Parks Australia Visitor Experience App

Parks Australia is responsible for six national parks and the Australian National Botanic Gardens. Kakadu National Park and Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park in the Northern Territory, and Booderee National Park in the Jervis Bay Territory (NSW), are jointly managed by Parks Australia with their traditional owners. Previous mobile applications for terrestrial parks were fragmented and outdated. A poor user experience, ageing technology stack, and one-way relationships led to a poor user experience. The Challenge — How can we achieve positive outcomes for all Parks Australia stakeholders with a suite of new mobile applications?

A flexible white-label solution, allowing each park to take ownership of their own application, and supports their individuality. The experience is embedded with a strategic blueprint that shifts the mindset from tourist to visitor; redefining the role sightseers play when interacting with the environment they’re visiting. It is powered by a platform that can rapidly build and release new applications and is easy to update and manage. To ensure lasting change, we defined a long-term vision and roadmap that allows Parks Australia and joint-management to scale the solution, and continue to assess and adapt to the needs of all stakeholders.

The solution drives positive impact for a broad range of stakeholders. With flexibility at the core, Parks Australia can foster a reciprocal caretaking role with visitors. For Parks Australia: A high return on investment through the creation of multiple apps using a single command, and central CMS that's easy to maintain and regulate. For Jointly-managed Parks: Throughout every touchpoint, it's clear visitors are on Aboriginal land, i.e. acknowledgements, in-language audio and text, etc. For Visitors: They’re provided with the tools and knowledge to plan, explore, learn, and respond. Making the most out of their trip, staying safe and respectful.

Flexible digital experience: Designed to roll out to any site in Parks Australia’s portfolio, with brand and content switching built-in and minimal development effort required, it is easy to update and manage. Designed to evolve: Validated roadmap to guide and scale future iterations of the suite, including additional pages and features. A future iteration of the digital product will assess and adapt to the needs of visitors and the community in real-time. Interactive Offline maps: No matter how far a visitor may travel they can; track their location, progress on a trail, stay safe, and be as engaged as they like. Interactive pins open saveable content pieces of the experience; signposting popular vantage points, camping spots, emergency call devices, educational material, and other attractions. Designed to share knowledge: Built with staff and communities, critical information, alerts, events, and learning content can easily be found. Giving visitors access to build their knowledge and design their own itineraries. “The solution is efficient and practical, the content is all stored in a single repository so updates are quick and easy, and we’re able to roll out content updates with a single command.” – Kate Edwards, Director, Tourism and Marketing, Parks Australia