case Study

How 2PM’s Project Management expertise enabled the successful launch of an innovative tourism app.

Tourism Tasmania engaged 2PM to manage the development of their groundbreaking Discover Tasmania mobile application, aimed at enhancing visitor experiences and supporting the local tourism industry.

Tourism Tasmania

Tourism Tasmania is the state’s tourism organisation, dedicated to connecting travellers with Tasmania’s unique offerings and driving sustainable tourism growth. They represent a diverse industry of operators and experiences for both domestic and international visitors, delivering social, environmental, and economic value for all Tasmanians.

The Challenge

Tourism Tasmania needed to create a mobile application that would provide personalised, location-based recommendations to visitors. The challenge lay in effectively connecting tourists with relevant activities and experiences in a busy digital advertising environment while ensuring the app reflected the desirable image of Tasmania for modern travellers.

The Solution

2PM’s Senior Project Manager, Thomas Mosley, implemented an agile project methodology to maximise the design and development potential for the Discover Tasmania app. Thomas:

  1. Facilitated collaborative parallel design and development processes with Tourism Tasmania and the two third-party design and development organisations, ensuring continuous feedback and improvement, from the dual perspectives of ‘what should the app achieve?’ and ‘how the app is actually performing?’.
  2. Established weekly meetings to maintain alignment with the intended design and track progress in real time.
  3. Used cloud solutions for seamless collaboration among geographically and organisationally dispersed teams located across Hobart, Sydney, and Manila.
  4. Coordinated an early release of the test app in September 2022, for key stakeholders to interact with the app during its development, providing early feedback.
  5. Incorporated feedback from an independent study to enhance user experience before the final launch.

The project successfully navigated challenges related to geographic dispersion and complex stakeholder management, resulting in a visually engaging, technically stable, and user-friendly app launched just in time for Easter and off-season tourism periods.

The outcomes

The Discover Tasmania app launch marked a significant milestone in Australian destination marketing:

  • First mobile app developed by an Australian State Tourism Organisation.
  • Over 50,000 downloads since launch, with 11,000+ downloads in January 2024 alone.
  • Provides users with a list of geographically accurate tourism experiences tailored to their interests.
  • Enhances visitor experiences while supporting local tourism operators.
  • Demonstrates Tourism Tasmania’s leadership in leveraging technology for tourism promotion.

The app’s success underscores Tourism Tasmania’s commitment to innovation and excellence in driving visitation while fostering a sustainable visitor economy that benefits all Tasmanians.

The app is available for download at https://www.discovertasmania.com.au/mobile-app/.