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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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

This is a tough topic that we hope a couple of recommended resources will help your business with. 

What a year!

29 clients in 4 states, including two national tourism associations and a state tourism organisation

Here’s all the projects we undertook for all our 2022 clients

There are big and small ways Councils can support their region’s event organisers and grow the economic and social benefits events provide to the community.

The Australian Regional Tourism Convention program was jam-packed with great presenters, insightful conversations, and plenty of networking full of robust discussions and laughter.

Tourism and events are symbiotic

• Events give people a reason to travel to destinations

• Successful tourism strategies increase attendee numbers, and broaden the reach and boost the reputation of events which enhances the visitor experience

The federal government has developed a national strategy for Australia’s visitor economy recovery and return to sustainable growth called THRIVE 2030 (THe Re-Imagined Visitor Economy).

This article looks at what THRIVE 2030 means for regional tourism over the coming eight years.

If a destination is marketed successfully with strong investment and superb content using a detailed and focused marketing strategy, but fails to deliver a quality experience when visitors arrive, the tourism potential of the destination will never be realised!

All the pillars of the visitor economy require effective management.

How do we embrace these natural-born tour guides (I know, not all of them!) and support them to create authentic and transformational tourism experiences across regional Australia?

How can we break down barriers for them and create a viable pathway to diversify into tourism?

How do we enable them to show the REAL Australia?