Sector: Wildlife Tourism
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
Feasibility Study for new accommodation and interpretive experience
We developed three new accommodation experiences to increase the competitiveness and profitability of the Western Plains Zoo. Our product development and feasibility work triggered: a $2M investment to add more glamping tents in front of the savannah area and move the famous Roar and Snore tented accommodation to a larger site; and a $4M investment … Read more
Iconic Tourism Product Development Strategy, addressing cultural tourism, eco-tourism and faith/religious tourism
Trade Mark East Africa, Uganda Tourism Board and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities asked us to develop four iconic tourism products for Uganda. The aim of this project was to create some more ‘Wow factor’ for Uganda, by creating several more iconic products for the country. We were asked to develop iconic products for … 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
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
Sustainable Tourism Monitoring and Adaptive Management Model for Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, Mozambique
The Bazaruto Archipelago National Park (BANP) was created to protect dugong and marine turtles, and their habitats. The islands’ flora and fauna, coral reefs and marine birds were also included in the Park. The archipelago has about 5,000 residents in seven communities. Resources may not be sufficient to maintain the population, leading to decreased catches … 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-Maria Mäkelä
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) 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
Carolina Gonzales
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
Charlotte Beauvoisin
Charlotte brings over 20 years marketing experience and almost 15 years’ experience living and working in Uganda. She is a professionally qualified marketing manager, tourism consultant, digital marketing trainer, guidebook writer, travel blogger and social media influencer. Charlotte is the author of Diary of a Muzungu, Uganda’s best-known travel blog that she launched in 2008 … Read more
Emma Doyle
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
Jim Ayorekire
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
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
Julie Hawkins
Julie has 33 years’ experience as a graphic designer and Julie has worked with SMA Tourism for 30 years. She specialises in design for publications, interpretation signs, interpretation displays and exhibitions for visitor centres and museums. Her projects range from visitor orientation signage at Uluru in the Northern Territory, guides supporting the Convict Trail around … Read more
Marcello Notarianni
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
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
Mauricio Rincón Falla
Mauricio joined SMA Tourism in 2018 to develop nature tourism in Colombia and is based in Colombia. He is a specialist in marketing management, focusing on projects that improve community and SME access to sustainable economic opportunities, especially in the tourism sector. He is skilled in situation analysis, and medium and long-term planning, has extensive … Read more
Melanie Grevis-James
Melanie is a marketing consultant and owner of Planet Marketing. She provides strategic marketing solutions and advice for SME businesses and the tourism industry. Melanie helps Australian businesses and tourism destinations develop effective and practical marketing plans, building their brand awareness, and to increase leads and sales. She combines traditional marketing (which is still very … Read more
Nahar Muhammed
Nahar has over 13 years of experience in tourism planning and sustainable tourism development. His key skills are in sustainable tourism planning, sustainable tourism development and ecotourism development and operations. Nahar has significant recent experience with India’s tourism policy and planning environment. He has developed tourism policies, strategies and action plans for tourism projects across … Read more
Simon McArthur
Simon has managed SMA Tourism since its inception in 2013. He has 35 years international experience working in tourism for government, the private sector and not for profit organisations. He has extensive post graduate qualifications in business, marketing, tourism and hotel management, and has published many books in these fields. His qualifications, diverse experience and … Read more