As a 28-year-old Melbournian entrepreneur, Erin is passionate about creating more justice and supporting people who are facing barriers in their life through creative ways to enable change.
Through the launch of Empty Esky — a national tourism movement of foodies and adventurers who are on a mission to support small businesses in regional Australia affected by the bushfires and Covid — Erin and her co-founder Elle have thought outside the box to create sustainable tourism and activating more travel with purpose.
TS: Thinking more about the world of Empty Esky, where is it at now? You've obviously been on the road quite a lot during the last 12 months. Tell us about the now and the future plans for Empty Esky?
EB: Empty Esky is an ever-evolving concept. Originally, we launched it as an Instagram account. My co-founder Eleanor Baillieu and I were watching all this devastation occur on the news. I'm sure everyone remembers those horrific photos of the animals dying in the fires. And these people that were just so lost and so distraught after losing their houses. People died in the fire, it was horrific. And it was really confronting to see your own country facing a massive crisis.
The other side of it was, there were all these fundraisers going on and millions and millions of dollars in funds were being generated. However, I've had quite a lot of experience in the not-for-profit world previously and I know that the people that need the help the most, it often takes the longest for those donations to reach them.
Throughout my time in the nonprofit sector, I noticed that supporting small business was actually the fastest way to support the communities that needed it most. So I contacted my friend Eleanor and we said “what can we do to support these businesses in these communities?”. At the time, it was quite unsafe to travel due to the fires and lots of road closures. So we decided, why don't we set up an Instagram and we'll invite our friends and family to grab an Empty Esky. And as soon as the fires are done, and it's safe to travel, we can all just go on a road trip. So we set up Instagram and the next day we woke up with around 8000 followers, and it's just blown up since then.
TS: How do you think Australian small businesses really add value to the world?
EB: There are so many amazing local products in Australia. My mind is blown by the amount of cool, unique artisan-type products that are emerging at the moment, right here on our doorstep. There are some amazing gins, the wine is fantastic, there are so many cool cafes with these amazing new dishes and head chefs that are making these crazy, amazing dinners.
Everything is right here on our doorstep in regional Australia. You don't actually need to travel the world to experience these amazing things - they're right here. It's been really encouraging to see all these Australians let their creative juices flow.
TS: What's a key thing you are truly passionate about and advocating and championing in regional Australia?
EB: For city folk who are getting out and visiting, there are two things that I really focus on communicating to them. First is that you don't have to make a massive purchase to make a difference. It can be as simple as your road trip. If you're going somewhere, find a little town that's a little bit off the beaten track, go into a cafe, grab a coffee, grab a vanilla slice, have a chat to the owner and make an effort just to show that you're there to help them and that you care, even it's $10 in total to buy that.
For some people who own a business in a rural town, they haven't seen people in a couple of days, or it's quiet, and they're feeling stressed about how they're going to make it through the next few months, that can make their day. That in itself can be such a morale booster. And it's such a simple thing, just having a coffee and a vanilla slice.
We always say the little purchases make the biggest difference. So don't feel like you have to go out and spend millions of dollars to make a difference. It's actually the little ones that add up to make a huge difference.
Then, the second thing we advise is go in the off season. If you can do a midweek trip, that's amazing. If you can do a trip, maybe in winter and autumn when it's not necessarily the peak holiday season, that's when you can also make a big difference because businesses aren't expecting visitors during that time. When they have traffic suddenly coming through during a quiet season, that really helps them to recreate what was lost last year.
Interested in learning more? Listen to Erin Boutros's interview on the TradeSquare podcast, TSQ, here.
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