Tilma’s 2025 Tourism For Good Impact Report
Concepts like positive impact, regenerative tourism and sustainability may inspire us, but it’s action that brings them to life! We’ve said all the right words. Now let’s see the right actions.
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What we’re here for
We support and empower regional and rural communities to develop and manage a sustainable tourism industry.
Purpose
To support the vibrancy and resilience of regional Australia.
How we measure “good”
We aim to make impact by supporting the achievement of these United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through our engagement with our clients and industry:
SDG 12; Target 12.6: Encourage companies to adopt sustainable practices
SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Examples
We donate 1% of our profits to the Foundation for Regional and Rural Renewal’s (FRRR) Prepare and Recover fund which supports rural communities to cope with worsening extreme weather. We encourage others to join us.
In the City of Karratha’s Tourism Strategy, we included actions to reduce the City’s tourism emissions, such as in its visitor centre, and to help operators reduce theirs.
We connected the City with Ecotourism Australia to learn about ECO Destination Certification and inspire them to take this journey.
We inspired Granite Gardens to undertake the free ecoBiz emissions-reduction program.
We align our tourism strategies with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s GSTC Destination Standard and the UN SDGs which is a basic guideline for destinations that wish to become more sustainable.
Three changes we made for good this year
1. We have applied to be a B Corporation!
B Corps are companies legally committed to balancing profit with purpose, and part of a global movement of businesses that use their success to lift up communities, support workers, and reduce environmental impact—while still being commercially strong.
We started applying in February, developed an action plan to ensure we could meet the requirements, made changes, sought help, and finally applied in November!
If you want to work with a values-based business that is trying to make the world a better place, we would love to work with you!
2. We are learning from sustainably certified destinations
Linda in Queenstown, New Zealand, beside the region’s responsible visitor pledge
We are in the midst of interviewing managers of Australian and New Zealand destinations that have a focus on delivering environmental and social benefits, and researchers of sustainable tourism. To inform our future destination stewardship strategies, we are asking what really works, ensuring our strategies are pragmatic, implementable, and deliver real results!
If you are one of these, we’d love to chat with you!
3. We developed a new ‘positive impact’ program
We have partnered with one of Australia’s most sustainable operators, Nic Cooper of Wild Adventures Melbourne and 7 Generations Tourism consultancy, and our valued long term collaborator Jayne Jennings of JJ Strategic Consulting to develop a program that enables tourism business owners to improve their sustainability.
If you’re looking for a way to engage tourism businesses in your region to make the world a better place, we would love to work with you!
Projects that made a difference
A roadmap for navigating a doubling of visitors: City of Karratha
The upcoming sealing of the road between one of WA’s most popular attractions (Karijini National Park) and the major population centre of the City of Karratha is likely to double visitation to this coastal region and its phenomenal natural and cultural attractions.
Our tourism strategy lays the firm foundations for this immense change, within the remote community’s many constraints.
We worked closely with the City’s Visitor Centre Manager Bree Johnson as we explored the region in person, undertook stakeholder consultations, reviewed an abundance of relevant strategies, developed a discussion paper for feedback and then developed the final tourism strategy, which is being incorporated into the City’s Economic Development and Tourism Strategy.
Unlocking the opportunity of agritourism: Somerset Regional Council
A neighbouring region’s success in attracting visitors to experience agritourism inspired Somerset Regional Council to fund an agritourism development mentoring program.
We worked closely with Council’s Tourism Development Officer to support participant farmers to develop new agritourism offerings.
Now a profusion of new agritourism experiences are ready to launch next March when the region’s tourism season begins, from distillery and farm tours, to cooking classes, events, and farmstays.
Supporting world-leading cultural and First Nations tourism: The Wired Lab
The Wired Lab is in the middle of a five-year re-centering to build sources of owned revenue and the organisational capacity to continue to deliver internationally-unique and immersive auditory arts experiences and Wiradyuri cultural experiences.
They are redeveloping a deconsecrated church in the village of Muttuma near Canberra into a nationally-significant cultural attraction that demonstrates the value of artistic expression that represents rural, agrarian and Wiradyuri cultures.
Tilma helped develop a business case to attract the final funding to deliver this incredible, innovative attraction.
It is truly an honour to work for innovators like The Wired Lab’s CEO and Artistic Director Sarah Last.
Inspiring pride and passion across Queensland: Queensland Welcomes You workshops
After co creating the Queensland Welcomes You online training modules in partnership with Jayne Jennings from JJ Strategic Consulting, Jayne and Linda designed a supporting face to face workshop and delivered 21 workshops across 12 regions, including an online session tailored for Outback Queensland operators.
Close to 600 participants shared their pride and passion in their region and inspired each other to deliver exceptional guest experiences and contribute to making Queensland the most welcoming and friendliest state in the world.
The Queensland Welcomes You initiative is proudly funded by the Queensland Government ($1 million program), delivered by the Queensland Regional Tourism Network (QRTN) with the Brisbane Economic Development Agency (BEDA) as lead agency until 2026 when Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) takes the lead.
“This workshop is invaluable for those wanting to learn more about how to improve the guest experience for those coming to explore and enjoy our region.”
“I’ve never seen people from so many walks of life come to together for such an extraordinary workshop!”
What is life like as a regional tourism specialist?
Varied!
This year our work directly benefited 10 regional communities and 29 regional tourism businesses.
A further 2,200 in our industry have learned about being a welcoming host, accessibility for travellers with disability, their region’s Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people, and sustainable local tourism businesses, through a training we developed with JJ Strategic Consulting for the Queensland state department of tourism and Queensland’s regional tourism organisations.
Across regional Australia: Linda in the Somerset region; Kushla working on our B Corp submission; Kushla at Destination Q with our regular collaborator Jayne Jennings, and Kathleen, project manager of the Queensland Welcomes You training; Jayne and Linda at Hamilton Island; teaching staff on Hamilton Island; Kushla in Queensland Country at a sustainable tourism workshop by EarthCheck; attending our local region’s networking event (Queensland Country); Kushla in Bathurst; and Linda with her business advisor Janie.
Here’s who we worked with:
Here’s where we worked!:
Tassie, NT and SA, we’d love to work with you too!
Around half of our projects were for Councils:
We work for and with - and connect - people from all walks of life!:
Here’s how we supported regional tourism development this year
Strategic planning
Tourism strategy for City of Karratha, WA
Stakeholder and community consultation for a mountain bike trail business case by Blue Sky Trails, in the Mary Valley, QLD
“I have just read through the Latrobe City Events & Visitor Economy Strategy. What an excellent piece if work! I’ve read quite a few over my career, and this one is gold!”
Strategic activation
Review of East Gippsland Shire Council’s Australian-leading Pathway to Growth event support program, VIC
Event assessment framework for Noosa Shire Council, QLD
Events strategy implementation mentoring for Warrnambool City Council, VIC
Event approval review, event management guide and templates, and leveraging events guides for Shire of Collie, WA
Business case for The Wired Lab’s nation-leading soundscape and Wiradjuri arts and cultural experience in Muttama, NSW
Award submissions for Blues on Broadbeach (by Experience Gold Coast) (gold!) and Distillery Road Market, Logan, QLD (bronze!), and award submission review for Mundi Mundi Bash by Outback Music Festivals Group (OMFG) (gold!)
Grant application support for Australian Agricultural Centre in Crookwell, NSW
“I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you for all the work we’ve done together. I’ve truly enjoyed our conversations 😊 and am proud of the mountain of achievements we’ve shared over the years.”
Experience design
Agritourism development mentoring for Somerset Regional Council, QLD
Agritourism development mentoring for Bathurst, Lithgow and Oberon Councils, NSW
“Having a quiet moment and reflecting on our agritourism journey and wanted to say thank you. Thank you for the process, the resources and, importantly, keeping us on track. So many learnings as well as amazement at the amount of support available for agritourism.”
Capability building
Destination managers
Tourism mentoring for Gladstone Regional Council Economic Development Team, QLD
Tourism operators
Queensland Welcomes You workshops delivered across the state of Queensland with JJ Strategic Consulting + workshops on being a welcoming host for Hamilton Island, QLD
Business plan development for Granite Gardens cottages near Stanthorpe, QLD
Business development mentoring for businesses for Balonne Shire Council in St George region, QLD
“What a wonderful initiative. If this could be implemented across Australia in every aspect and across all organisations, what a difference it could make. Something so simple: ‘Change your mindset, change your lives, change the world’.”
Farmers
Guides on developing agritourism for farmers in the Bathurst, Lithgow and Oberon region, NSW
Mentored 21 farmers from 15 farms in Somerset, QLD and Central West NSW
Lessons and surprises
City of Karratha in the Pilbara has so many untapped significant tourism assets that aren’t accessible by visitors, such as the world class Dampier Archipelago islands and the marine world’s super biodiversity, and World Heritage rock art and living Aboriginal culture.
Karratha is about to experience a doubling of visitors and the barriers to hosting them are so high, such as there being no land available to build on (so hard to believe in that huge expansive desert region) and the impossibility of economic ROI on investments such as hotels and cultural centres due to the huge costs of remote construction.
The City has a shared spreadsheet of all of its projects so staff who know what every other team is working on, to break down silos and improve efficiencies.
Gympie Regional Council was mindful of not over-consulting the community and they engaged on multiple projects simultaneously integrating community consultation across team silos, and considering recent past and upcoming engagement that could be drawn and collaborated on.
We now raise the three pillars of destination stewardship (care for the environment, benefits for host communities, as well as economic benefit for local businesses) in our project inception meetings to check if a Council wants their strategy to deliver on all of these.
“I’m so glad you asked that question.”
From a review of East Gippsland’s Australia-first Pathway to Growth event support program we learned regional events need help to even survive - ‘survive and thrive’ - not only to grow their tourism benefits. A Council might fund growth and development (e.g. to help an event establish new owned revenue streams) and the event still might need ongoing support so it isn’t lost from the community.
In the Somerset region, Council’s planners updated what types of agritourism could be developed on farms in the region while we supported farmers to develop new experiences. Our mentoring program would probably have better taken place after the changes, but regardless, the new planning changes will be great for farmers and tourism in Somerset! Somerset’s tourism team now have the capacity to mentor farmers into the future, to help them develop agritourism experiences.
Finding time to invest in your business can be hard! Lots of destination managers find it hard to engage businesses with training - and a lot of businesses still need help with the basics: customer service, online listings, online bookings…
Despite that, those who take the time to invest in their business can really THRIVE!
Jill from RedGround Australia is a great example of a business owner leveraging state tourism support to rapidly grow.
Our positive impact
The key ways we sought to improve our positive impact this year were as follows.
Goal: Contribute to our industry
Volunteering
Our contributions increase knowledge around regional tourism for countless members of our industry.
Our goal is 8 hours of volunteering each per month (motivated by trying to become a B Corporation!) – but we’re only about ¼ of the way there, though we haven’t been counting where we share our knowledge to support the industry (at conferences, webinars and articles) as volunteering.
Agritourism
Webinar on designing successful agritourism experiences for Global Agritourism Network
Webinar on agritourism as a farm diversification option
Webinar on getting started in agritourism for The Australian Lavender Growers Association
Two case studies for a global agritourism journal by CABI
Events
Presentation on event revitalisation at the Agricultural Shows Australia Conference, Sydney
Presentation on establishing strong event foundations at Redlands Tourism & Event Forum
Webinar on leveraging a region’s best-fit events for Australian Regional Tourism
Ambassador on regional events at the Australian Regional Tourism Convention
Other
Journal article and webinar on how destination managers can maximise visitor economy benefits from recreation trails with Blue Sky Trails for Economic Development Australia
Co-hosted the Queensland Welcomes You stand at Destination Q
On Queensland Tourism Industry Council’s advisory group on workforce
Supporting the next generation of tourism workers
Real world experience for University of Technology event management students, developing new events for the Northern Rivers Rail Trail for our past event strategy client Tweed Shire Council.
Mentored a Masters student via Queensland Tourism Industry Council’s Queensland Future mentoring program.
“Working with Kushla through QTIC’s mentorship program was a truly profound and transformative experience. Kushla provided guidance that went far beyond professional advice; it was instrumental in the successful completion and passing of my thesis.
Her insights on the practical realities of the tourism sector were incredibly valuable, shaping my research in a way I couldn’t have imagined.
I now have a much clearer understanding of the industry and feel confident pursuing a career in tourism. This mentorship boosted my confidence immeasurably.”
Goal: Support Sustainable Development Goals 12 & 13
Wherever possible, we seek to support increased sustainability via our projects.
For example:
Around 2,000 Queensland’s tourism operators learned about sustainable local tourism operators in the online Queensland Welcomes You course we developed in partnership with JJ Strategic Consulting .
We arranged a meeting between City of Karratha and Ecotourism Australia to find out what would be involved in becoming the first ECO Destination in northwest Australia.
We provided Noosa Shire Council with a framework to assess events for funding based on their environmental sustainability and community benefits.
We encouraged our mentees to undertake Ecotourism Australia’s Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard.
We regularly share ideas, tools, examples, learnings and grants to support improved sustainability in our newsletters and social media posts.
We wrote a practical article on how destination managers can improve sustainability, and an article on what Australia’s first national climate risk assessment means for regional tourism.
We advocated for Queensland’s new 20-year tourism strategy to support the sustainability of operators by attending an in-person workshop and through a written application.
Do you want to strengthen your region’s appeal to visitors, and support tourism operators on their sustainability journey?
At Tilma, we help destinations and businesses navigate sustainability planning and accreditation. Reach out to take the next step toward a more responsible and resilient visitor economy.
Goal: Reduce emissions
Our key aim for our owned emissions is to reduce Tilma’s flights.
We always advocate for our clients to choose remote delivery.
Only 3 of our projects this year included flights (though one involved 5 return flights).
We try to book sustainably certified accommodations, and use active, public and electric transport when we travel and for commuting.
Goal: Improve our skills
We’ve been upskilling!
Linda is undertaking the Australia Institute Company Directors Course and Kushla finished a Graduate Diploma of Sustainable Living at University of Tasmania (by the way, it’s free and highly recommended!)
See why we keep learning (and what else we’ve been learning) — and why learning matters for tourism leaders.
Our long-time collaborator
We have been co-creating tourism strategies and collaborating on projects with Jayne Jennings from JJ Strategic Consulting for 8 years - including our largest scale one, the multi-year Queensland Welcomes You project delivered for the Queensland Government.
What do you enjoy about working with us?
Your commitment to giving every project your all – every time.
Your passion for making a difference at a tangible and practical level for our industry.
Your professionalism with clients and those you collaborate with.
These elements are super important to me as well and because of these joint values and approach, I think our collaborations have been so successful.
Also, can’t forget an equal love for enjoying great food and wine, particularly locally sourced, when we’re out in any region. 😊
What does destination stewardship mean to you?
Businesses, local communities and visitors together and individually having a practical role and commitment to making a positive net impact on the environmental, social and cultural values of a destination.
Each knowing they are contributing to a better future in tangible ways and proud of the outcomes they’re creating.
Where do you see opportunity to have the greatest positive impact in our industry in 2026?
Inspiring and motivating businesses to find ways to have a positive net impact on the environment and their local communities, including the roles their guests can take.
This includes demystifying what it means to have a positive impact. It doesn’t have to be complicated or mean a cost to a business. We have an opportunity to find and put in place solutions that achieve a win-win and gets the industry excited about what’s possible.
Let’s change our metrics for what success looks like in the tourism industry to include care for people and for the incredible natural environment on planet earth that supports us.
Who inspires you to do better?
My daughter and our future generations. We are only here for a short time and have a brief shot at having an influence and being the best possible role models.
What’s next for Tilma?
We’ve learned a lot this year and are committed to keep improving!
Tilma turns 18 in 2026 and whilst we are a successful and long-standing business, we are not resting on our laurels.
We have spent the last quarter of 2025 undertaking client research, doing a deep dive into operational systems and required improvements, an internal and external review and analysis, and a robust strategic planning session.
We know our place as a business, and is humbling to know that our clients agree, so our purpose has not changed. The way we achieve this will continue to be refined with our deep care and commitment to regional and rural Australia remaining at the forefront!
A few priorities for us in 2026 will ensure that we can continue to have positive impact across the country. We’re going to:
Embed BCorp — being a responsible business that seeks to make the world a better place — into everything that we do: staff recruitment, supply chain, projects for clients…
Inspire and enable tourism businesses across regional Australia to embed positive impact into their business.
Develop practical tourism strategies that empower destination stewardship.
Enable and support our strategy clients to drive outcomes and measure progress.
Invest in growing our team to ensure that we can continue to deliver for our clients.
Continue to support farmers to explore and develop agritourism as a sustainable diversification option for their farm.
Codify Tilma and protect our IP and business operations.
Double our impact to FRRR by engaging people like you to join us in donating to their climate action fund.
Grow our volunteer commitments and ensure we do what makes the team happy!
How fun!
Bring on 2026.
A big thank you to all of our 2025 collaborators, and those on the same path!
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you would like to chat about how we could help your destination or business.