Regional Tourism + Event Insights
REcent Articles
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?
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.
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).
Last year we worked with Destination Phillip Island to grow three events to increase visitation during the quiet winter season.
In this article, one of the event's coordinators and the destination manager reflection on the value of the intensive development process.
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
We’ve been mentoring a lot of agritourism operators over the last year.
Here we share examples of how our mentoring supported their business’ growth.
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
Tilma Group’s Director, Linda Tillman, attended Queensland’s tourism industry forum and shares her key takeaways.
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.
Agriculture and tourism are Australia’s third and sixth largest export industries. Together, they provide a unique opportunity for growth, explored in Australian Regional Tourism’s Agritourism Convention. Here we share our key takeaways.
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
After the turbulence of the past few years now is a better time than any for tourism and event operators to tap into the expertise of a mentor.
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.
It’s the perfect time to consider how to develop and grow exceptional Indigenous tourism businesses with Australia’s national tourism strategy, THRIVE 2030, prioritising the respectful embedding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures into the visitor economy through initial partnerships and ongoing inclusion, and the opportunity of growing unique and high-quality products, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiences.
We are seeing a shift in consumer demand for sustainable travel. Travellers want to support destinations, events and tourism businesses that are being responsible and doing good for their community and the environment.
Insider grant writing tips from tourism grant writers, and from the agencies that provide grants
In this new era of travel, people are actively seeking experiences that enrich, awaken and transform them, and, eventually, the world.
They want to ignite something new within themselves by consciously connecting with and appreciating our extraordinary planet, its people and cultures.
Learn how to deepen engagement with your guests…
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?
In reviewing the award categories for 2021 we noticed an exciting opportunity: there is currently no award for destination management (or better, destination development).
Here’s why we think an award for destination development would be a great addition to the tourism awards…