Tourism Activation Plan
Clifton Chamber of Commerce
Clifton, QLD
Clifton is a rural village in the broad-acre cropping lands between two regional centres an hour apart in south east Queensland: Toowoomba (population 105,000) and Warwick (12,000) which are
Clifton’s attractions include a new museum, regular steam train visits, and an Irish pub that holds quirky events. In summer, sunflowers attract vast numbers of visitors. Nearby to Clifton are Darling Downs Zoo, two National Parks, and the highly-attended Leyburn Sprints car race, as well as other villages with interesting connections such as to Steele Rudd of Dad and Dave fame, and the author of Mary Poppins.
Project purpose
On behalf of Clifton and District Chamber of Commerce, Tilma Group and Toowoomba Regional Council collaborated to secure $20,000 from a federal grant to develop a tourism development plan, a marketing plan and a development plan for a new event.
Their purpose was to increase benefits received from visitors. The plans identified priority activities to undertake to increase Clifton’s vibrancy through increased visitation, and to increase economic benefits for businesses.
The objective of the project was to excite the community to work on a shared vision and build vibrancy by leveraging and activating existing assets and developing new opportunities.
Project overview
Review and consultation
The tourism development plan built on other work undertaken by Tilma Group for the Chamber, including the development of a tourism audit, a community consultation workshop, and mentoring three community groups to further their projects.
Consultation consisted of face to face and phone meetings with a broad variety of stakeholders to discuss challenges and opportunities, including Clifton’s community groups, business owners and tourism operators, a pop-up consultation day at the local café, and meetings with tourism staff of two Councils, the regional and state tourism organisations, and Queensland Museums.
Tilma Group distilled the findings to develop an easily implementable plan which identified three priority projects to realise over three years:
Build the capacity of businesses and community groups to offer a quality experience to visitors.
Activate existing assets and develop new tourism experiences.
Increase awareness of the region through marketing.
A new collaborative tourism collective was recommended to drive the plan’s activation, and improve efficiencies amongst the community’s already-active community groups.
The tourism development plan also looked beyond Clifton to recommend a new destination brand for the rural region between Toowoomba and Warwick, to position it as a sunflower destination for year-round visitation and to activate this positioning with a region-wide summer sunflower festival. Sunflowers are by far the most popular request at Toowoomba and Warwick’s visitor information centres – a hook that draws people to the region from across south east Queensland.
New event
Based on an assessment of the kinds of events that the Clifton community already do well, Tilma Group developed a comprehensive plan for a new ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’-themed event.
Marketing plan
The content-focused marketing plan identified multiple tactics that can be implemented with little to no budget such as
Ensuring all of Clifton’s attractions and events are listed on the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse and TripAdvisor.
Quarterly seasonal newsletters promoting events and things to do appropriate to the season.
Activating Clifton’s public toilets with destination information on the backs of toilet doors such as pub menus and upcoming events (to leverage tea and wee stops and playground stops).
Direct marketing to car and motorbike clubs.
Tactics to leverage events.
Outcomes
The plans were used to
Secure another $20,000 federal grant to enable Clifton to realise their new event by hiring an event organiser/marketer. The event organiser’s role was to coordinate the community groups and businesses who will each run parts of the event.
Secure funding from Council for three projects: a three-month destination marketing campaign, a business development program to teach business owners how to improve their visitor experience, and a placemaking project to beautify the Main Street to encourage visitors to stop. Consultants were hired to implement these projects.
Secure funding by a community group for a mural about the region's mega fauna fossils to add vibrancy to the main street.
Referee
Amanda Beatson
President
Clifton and District Chamber of Commerce
PO Box 44
Clifton QLD 4361
0437 641 277
info@cliftonchamber.org.au
www.cliftonchamber.org.au
Tourism Development Grant
Yarriba Dreaming
Warrijum Spiritual Journey Tour Experiences
Uncle John Long, an elder of the Ugarapul people of the Scenic Rim region in southeast Queensland, and one of the last of his people to have lived in the traditional way, wanted to share his culture via a tour and wellness experience of places that helped tell the story of the warrijum (bunyip), such as a bora ring (spiritual portal) and a birthing place, and with wellness activities such as the use of healing stones, sitting rocks (Indigenous meditation), and spiritual connection to the land.
Project purpose
Uncle John wanted to share his first-hand knowledge and experience of his Indigenous culture with Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike to ensure it would not be lost.
Tilma Group helped Uncle John apply for funding from the Indigenous Tourism Fund to get his tour and cultural activities business launched, and progress his wish to share his culture into reality.
Project overview
The grant application sought funding to support business planning and launch, including
market analysis and product development detailing by a consultant with extensive experience with regional tour businesses
tour guide training
development of marketing assets.
These inputs would help Uncle John develop a commercially viable business (detailed business planning), and provide exceptional visitor experiences (tour guide training).
Project outcomes
Tilma Group was successful at securing the requested amount of $28,000 in unmatched funding for the project. Unfortunately, while the grant application was being assessed, Uncle John passed away, a terrible loss of a beautiful soul. Prior to his passing, Uncle John passed the reins to his grandson Kruze, who had worked alongside Uncle John for years in delivering cultural experiences. The funding body was willing to provide the funding for Kruze to begin the business.
With the funding, Kruze was able to hire Savannah Guides, Australia’s leading tour guide professional development provider. The product development expertise provided by Savannah Guides will set up the tour business in the way that is the most likely to be financially viable into the long term, based on market demand analysis and identification of direct-marketing partnerships (e.g. tapping into existing groups of travellers, such as business event venue partnerships).
Kruze joined Indigenous tourism businesses from across the state at Tourism & Events Queensland's Emerging Indigenous Experiences Field School which provided targeted training to help to elevate their offerings and make sure customers are left with unforgettable memories.
Mt Barney Lodge are now partnering with the new tour business, now called Yarriba Dreaming. Yarriba means walking together.
Referee
Dr Neil Hockey
Kula Services
0427 576 480
neil@kula.org.au
Tourism Activation Plan + Strategic Mentoring
Bulloo Shire Council
Bulloo, QLD
Bulloo in far south west Queensland is one of Queensland’s biggest Shires geographically but with a population of just 350. Tourism plays an important role in the region’s economy; around 35,000 travellers visit the Burke and Wills Dig Tree annually in this remote corner of the Outback.
Council’s tourism team has some recent big wins on the board, including decreasing the percentage of visitors to the visitor information centre who passed through without staying overnight from 60% to just 6% within two years. However, the majority of visitation to the Shire is concentrated between Easter and October.
Project purpose
Council wanted to increase the economic benefits the Shire received from tourists to support local businesses and the local community.
“Linda and her team painstakingly poked, prodded, interviewed and researched every corner of our region, leaving no stone unturned. Their efforts were rewarded with the epiphany of the ‘Explorers’ brand for our shire. They stripped down all the information presented to them and recognised a common denominator between our visitors and the famous Burke and Wills story.
This brand then became the focal point behind an insightful, detailed and honest approach to a practical and achievable tourism activation plan.
The plan includes a fresh approach to the development and marketing of existing assets, plus based on research conducted by visitor information centre staff, new asset development.
Linda has managed to problem solve long standing issues in staff structure, workloads and has broken down barriers of perceived risk by submitting valued research and case studies to Council on new product development.
Tourism is now a priority for Council with strong administrative structure and financial support. The path to achieve our goals of an increase in economic benefits to the Shire, to support local businesses and the local community is laid out clearly in the tourism activation plan and each step can be measured for success.”
Project overview
Tilma developed a tourism activation plan which identified critical projects to achieve the Shire’s tourism goals. This was supported by strategic mentoring and activation support for 12 months, to ensure that the Council team had the support and capability to see results and outcomes.
Tilma Group undertook desktop research and phone consultations to gain a comprehensive view of the current tourism situation in the Bulloo Shire. From this, a discussion paper was developed which outlined visitor types and opportunity markets, a summary of the existing product and experience offering, a review of the region’s brand and marketing with a focus on how visitors perceive Bulloo, an assessment, of its digital assets, tourism trends and opportunities suitable for Bulloo Shire, and discussion points for Council. The discussion paper provided insights and context to the current situation and the high level opportunities for further analysis and consideration by Council.
Tilma Group visited the region to facilitate a tourism workshop with the Councillors and tourism staff to discuss the gaps and opportunities in the paper. Additionally, site visits provided insight into the existing tourism offering.
From the feedback a Tourism Activation Plan was developed, which included
The destination’s story and unique selling points
Critical opportunities to develop
An activation roadmap to support implementation
Twelve months of mentoring is supporting the implementation of the activation plan.
To date, the mentoring has included assistance in restructuring Council’s tourism department to enhance efficiencies for better outcomes, and in setting the annual tourism budget. Tilma is working with industry on projects and sourcing funding for a revitalisation of the visitor information centre into an anchor tourism product that reflects the region’s DNA and brand identity.
Project outcomes
This project has reinvigorated the Council, community and industry in realising their potential with tourism. Council immediately embarked on a restructure of the team, highlighting a strong commitment to growth and development. Funding applications are currently in for two major product development projects and funding has been secured to further develop their annual flagship festival. This is one small but powerful Council - watch this space!
Referee
Lew Rojahn
Chief Executive Officer, Bulloo Shire Council
PO Box 46
Thargomindah QLD 4492
07 4621 8000
lewR@bulloo.qld.gov.au
www.bulloo.qld.gov.au
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