Business Development Coaching
Experience Gold Coast
Experience Gold Coast
Experience Gold Coast (previously called Destination Gold Coast) is the regional tourism organisation for Queensland’s famous Gold Coast and its hinterland. The Gold Coast attracts almost 5 million overnight visitors per year, including over 600,000 international visitors.
Project purpose
To enable more Gold Coast tourism operators to become Best of Queensland Experiences, Experience Gold Coast contracted Jayne Jennings of JJ Strategic Consulting supported by Linda Tillman and Kushla Gale of Tilma Group to deliver free business coaching to its members on Tourism & Events Queensland’s Best of Queensland Experiences Program.
The Best of Queensland Experiences Program assesses Queensland tourism businesses on their ability deliver exceptional experiences, and create positive word of mouth recommendations for Queensland.
The program assesses businesses on:
Consistent delivery of an exceptional experience based on positive customer reviews
Having a website with secure booking platform
An active and engaging social media presence
Regional tourism organisation membership
Accreditation
Project overview
For six months we provide coaching on these criteria, and where additional time was available, coaching also covered
Website, accessibility and sustainability improvements
Experience enhancements
Project outcomes
JJ Strategic Consulting and Tilma Group mentored 70 businesses, as diverse as a jet boat experience, a whale watching cruise, apartment hotels, events, jet ski-ing, axe throwing, camper hire, a surf school, surf clubs, a golf club, a wildlife park, and many others. Each was provided with a tailored action plan to support becoming or maintaining their status as a Best of Queensland Experience in 2025. They were also provided with other resources, such as best practice websites, social media accounts and review response examples, and relevant funding programs available.
We also delivered a webinar on the program including tips and best practice examples. This was recorded for Experience Gold Coast to share with its members along with a tip sheet and case studies of businesses that demonstrate good practice on the Best of Queensland Experiences Program criteria.
Referee
Judy Quodling
Industry Development Officer
Experience Gold Coast
07 5584 6223
judy.quodling@destinationgoldcoast.com
or
Ashleigh Barnes
Partnership & Membership Officer
Experience Gold Coast
07 5584 6243
ashleigh.barnes@destinationgoldcoast.com
Agritourism Development Program
Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council
Cootamundra-Gundagai
Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council near Wagga Wagga in NSW’s food bowl, the Riverina region, is one of Australia’s leading Councils for proactively developing agritourism.
The region’s agriculture ranges from broadacre cropping and cattle in the north around Cootamundra to smaller landholdings, wineries and sheep in the south around Gundagai, and rich Wiradjuri agricultural history across the region.
Project purpose
In 2018, Council developed a Rural Land Issues Paper on the opportunities of agricultural tourism.
Based on the Paper’s findings, in 2020, Council secured a grant to create an Agritourism Development Plan to guide Council’s activities to grow agritourism offerings and visitation to the region.
Project overview
To develop the Agritourism Development Plan we began by developing an audit of existing, past, and potential agritourism experiences to help Council understand what kinds of experiences are already on offer, and be able to connect with the farmers delivering them.
The Plan identified a need for an ongoing agritourism development program to build the capacity of farmers to develop new, or grow existing, agritourism experiences - to elevate and expand agritourism offerings in the region.
In 2022, Council secured further funding and in 2023, hired Tilma Group to develop and deliver an agritourism development program.
We researched thoroughly what content should be included to help farmers understand the opportunities of agritourism, understand the tourism industry’s key players and what support they provide, and how to develop a new agritourism experience.
Project outcomes - several Australian firsts
To our knowledge, this project was an innovative first in Australia; we know of no other
Council that secured funding for, planned, and delivered such a comprehensive, multi-faceted local capacity building and agritourism development project.
‘One stop shop’ for farmers, particularly NSW farmers, to find all the information they needed in one place to support the development of an agritourism offering on their farm (There were none at the time the project was begun.)
Agritourism mentoring program that has been so comprehensive and generous, with up to twelve hours of one-on-one personalised mentoring by a regional tourism development expert.
Agritourism mentoring program where the skills of Council staff to support agritourism development were improved simultaneously with agritourism operators and farmers.
Agritourism mentoring program delivered remotely as this was using video conference technology.
The project could be considered best practice though its use of
Comprehensive research to inform inclusions, such as Service NSW for Business’ report on the pain points of farmers in developing agritourism and types of farmers who offer agritourism experiences, and statistics on agritourism visitors available, such as through Tourism Australia and Destination NSW (and much more!).
Consultation of local agritourism operators and farmers in the development of the inclusions of the Program.
The agritourism development guides include
How to develop a business case (including a business case template)
Risk management (including a risk management plan template)
Marketing (including a marketing plan template)
With agritourism being a rapidly growing sector, and new support being made available regularly, these graphic-designed guides were designed as Word documents so Council could update them as new resources for agritourism development become available. In fact, during the course of delivering this project, new resources became available from Destination NSW.
We then delivered a 10-week mentoring program. Nine participants from eight farms worked on a wide variety of offerings:
New agritourism events, including seasonal local produce lunches, farm open days, and potentially a sunflower festival
New farm stay short term accommodations
Marketing tactics to deliver business objectives such as attract a new market (midweek visitors and weddings), increase occupancy, or launch a new experience
A new farm tour and art workshops
A new night wildlife spotting tour with astrology and storytelling.
A new self-guided Wiradjuri tour
A new plant nursery with coffee
The different needs of the established agritourism operators and new-to-agritourism farmers, as well as the differences in the products being developed, required a flexible, tailored approach to delivering the business coaching.
Each mentee ended the program with an action plan, and other support, depending on their needs, such as a marketing plan or a risk management plan.
At the end of the mentoring, Tilma Group delivered a series of webinars of inspiring case studies, with guest presenters showcasing different best-practice agritourism offerings, with learnings for farmers developing or growing an agritourism offering.
The recorded webinars were added to Council’s online agritourism development portal.
Referee
Linda Wiles
Manager Business
Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council
1300 459 689
linda.wiles@cgrc.nsw.gov.au
Online Industry Development Toolkit
Townsville Enterprise
Townsville enterprise
For anyone who loves to explore tropical islands, wetlands, the Great Barrier Reef, rainforests and a glorious beachfront in warm tropical weather, Townsville region offers a diverse range of sustainable, historic, military, outback, island, active and tranquil experiences.
Project purpose
The regional tourism organisation, Townsville Enterprise, wanted to support local tourism businesses to exceed customer expectations and enhance their capacity.
They wanted to have a self-guided and practical tourism development toolkit for local operators, with information and templates that operators could access to use at any time to enhance their experience and business practices.
Project overview
Based on anecdotal evidence of local need, Townsville Enterprise identified industry development topics to include in the toolkit, including
To avoid duplication, Tilma Group sourced mainly existing resources from the state and beyond that provided practical information on each topic.
Tilma Group also developed a number of case studies on local and other operators who demonstrate the value of best practice.
Project outcomes
The toolkit is live, and operators attended two webinars on the toolkit’s topics at the launch of the new toolkit. These were recorded and also form part of the toolkit.
Already 500 local operators have accessed the toolkit.
Referee
Megan Hawke
Tourism Executive
Townsville Enterprise Limited
0400 093 838
megan.hawke@tel.com.au
www.tel.com.au
www.townsvillenorthqueensland.com.au
Hero Off Peak Event Development
Destination Phillip Island
Destination Phillip Island
Phillip Island is the region in Victoria that is the most dependent on tourism, and the second most dependent in Australia. With just 10,000 residents, the island welcomes almost three million visitors each year, mainly in summer.
Project purpose
To smooth the intense seasonality of visitation to Phillip Island, Destination Phillip Island is seeking to support the growth of key off-peak events to attract overnight visitation during the winter months. This will support cash flow and staff retention for local tourism businesses.
The three homegrown events with the potential to grow are
This project built on previous work Tilma Group had done in the region:
The development of a Growing Off Peak Events Strategy for Bass Coast Shire Council
A 10-month event organiser capacity building program run by our rEVENTS Academy
Project overview
With funding to help the region recover from the impact of COVID on the local tourism industry, Destination Phillip Island hired Tilma Group to set these events up with everything they need to realise their potential:
A three-year strategic growth plan for each of three off peak events
Upskilling for the event organisers via rEVENTS Academy’s 7-week intensive event management training program
Complete operations manual development using rEVENTS Academy’s templates and resources
The process of development included desktop research, attending one of the festivals, extensive stakeholder consultation, and developing discussion papers and workshopping these with the committees.
Additionally, for each event, Embarketing marketing agency
provided a new or refreshed logo and brand story
updated all marketing assets, including the websites, social media profile graphics and tiles for stakeholders to use to help promote the events
undertook a review of all digital assets and provided a recommendations report
developed a marketing plan and content plan
Tilma Group also developed an event concept for a new off-peak wellness event aligned with the destination’s strengths and consumer trends. The concept was developed to pitch to a committee of local businesses to run as a collaborative commercial opportunity, or to pitch to an external event promotor.
An exciting addition to the project was a collaboration with University of Technology, Sydney’s Master of Event Management program where students undertook an assessment where they also developed a new off-peak event’s concept and plan for a new event.
Outcomes
All the work put into these events is already starting to pay off.
San Remo Fishing Festival was transformed into the destination event TIDAL Seafood Festival, San Remo with the support more volunteers who join the committee inspired by the event’s strong structure and direction (vision)
Island Whales’ next festival was the biggest and best ever, attracting almost 10,000 attendees, almost all of the activities were booked out, and new elements, including the Southern Ocean Environment VR Experience and plastics recycling workshop, were all full.
Phillip Island Festival of Stories will leverage the impressive new Cowes Cultural Centre to deliver their first event after the mentoring in 2024
We presented to Council on the opportunity of supporting these events and expected economic outcomes from them, and Council is considering our pitch for funding to hire an event organiser to support the implementation of the strategic plans.
The events all applied for grant funding, leveraging their strategic plans to secure significant support.
“We couldn’t have done it without all of your hard work! So another huge thank you!”
Referee
Kim Storey
General Manager
Destination Phillip Island
0409 250 895
dpi@visitphillipisland.com.au
www.destinationphillipisland.org.au
www.visitphillipisland.com.au
Mentoring on Creating Transformational Experiences
Tourism & Events Queensland
Tourism & Events Queensland
The state tourism organisation, Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ) recently re-branded Queensland with a new ‘Travel for Good’ brand.
Travellers are actively seeking experiences that enrich, awaken and transform them. They want to ignite something new within themselves by consciously connecting with and appreciating our extraordinary planet, its people and cultures.
TEQ developed The Ultimate Transformational Experience Guide which focuses on seven steps to creating better value for guests and businesses. The aim is to enable operators to transform their experience offering and business to meet and exceed the needs of the travellers, helping to put Queensland’s operators at the forefront of a global travel movement and increase their bookings and revenue.
The guide provides operators and event organisers with insights and knowledge about
what Queensland’s new brand means in practice
the changing needs and expectations of travellers
the Five Stages of Travel that guests go through
how to design and deliver exceptional transformational experiences through each of the stages
how to deepen engagement with guests
ways to differentiate an experience through innovation and enhancing the competitive advantage.
Project purpose
TEQ ran an PILOT Experience Design Program to help businesses implement the learnings in The Ultimate Transformational Experience Guide, understanding that the most effective results are realised through one-on-one mentoring.
Project overview
The program involves up to ten hours mentoring and about twenty hours additional commitment over a two-month period to complete the Experience Design program:
Preparation work such as a basic review of operator’s website and social media and Best of Queensland Experiences Program Report provided by TEQ using a standardised template provided
An initial face-to-face meeting to discuss the details of the guide, review the mentee’s self-assessment results, and identify key areas of focus
One or two follow up video conference meetings to review progress, and identification of three to five actions to enhance the mentee’s visitor experience/s
A brief report to TEQ on the outcomes of the mentoring using a standardised template provided.
Project outcomes
Tilma Group has been impressed with the level of commitment of program participants, and their willingness to evolve, and plan for a strong future.
We are offering pragmatic support around how participants can align with Queensland’s Travel for Good principles.
We are taking a deep dive into the travel journeys of their visitors and identifying what they can do at each stage to enhance or add things that will bring the brand principles to the forefront.
The biggest gap has been in sharing – the participants had not recognised the importance of sharing when they do something good for the community, the environment or humanity.
“I wanted to congratulate you – well done – absolutely nailed the brief on TEQ’s Experience Design Mentoring Program! Keep up the great work!”
Referee
Alex Perpich
Events and Experiences Specialist
Tourism and Events Queensland
GPO Box 328, Brisbane QLD 4001
07 3535 5612
Alex.Perpich@queensland.com
www.teq.queensland.com
Tourism Development Grant
Narooma Mountain Bike Club
Narooma Mountain Bike Club
Narooma is on the far south coast of NSW near the Victorian border between Bateman’s Bay and Eden, 220km southeast of Canberra, and 350km south of Sydney.
Local mountain biking enthusiasts together hand built 30km of trails over 4 years, then sought grant writing support from Tilma Group to secure funding to add another 50km of trails and a trailhead to develop a world-class trail network and mountain biking hub.
Project purpose
The Narooma Mountain Biking Hub would form the central hub of a South Coast regional network of mountain biking (MTB) trails from Bateman’s Bay south to Tathra and Eden and inland in Cooma - the biggest MTB region in Australia - lifting the region’s appeal for multi-day, interstate, international and year-round visitation by high-value visitors.
This would smooth highly seasonal visitation, create jobs, future-proof the local economy against shocks, and support the Black Summer bushfire-affected community’s physical and mental health with recreation, access to nature, and social bonding.
Narooma Mountain Bike Club applied for funding to build the trails from the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund.
“Tilma Group did a great job getting across the detail of our project for the BLERF application and helped us produce a very professional application, which benefited greatly from their expertise in grant writing.”
Project overview
The Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund would cover 100% of the costs of projects that would support a bushfire-impacted community's economic or social recovery.
This project relied completely on the club’s faith in themselves and their potential trail, as their council, Eurobodalla Shire Council, was applying for funding for a competing MTB trail in Bateman’s Bay (Mogo) that had been identified in several of Council’s strategic plans. Additionally, Eden’s mountain biking club in the neighbouring shire to the south, was also applying for funding to build MTB trails!
The club’s project steering group was adamant that their trail would be the best of all of them in terms of the quality of the trails due to the natural assets of their region, and dispersal of tourists away from the over-tourism mecca of Bateman’s Bay.
Project outcomes
Just 30% of applications to the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund were successful - the grant was significantly oversubscribed, with over 650 applications submitted, and only 195 successful projects.
Narooma Mountain Bike Club secured $3.9 million, twice the average amount for the round. Mogo and Eden trails were also successful in securing funding, quite likely because the president of the Narooma Mountain Bike Club visited the region’s state MP and shared the club’s vision of developing Australia’s biggest mountain biking destination for increased visitation appeal.
In its first year of operations, the Narooma mountain biking hub is predicted to attract 18,200 visitors and $8.1 million in visitor expenditure and create 47 local jobs.
Together with other mountain biking destinations on the South Coast, the Narooma trails will create a large, regional mountain biking circuit that will attract interstate and international visitors - the densest collection of mountain biking trails anywhere in Australia, creating a truly world-class and globally attractive mountain biking destination.
Factors which likely contributed to the success of the grant application include
The club pitched a bigger idea to their State MP (and let him claim the idea as his own).
The club was ready for the grant opportunity: they had received a previous grant that enabled them to have a business case developed by an economist and trail design developed by a top trail designer which were submitted along with their application.
The club showed a very high level of community support by requesting numerous letters of support from a variety of community members, businesses, government representatives and departments (such as the Destination Network), the landowner, the Iocal Aboriginal Land Council, nearby MTB clubs, cycling organisations, users including youth, community groups, and business chambers. They got the story published by the media, and shared clippings with the grant application. They ran a community survey, shared trail usage stats, showed how many volunteers had been engaged in building and maintaining the existing trails, and shared the donations they had received, and even their merchandise sales!
The application clearly showed the project’s public benefit, and how it aligned with numerous local and state government strategic plans, and used quotes from government strategic plans to show the community’s need for such a project.
Referee
Georgie Staley
President
Narooma Mountain Bike Club
PO Box 127
Narooma NSW 2546
0409 224 766
info@mountainbikenarooma.com.au
www.mountainbikenarooma.com.au
Tourism Award Submission
Spirits of the Red Sand
Gold at the Australian Tourism Awards
Spirits of the Red Sand
Spirits of the Red Sand delivers emotionally-powerful Aboriginal storytelling experiences by bringing history to life in a re-enactment of a true story 'roving theatre'-style across a variety of settings within an historical village, combining history and Aboriginal culture in world-first truth-telling experience.
By day, education and corporate groups are welcomed for interactive cultural education programs with hands-on participation in cultural activities, ancient ceremonies, cultural awareness workshops, and team-building incentives
Project purpose
As tourism award submission reviewers for Queensland Tourism Industry Council in 2019, we were so impressed when we read about Spirit’s heartfelt mission in their submission. Though their passion shone through, we could see gaps in how their submission was written that we knew we could help improve. That year Linda took her family to experience Spirits and was completely blown away by the best tourism experience she’d ever had! We had to help!
Project overview
We convinced Spirits to let us try and help win the recognition their innovative experience deserved by offering a significantly reduced rate for our help.
Using the foundation of Spirits 2019 submission, we dug deep into their business planning, achievements, innovations, motivational drives, and their story to draw out a submission that would tick all the judge’s boxes.
Project outcomes
Watching the awards ceremony livestream from home we leapt with celebration when Spirits won the 2021 Queensland Tourism Award for Aboriginal Tourism ...and then won Gold at the Australian Tourism Awards in early 2022! Such an exciting moment for such deserving innovators!
Now Spirits of the Red Sand’s goal is to be recognised as Australia’s best tourism experience...
““We owe such a huge amount of thanks to you - Kushla for writing the Red Sands story so eloquently and with such passion, it is a true talent! - and Linda for offering your services at a discounted rate. You wonderful ladies have helped Spirits more than you could know.” ”
Referee
Kerryn Collins
Head of Marketing & Business Management
Spirits of the Red Sand
0424 001 477
kerryn@greataustralianexperiences.com
www.spiritsredsand.com