Business Plan for Monkey Mia Reserve, Shark Bay World Heritage Area

Monkey Mia, within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area, Western Australia, is an ecotourism attraction where each morning a pod of dolphins swim into shore, to mix with wading visitors and gently take fish on offer. This project undertook visitor research identify unmet needs and experiential gaps in the attraction. We also identified target markets … Read more

Destination Management Plan for Albury

The planning process for this Destination Management Plan integrated both demand (the visitor or consumer needs) and supply (the product or experience). While the geographic area that this Plan focuses on is the Local Government Area of Albury, it also proposed a number of cooperative initiatives with the City of Wodonga, given its close proximity … Read more

Destination Management Plan for Moorabool Shire

Despite being just an hour’s drive west of Melbourne, Moorabool had low market awareness and was an immature destination. We conducted a brand compatibility match to the events, to determine which ones were helping build brand strength, and an event calendar that contrasted industry demand for stimulus with the supply of events, and colour coded … Read more

Destination Management Plan for Riverina Murray region, NSW

The Riverina Murray visitor economy region in NSW encompasses 149,000 square kilometres, the third longest navigable river in the world, 16 National Parks, two RAMSAR listed wetlands, one World Heritage Listed area 22 local government areas and is home to over 275,000 people. The purpose of preparing this DMP was to ensure the visitor economy … Read more

Destination Management Plan for Wellington Shire, NSW

We prepared a Destination Management Plan for the Wellington Shire, NSW. This included: An analysis of the regional visitor market. An analysis of the regional tourism product. An analysis of regional events. An analysis of regional tourism brand and marketing. The brand analysis involved a competitor analysis that included Parkes, Dubbo, Mudgee and Wellington, then … Read more

Ecotourism and cultural tourism product audit for Uganda

As part of a situation analysis, we undertook an audit of destinations, ecotourism and cultural tourism products across Uganda. Our product audit involved: A detailed description of the existing experience Justification notes supporting the scores from the course assessment Issues associated with holding back the success of the product Outline of opportunities to significantly improve … Read more

Feasibility assessment for visitor centre

Over many years, there have been many operational issues and constraints with the Tidbinbilla Visitor Centre in the Australian Capital Territory. Some of the issues include poor accessibility, poor building performance and outdated interpretation. The first aim of this project was to prepare an over-arching functional review of the Tidbinbilla Visitor Centre, integrating the findings … Read more

Iconic Product Development Strategy for Shipwreck Coast

The Shipwreck Coast, located three hours drove from Melbourne, is one of Australia’s coastal tourism icons. It is one of the top visited destinations in Australia, receiving 2M visitors per annum; mostly from China and Asia. However, key sites like the 12 Apostles have outdated visitor infrastructure and are becoming over crowded. There is also … Read more

Investment Plan to develop Nature Tourism in Colombia

We concepted the following WOW factor products to drive nature tourism in Nariño, Colombia: Adventure Tourism Hub that includes an integrated glamping operation in the Juanambú Canyon Glamping in the tree canopy for birdwatchers and their families in the misty forests of the Ñambi Reserve Experiences in coastal and wetland ecosystems accompanied by high-level accommodations, … Read more

Investment Strategy and Prospectus for Albury Wodonga

The Destination Management Plan for Albury Wodonga proposed many product development initiatives that require funding to proceed. Some of these initiatives are naturally positioned for the public sector to fund, some for the private sector, and a small number could be funded as partnerships. This project has been conceived by AlburyCity and the City of … Read more

Master Plan for Western MacDonnell Ranges and Hermannsburg, Northern Territory

Working with the Tourism Northern Territory, Tourism Central Australia, Northern Territory Heritage Commission, Office of Aboriginal Affairs and Central Land Council, we: undertook extensive consultation with local Aboriginal people; conducted product audits and determined product gaps; developed draft product development strategies and concepts for major product proposals; developed a Masterplan for the region; priced the … Read more

Nature Tourism Strategy for Canberra Region

We developed a nature tourism strategy for the Canberra region. The process to developing this strategy included: analysis of market data (qualitative and quantitative) to determine growth segment opportunities for product development / reinvigoration and marketing stimulus; stakeholder consultation, including an online survey testing the potential to stimulate the VFR sector; an extensive product audit … Read more

Nature Tourism Strategy for Narino, Colombia

In Nariño, nature tourism offers enormous potential to create employment and help achieve national development goals for poverty alleviation, economic growth and the conservation of the department’s unique natural and cultural resources wealth. The Nariño nature tourism offer is relatively passive (based on looking rather than doing) and there is a lack of experiences. However, … Read more

Pre-Feasibility Assessment for multi day Sea to Summit Walk, Gippsland, Victoria

Over many years, significant effort by various stakeholders has been undertaken to develop a high-level concept for a long-distance walking trail in far Victoria’s east Gippsland reaching from coastline to Mount Ellery, colloquially known as Sea to Summit. This concept was for a 10–12-day walk with campsites along the route. A demand analysis identified that … Read more

Product Development Strategy and Master Plan for Wonga Wetlands

The Wonga Wetlands were established to manage local waste water, but the regular water supply has created a nature-based tourism attraction featuring diverse birdlife. The client wanted the attraction to be reinvigorated to have the potential to attract significant overnight visitors to Albury (and a subsequent economic benefit). We conducted an extensive analysis of the … Read more

Product Development Strategy for dive, ecotourism, cultural tourism and adventure tourism

As a tourism destination, the Solomon Islands only receives a small number of visitors and has them spread out over a vast archipelago. Australian tourism consultants were appointed to develop a Tourism Product Development Strategy. The team consisted of a tourism product development specialist, marketing specialist, infrastructure specialist, consultation specialist and a quantity surveyor. An … Read more

Recovery Plan for Nature-based tourism in Colombia

USAid engaged Colombian based CREATA and SMA Tourism to assess the feasibility of major investment in nature based tourism in former conflict regions of Colombia. To achieve this we undertook: an analysis of the tourism and nature tourism market pre and during the COVID-19 pandemic; separate primary market research into international and domestic markets, and … Read more

Review of Digital Marketing of Vanuatu, Samoa, New Caledonia and Solomon Islands

Supporting a marketing review for the Solomon Islands, we reviewed the digital marketing being done by Vanuatu, Samoa and New Caledonia. We undertook a comparative analysis of: a Google image search against the images used by each countries destination website;an analysis of the representation of the destination website images against the destination brand essence and … Read more

Strategic Plan for the Hume and Hovell Track, NSW

The Hume and Hovell Track (the Track), which stretches 426km between Yass and Albury in New South Wales, Australia. SMA Tourism prepared a Strategic Plan to address the ‘big picture’ of what the Track should be and what is needed to achieve this. This Strategic Plan proposed to transform the Hume and Hovell Track: The … Read more

Strategies to mitigate climate change for tourism, Maldives

Simon facilitated a one-day workshop with 50 Maldives tourism stakeholders. He first provided a presentation on the likely impact of climate change on tourism in the Maldives, and potential solutions to mitigate against the impacts. Simon then facilitated smaller groups to further develop the solutions so that they reflected the local situation, including available resources … Read more

Sustainable Tourism Model for Shoalhaven Region

Organisations have plans to manage what they want to do. However, a plan is written in one moment of time. The more time passes, the more chance that a plan can become out of date. Models are designed not to go out of date. A model is like a living, constantly adapting plan. We are … Read more

Tourism Development Plan for Townsville Region

SMA Tourism produced a Tourism Development Plan for Townsville City and the Townsville region. The region incorporates Burdekin to the south, Charters Towers to the west, Magnetic Island to the east and Hinchinbrook to the north. Our work included: review of current target markets versus current visitor data; review of current brand versus current marketing; … Read more

Tourism Optimisation Management Model for Kangaroo Island

This ground breaking project extended the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) model to a more tourism friendly monitoring and adaptive management system called TOMM (Tourism Optimisation Management Model). TOMM operates at a regional level – across Kangaroo Island in South Australia, best known for its seal interaction. We developed the model through extensive consultation, then … Read more

Anne Teddy Awori

Anne Teddy Awori hedashot

Anne joined SMA Tourism in 2015 to undertake iconic tourism product development and is based in Uganda. She has a solid understanding of Uganda’s tourism industry and sound knowledge and familiarity of Uganda’s existing and potential tourism attractions and activities. She has a vast network of Ugandan tourism stakeholders, solid skills in public, private sector … Read more

Anne-Maria Mäkelä

Anne-Maria Mäkelä headshot

Anne-Maria joined SMA Tourism in 2015 to undertake iconic tourism product development in Uganda and is based in Finland. She has 20 year’s’experience working across the World in sustainable tourism, marketing and product development. She has become highly accomplished in tourism stakeholder consultation in developing countries, across public, private sector and non-governmental sectors. Anne-Maria’s focus … Read more

Annoncita Batamuriza

Annoncita (Anny) Batamuriza headshot

Annoncita (Anny) joined SMA Tourism in 2020 to develop religious tourism in Rwanda and is based in Rwanda. She has 22 years’ experience in tourism development and tourism marketing in Rwanda. Her tourism career evolved from managerial positions in international hotels, to that of a part time consultant for hotels and government and full-time manager … Read more

Beatriz Martin

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Beatriz joined SMA Tourism as an Associate in 2020 and is based in Columbia. She has 15 years’ of experience in environmental and sustainable tourism projects for public institutions, cooperation agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector. Beatriz is an expert in tourism planning and in the development and implementation of applied methodologies for … Read more

Carolina Gonzales

Carolina Gonzales headshot

Carolina joined SMA Tourism in 2019 to develop a nature tourism plan and investment plan for Narino, Colombia, and is based in Colombia. She has solid experience in the design and implementation of policies, plans and the development of projects to promote sustainable tourism in protected areas generating benefits for local communities simultaneously utilising personal … Read more

Daysy Angeles

Daysy Angeles headshot

Daysy started working with SMA Tourism as an Associate in 2019, including the development of a Nature Tourism Strategy and investment prospectus for the Colombian region of Narino. Daysy has 15 years of experience as a tourism manager, designing, planning and managing tourism projects. She has led project teams at a National level in Peru … Read more

Emma Doyle

Emma Doyle headshot

Emma joined SMA Tourism in 2013 to develop a Sustainable Tourism Model for the Bahamas, and is based in Brisbane, Australia. Emma is an environmental management professional with 17 years’ experience working in Latin America and the Caribbean. Her experience covers some 70 international cooperation projects and stretches across a range of themes related to … Read more

Glenn Berrill

Glenn Berrill headshot

Glenn joined SMA Tourism in 1999 to prepare a Heritage Landscape Management Plan that supported the redevelopment of the former North Head Quarantine Station into a boutique cultural tourism attraction, and he is based in Melbourne, Australia. Glenn has worked with SMA Tourism on Site Master Plans and Product Development Strategies in various parts of Australia. … Read more

Jane McArthur

Jane McArthur headshot

Jane joined SMA Tourism in 2015 as the food, wine, hospitality, health and wellness tourism expert, and is based in Newcastle, Australia. Jane has 20 years’ experience in tourism and hospitality business development, operations and marketing – developed through operating her own café, catering and food production business. She blends lateral thinking, creative concepts and … Read more

Jim Ayorekire

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Jim started working with SMA Tourism as an Associate in 2016, supporting the development of an Iconic Tourism Product Development Project for Uganda. Jim has 20 years’ experience as an academic researcher, consultant and educator in the areas of destination planning and management, tourism product mapping, wildlife-based tourism assessment, wildlife community-based tourism management, protected area … Read more

Julián Huerfano

Julian Huerfano headshot

Julián joined SMA Tourism in 2018 to develop nature tourism and an investment plan in Colombia, and then a Nature Tourism Recovery Plan for Colombia, and is based in Colombia. He has 15 years’ experience in administration, finance, social investment and project management relating to sustainability and tourism. During the last 10 years, he has … Read more

Karl Flowers

Karl Flowers headshot

Karl joined SMA Tourism in 2014 to lead tourism market analysis, economic impact assessment and policy design, and he is based in Melbourne, Australia. Karl has 25 years’ experience as a tourism industry specialist working as a Tourism & Aviation Economist and acting Director Strategy and Research for Tourism Australia, General Manager Policy and Research … Read more

Lintang Ayu Nugrahaning Tyas

Lintang Ayu headshot

Lintang joined SMA Tourism as an Associate in 2020, and is based in Indonesia. She has 15 years’ experience in tourism and related disciplines. Her focus is on tourism planning and sustainable tourism development in rural and conservation areas. She is also experienced in working in remote areas with different cultures, and has significant experience … Read more

Marcello Notarianni

Marcello Notarianni headshot

Marcello joined SMA Tourism in 2016 to play frequent roles in international projects and is based in Spain. He has over 22 years of experience in sustainable tourism development, including market analysis, special interest tourism product development and feasibility studies. Within SMA Tourism, Marcello focuses on sustainable tourism policy, product development, marketing strategies and self-financing … Read more

Marina Novelli

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Marina joined SMA Tourism in 2020 and is based in the United Kingdom. She is an internationally renowned tourism and international development expert and Professor of Tourism and International Development at the University of Brighton (UK), and an Affiliate Member of the UN World Tourism Organisation. Marina has written and advised extensively in the field … Read more