LIGHTING THE SOUND
CULTURAL EVENT DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT CASE STUDY
CLIENT: FORM
DTM Service: Cultural Event Package Development
Completed: March 2026
PROJECT SUMMARY
IMPLEMENTING EVENT PACKAGES TO REACH NEW MARKETS
FORM is a creative arts organisation which delivers programs that build and offer skills in creative thinking, learning and cultural tourism events in Western Australia, for the betterment of cultural, social and economic wellbeing in communities. The State Government of Western Australia and its partners, commissioned FORM to develop and deliver ‘'Lighting The Sound Albany” - a major event as part of the Albany 2026 Bicentennial commemorations, recognising 200 years of interaction between European settlers and the Menang People in Balgang Albany.
Part of FORM’s role in growing awareness for cultural tourism and enabling the development of local communities to engage with cultural tourism experience development was to work with tourism operators to develop bookable product to enhance the visitor experience of this free art event. Enabling bookable product was required to connect tourism operators with distribution partners, growing the potential to reach new markets and creating a compelling reason for visitors outside of the region to travel to Albany during shoulder season.
Having previously worked with us to develop bookable experiences for the renowned Field of Lights; Avenue of Honour event by illumination artist Bruce Munro, FORM re-engaged DTM Tourism to upskill local tourism operators to not only develop bookable experiences, but to also upskill the Albany Visitor Centre, in the capacity of ‘Official Booking Agent’ for the event. The aim was to develop a series of event-based packages to enable marketing distribution and enquiry conversion.
Kari Kola - Light Artist
2. THE CHALLENGE
HOW TO MAKE A FREE CULTURAL EVENT BOOKABLE
Lighting The Sound is an Australian-first project and anticipated to be the world’s largest light installation art event to date. Produced by FORM in collaboration with internationally renowned Finnish light artist Kari Kola, Lighting the Sound sets a global benchmark for public art experiences grounded in story and place. Co-designed and led by Menang Elders and the Albany community, the lighting spectacular will be freely visible from key locations around the city of Albany. It is expected that the event will attract more than 50,000 visitors to Albany.
As with all major events supported by State Government, there is a clear requirement on event producers to encourage visitation from beyond local borders to support the local visitor economy. In our experience, where visitors are motivated to travel further for an event, they also seek to engage with the event on a deeper level. They want the ‘full’ event experience, enabling them to immerse themselves in storytelling and sensory connections.
Meeting visitor demand for experiences presents a unique opportunity for tourism operators to reimagine how to develop new tours, dining experiences and supporting events to commercially leverage a free event, encouraging visitor spend in the community. For the Lighting The Sound event, working with local suppliers to develop their experiences has been critical to creating the supply of bookable product for event packages.
3. DTM TOURISM’s APPROACH
UPSKILLING THE ALBANY VISITOR CENTRE
Event packages perform an important role in enabling potential visitors to experience a destination at the planning and booking stages of the customer journey. Well written itineraries educate visitors in how to experience the destination and carefully selected package inclusions perform a vital role in growing length of stay, together with dispersing bookings to tourism operator businesses, making positive impacts to the local visitor economy. When marketed by a trusted source, packages provide visitors with confidence in booking. Enabling the Albany Visitor Centre to embrace its market position as the ‘Official Agent’ for the Lighting The Sound event was a priority in our approach to this project.
LOCAL PARTNER AGREEMENTS
Although the Albany Visitor Centre is well-connected with its local tourism industry, securing event-based accommodation rates and room allocations was a new experience for local operators. We worked with all suppliers to establish short-term agreements and booking instructions between operators and the Albany Visitor Centre to implement commercial terms.
PACKAGE DESIGN
Harnessing the local knowledge of the Albany Visitor Centre team, we worked with management and key team members to align supplier products with priority tourism audiences, tailoring package inclusions to their known travel preferences. We placed a high emphasis on value proposition to encourage enquiry and local advice in itinerary preparation.
BOOKING SYSTEMS
Using the team’s existing booking system, we facilitated the loading of product, the development of consumer terms and conditions and customer communications to enable a seamless online booking experience for visitors to the Lighting The Sound pages on the Albany Visitor Centre and Albany 2026 websites.
STAFF TRAINING & SUPPORT
We conducted multiple online sessions with the Albany Visitor Centre team to work through internal booking procedures and provided new systems, together with written instructions for the team to refer to throughout the promotional period leading up to the event. At all stages, we remained in close communication with the team to monitor the performance of the packages, utilisation of allocations and provided troubleshooting assistance as needed.
Savage Beauty, Kari Kola - Galway, Ireland
4. THE OUTCOME
LIGHTING THE SOUND PACKAGES ‘SOLD OUT’
By monitoring the sales of 3 distinct packages aligned to varying target audiences, the Albany Visitor Centre team has been able to clearly understand what experiences resonate with their visitors. The flagship Lighting The Sound Panorama package has sold out weeks ahead of the event, generating significant revenue into the Visitor Centre with full results to be reported on post event.
The opportunity to renew booking processes and the learning achieved through this project has created a legacy of upskilling within the Albany Visitor Centre team that will enable them to confidently put themselves forward for future partnership opportunities. The resources that they have will assist them to work more collaboratively with their local industry into the future.
As a result of FORM recognising the opportunity to engage DTM Tourism to work with the local tourism industry in support of the Lighting The Sound event, we have collaboratively achieved sustainable outcomes in Visitor Centre capability building, operations and marketing that will contribute to positive outcomes for all event stakeholders and the wider community of Albany.
testimonial
“Karen and the DTM Tourism team have been the perfect partner in creating tourism packages for the Lighting the Sound event. They listened to our specific requirements, created packages that were responsive to our target markets, worked closely with product providers to develop their skills, and prepared the local Visitor Centre to be able to effectively manage the implementation and management of these packages. At all times the DTM team were clear and communicative, stuck to all our timeline and milestone requirements and went above and beyond with their customer service and responsiveness to both us, the Visitor Centre and local providers.”