Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council and Tilma Group have won a National Economic Development Award for Excellence for agritourism development.

Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council near Wagga Wagga is one of Australia’s leading Councils for proactively developing agritourism.  

Here is what they have achieved with the support of grants and Tilma Group since 2018 - which was recognised with a national economic development award.

What a fabulous few days our industry has just had in Mackay Queensland for the Australian Regional Tourism Convention!

I was honoured to be flying the flag for regional events, presenting on measuring the social value of events.

Transformation is about achieving aspirations.

We need to look at our customers, residents, visitors, etc, and think about what they are aspiring to become. Only then can we start to design experiences that will help them achieve that aspiration.

It’s about the outcomes that people are looking for in themselves.

Keen to check out the possibilities of agritourism for your farm business or region? Here we outline the support that’s currently available to develop and improve agritourism experiences.

Linda’s key takeaways from the WA Tourism Conference

Takeaways from the Global Sustainable Tourism Summit

Linda’s key takeaways from Local Government NSW’s Destination & Visitor Economy Conference

A series of Inspiring Agritourism webinars on best practice case studies to support agritourism development.

It’s such an exciting time of year when the tourism awards are announced – there’s nothing like the acknowledgement of a tourism award for a year of hard work!

Writing tourism award submissions is such a big time commitment that you’ll want to maximise your chances - so don’t miss our top tip to set your submission up for success

Randall Breen of Echo Valley Farm in the Goomburra Valley approaches farming and agritourism by developing intimate relationships and with ethical decision making.

Never underestimate the power of an anchor tourism product to drive broad benefits across a destination and region.

An Australian-first collaborative approach to acquiring events has resulted in a huge economic benefit for Victoria’s Gippsland region.

Events Gippsland, a collaboration of six Councils to pool resources to acquire events rather than compete and duplicate effort and resources, has provided a return on investment of 80:1 so far.

Are your tourism plans such as your Destination Management Plan, Regional Events Strategy, or Visitor Servicing Strategy living documents that guide what you work on, or have they been kind of forgotten as time passed since they were created?

You’ve won! What a feeling!

Now, how to leverage your award to get the most benefit out of it? You earned it; be proud and tell the world!

With government funding shrinking and tighter budgets all round, it is time to look seriously at ‘user pays’ funding models to sustainably support destination management.

On World Tourism Day, 27 September, regional tourism development consultancy Tilma Group is launching a program that contributes to the resilience of regional, rural and remote communities.  

Tilma Group have established a donation program to contribute 1% of revenue each year to grant provider, the Foundation for Regional and Rural Renewal (FRRR).

The incredible transformation of a small town using an events strategy and the development of an anchor attraction - the journey.

What are the opportunities for regional tourism in 2023?

Tasmania’s new Visitor Economy strategy has some great examples of best practice destination management - here’s what jumped out for us