Business Case for Luxury Lodges in Northern Territory

The Northern Territory Department of Trade, Business and Innovation (DTBI) sought an informed assessment of the market opportunity, commercial feasibility and expected economic benefits of expanding the luxury lodge offering in the Northern Territory. Working with GHD Advisory, we were appointed by the Northern Territory government to Prepare a Situation Analysis, featuring a full analysis … Read more

Business Case to develop ADAPT

We developed the concept of an interactive and immersive museum experience that happens inside a building, and outside in the landscape. The proposal would explore adaptation and tell the region’s key stories through a mix of experiences designed to maximise appeal to a range of potential visitor markets. The centrepiece will be a museum / … Read more

Business Case, prospectus and investor video for expanding five Indigenous tourism businesses in New England Northwest NSW

We proposed a new way to grow Aboriginal tourism. Top-down approaches to foster Aboriginal tourism have largely failed to lift Aboriginal tourism performance in Australia. Aboriginal tourism in NSW remains an infant industry trapped in a cycle of dedicated small-scale Aboriginal entrepreneurs struggling against long odds. Consequently, strong demand for Aboriginal tourism experiences by international … Read more

Business Cases for three art galleries and cultural centres in Northern Territory

The Northern Territory Government (NTG) committed $20M to upgrade / extend three Aboriginal art galleries: Godinymayin Yijard Arts and Culture Centre, in Katherine; Mimi Aboriginal Art and Craft, in Katherine; and The Nyinkka Nyunyi Arts and Culture Centre, Tennant Creek. Working with GHD Advisory, we were appointed by the Northern Territory government to prepare detailed … Read more

Feasibility Assessment and Development Plan for Coal Creek Attraction

Coal Creek is a heritage attraction three hours east of Melbourne, Australia. Our task was to determine how to get the business back to cost neutrality. Following extensive research and consultation, we concepted a range of cost saving measures and revenue generating experiences, including a son et lumiere to create profile, an interactive mobile platform … 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 Assessment for Warrnambool Art Gallery

The Warrnambool Art Gallery in Victoria was identified as having outgrown its building and consequently being unable to deliver its objectives to the standard of a typical regional gallery in Victoria. The project subsequently involved: identification of lead trends affecting galleries and museums; analysis of relevant local documents, targeted then wider stakeholder consultation, Functional Brief … Read more

Feasibility Study and Business Case for a Cultural Centre for the Kimberley

Following extensive market analysis, product benchmarking and consultation, SMA is currently developing concepts for a cultural centre, based in Broome, servicing the whole of the Kimberley region. The concepts are proposed to include Australia’s first multi-cultural, including Aboriginal interpretation, of Aboriginal AND non-Aboriginal culture. We market tested the options and price points, then prepared a … Read more

Feasibility Study and Business Case for a new art museum, Shepparton Victoria

The Shepparton Art Museum in Victoria (Australia) is significantly constrained by its location, small building and management by local government. SMA were engaged to develop and test the feasibility of options for a new SAM, which included alternative art museum experiences, alternative locations and alternative governance models. As part of the consultation, we developed an … Read more

Feasibility Study and Business Case for new Aboriginal Centre and tourism experiences

Shellharbour City Council asked us to prepare a feasibility study for a Coastal Aboriginal Interpretive Centre. The objectives of this project were to: Identify options for a Keeping Place, leading Aboriginal interpretation experiences, Interpretation Centre, and governance model to service them Choose the most superior option(s) for the core Aboriginal interpretation experience(s), location of a … Read more

Feasibility Study for Canopy Walk in Otway Ranges

The Otway Hinterland is a vast tract of cool temperate rainforest and very tall eucalypt forest. This Plan sought to divert some of the huge tourism activity on the adjacent Great Ocean Road into the Hinterland, to stimulate investment and employment. The project started with a site analysis to determine the best place for an … 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

Feasibility Study for New Crowne Plaza, Newcastle

As part of the redevelopment of Newcastle’s port, we worked helped develop a feasibility study and provided development advice for the Crowne Plaza. The feasibility included a market assessment and gap analysis for the business and leisure market, concepts for alternative room types and conference facilities, and total number of rooms and subsequent footprint versus … Read more

Feasibility Study for reuse of Former Wellington Gaol and Police Station (NSW)

The former Wellington Police Station and Gaol is owned and managed by Dubbo Regional Council. The small building is made up of six offices, several bathrooms, a roofed exercise yard and six cells. The building needs substantial conservation works to address decaying brickwork, rising damp and drainage, as well as fire and alarm detection systems … Read more

Feasibility Study to develop Religious Tourism in Rwanda

TradeMark East Africa and Rwanda Development Board engaged us to determine the feasibility of developing a new religious tourism sector. This is probably the largest coordinated set of initiatives to develop religious tourism in the World. Our Feasibility Study concepted, market tested, costed and forecast for visitation and economic benefits for seven proposals to develop … Read more

Feasibility, Business Case, Prospectus and Investor Video for Nanjet site near Wilsons Promontory, Vic

The Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (GLaWAC) purchased the Gunya Yanakie Nanjet Brataualung site near Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria (herewith referred to as Nanjet). We identified four problems were identified that justified a case for change: Our approach to developing this business case was based on four phases: Stakeholder engagement was a strong … 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

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

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

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

Daysy Angeles

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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

Jacinta Outlaw

Jacinta Outlaw headshot

Jacinta started working with SMA Tourism in 2013, preparing tourism plans and feasibility studies in various parts of Australia. She has 18 years’ industry experience in business development and marketing, and a Bachelor of Business with a double major in Marketing and Tourism. Jacinta has a deep understanding of visitor and consumer motivations. She has … 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

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

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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

Marcello Notarianni

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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

Maudie Palmer

Maudie Palmer headshot

Maudie joined SMA Tourism in 2017 to prepare a feasibility study and business case for a new art gallery in Shepparton, Victoria, and is based in Melbourne, Australia. Maudie has since operated as the SMA Tourism expert in similar gallery projects across Australia. Maudie is an expert in the field of Australian modern art and … Read more

Mauricio Rincón Falla

Mauricio Rincon Falla headshot

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

Max Player

Max Player headshot

Max joined SMA Tourism in 1997 to redevelop the former North Head Quarantine Station into a boutique cultural tourism attraction, and is based in Sydney, Australia. Max has over 40 years experience in the building industry, hospitality education and hotel business management. Working with construction companies such as K.B. Hutcherson and Condux, he developed project concepts, feasibility studies, … Read more

Nahar Muhammed

Nahar Muhammed headshot

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

Rafael Llopis

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Rafael joined SMA Tourism in 2020 and is based in China. Rafael has a solid understanding of business in China and insights on trends and behaviour of the Chinese consumer. Rafael has lived in Mainland China since 2003. In 2008 Rafael started the Chinese branch of Aragon Exterior, mainly providing market entry services for companies … Read more

Sarah Myers

Sarah is an experienced and results-focused strategic leader. She is known for helping businesses and communities to innovate and grow. Her strong commercial understanding, strategic thinking, global brand management experience and ability to harness consumer insights for growth means that she can help any client improve business performance. With over 20 years in the food, … Read more

Sharon Veale

Sharon Veale headshot

Sharon started working with SMA Tourism in 2014, with the development of an interpretation plan for a former gold mining town, now major heritage attraction, and then and a feasibility study for a new cultural museum, exhibition and archive centre for Ballarat, Victoria. Sharon brings a wealth of expertise and over 15 years’ experience in … Read more

Simon McArthur

Simon McArthur headshot

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

Suzanne Stanton

Suzanne Stanton headshot

Suzanne joined SMA Tourism in 1997 to redevelop the former North Head Quarantine Station into a boutique cultural tourism attraction, and is based in Sydney, Australia. Suzanne brings strong expertise in legal drafting and negotiation, documentation project management – particularly with respect to property management. Suzanne has in-depth knowledge of all aspects of property law including … Read more