TICT Quarterly - Winter 2021

QUARTERLY WINTER | 2021 | EDITION 6

TOURISM INDUSTRY COUNCIL TASMANIA

THE POWER OF COMMUNITY COLLABORATION

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SKILL BOOST: New strategies to rebuild tourism’s workforce

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MEETING OF MINDS: Why it’s important for women to connect, support and inspire

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LEADING BY EXAMPLE: One-on-one with industry leader Clint Walker

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CONTENTS: WELCOME: From the Editor

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IN FOCUS: Best in the business – Tassie’s top tourist towns

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POLICY WATCH: New strategies to build a strong tourism workforce 11 MEETING OF MINDS: Why it’s important for women to connect, support and inspire

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TOURISM PROFILE: One-on-one with Tourism Tasmania board nominee Clint Walker

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TALKING POINT: Protecting our renowned parks and world heritage areas 20 TOURISM FACES: Tasmanian Investment Luncheon 23

Cover page image: Highfield Historic Site, Lusy Productions

To advertise in the next TICT Quarterly or for editorial enquiries contact info@tict.com.au 1

WELCOME: FROM THE EDITOR

In this edition of TICT Quarterly we celebrate two towns that boast these locals in spades. They’re helping their community build strong reputations as desirable destinations - somewhere you want to visit and often decide to stay because of the people and the place.

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ne of the things I love most about Tasmania is the pride of place that resonates from so many of our community leaders.

They love their patch and their positive actions often ignite passion in the people around them, encouraging them to be better and do better.

It’s especially evident in smaller places, where a tangible difference is made when people start to believe in their town - believe that it has an important story to tell, that its identity should be celebrated and shared with the rest of the world.

Their actions inherently encourage greater engagement and drive investment - success starts breeding success.

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We find out what makes New Norfolk and Stanley so special that they won the title of top Tassie tourist towns.

It’s a welcome positive news story in a cycle that continues to be dominated by a certain pandemic.

We’ve ran out of adjectives to describe the challenges of COVID on the sector, with many small tourism businesses suffering from snap lockdowns, border closures and event cancellations.

TICT’s CEO Luke Martin explains in his Policy Watch column the practical new initiatives about to be rolled out in a bid to up-skill and boost staff numbers ahead of what many experts still believe will be a positive summer tourist season.

We hear from the lovely Jill Bannon, the President of Women in Hospitality and Tourism Tasmania, about the importance of connection, support and inspiration and how it can be found within the network she leads.

And we also get a dose of honesty from the TICT’s nominee to the Tourism Tasmania board – Clint Walker shares his story from university drop-out to what he wants to achieve as an industry leader.

As always, we welcome your feedback and ideas for our next edition.

Rachel Williams, Millwood Media, Editor

IN FOCUS: BEST IN THE BUSINESS – TASSIE’S TOP TOURIST TOWNS

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wo very different Tasmanian towns with one very similar story about the power of collaboration are celebrating a new-found popularity as a destination of choice.

New Norfolk and Stanley are in the running for national success after being named Tassie’s Top Tourism Town 2021 for populations over 5000 and under 5000 residents respectively.

Towns across the state were invited to submit an entry including a 2-minute video, a suggested itinerary and an editorial to showcase the unique experiences and features of the town and local region.

A panel of tourism professionals and 10,000 Tasmanian public votes decided the winners from 10 finalists.

Common themes of pride and passion, community and collaboration were contained in the winning entries, which will now be judged against winners from across the country.

The Doughboys, Cape Grim, Tourism Tasmania & Kraig Carlstrom

Kerry Houston, the owner of the much lauded Ship Inn Stanley, coordinated Stanley’s entry. It targeted urban dwellers in need of an escape to a remote, isolated and peaceful place, with warm hospitality from salt-of-theearth Tasmanians.

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Maydena Bike Park, Places We Go

WINTER | 2021 | ISSUE 6 Stanley Village, Lusy Productions

“The locals intrinsically know that you go to the Brown Dog for savoury toast if you are a little hungover and we refer to anything smaller than a sedan as a bus,” she laughs.

Kerry focussed on those mannerisms with a quirky and fun entry that also gave the locals a good reminder about offerings in their own backyard that they perhaps take for granted, she admits.

“Our entry was a hub and spoke approach with Stanley as the hub focussing on The Nut and the Highfield Historic House as well as our gorgeous galleries and cafes, the amazing seafood and Cape Grim Beef that’s right at our doorstep and the Stanley Hotel which just won THA awards for their great food and service. Then there were things like the fact the little

penguins come in every night and you can see them from the viewing platform, the beaches are beautiful for walking on and you can ride 5km on the hard sand at low tide.”

The submission also included places like Blue Hills Honey, Trowutta Arch, Arthur River, Rocky Cape and Wynyard further afield.

West by North West Chief Executive Officer, Tom Wootton, says the creative collaborative process enjoyed by groups when developing awards submissions was a major positive, regardless of result.

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Shingles Riverside Cottages, Veronica Youd

“Every time a community selfreflects and articulates what makes it special, it leads to a sort of identify-refinement and a deepening of self-belief,” Tom explains.

“Through advice from Tourism Tasmania and Brand Tasmania, Stanley have explored what their culture is about and what the visitor feels when they arrive.”

Continues Kerry: “Stanley has an incredible sense of community. For example we lost some lovely restaurants as a result of COVID and when the hotel closed its doors for a little while to refurbish over winter the community got together and organised a little pop-up restaurant to give tourists an option for their dining which was really special.”

At the other end of the state is New Norfolk, a town that emerged from its historic industrial connotations to become a unique visitor

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destination for foodies and fun-seekers.

New Norfolk’s entry was facilitated by Fiona Weaver, who has operated Tassie Bound Adventure Tours for the past ten years, offering outings including kayaking Lake Pedder or paddling with platypus on the River Derwent.

Her husband Liam grew up at nearby Lachlan and with her work history in adventure tourism, she had experienced how tourism can change an area.

She was part of a group to develop the Derwent Action Plan more than 5 years ago to start creating a new story and contemporary brand for the area.

WINTER | 2021 | ISSUE 6 Kayaking on River Derwent, New Norfolk, Stu Gibson

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Maydena Bike Park, Stu Gibson 8

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Highfield House, Poon Wai Nang

“Years ago the town hoped to attract tourists off the cruise ships for a day trip but you can now base yourself in New Norfolk and stay for a few days, or a week, with all the day trips on offer. New experiences like Maydena Bike Park, the natural assets of the Big Tree Reserve and the drive out to Strathgordon and Lake Pedder are must sees for active travellers.

“The awards process was a wonderful opportunity to showcase the investment that many of us here have been putting in for many years.

People are familiar with Mount Field, Salmon Ponds and the Agrarian Kitchen but we also have many new boutique shops and cafes, a Saturday market in the High St, para-normal tours, waterbased tours, wineries and distilleries, the Derwent Valley

Arts Community is also active every weekend over at Willow Court and the National Park Pub has live music now - there certainly is a new energy and optimism.”

Community collaboration is the key to success if you look at the example of both winning towns.

“Rather than seeing other people and business as competition it is about making the pie bigger for everyone,” Fiona says

National winners will be announced in September and the search for next year’s Tassie Top Tourism Town will begin in early 2022.

“It is exciting to see it in a whole new light and be recognised as a tourism town and I don’t think we saw it like this as locals until recently.

“When people work together over time with support from the government and the council, it can really lead to great outcomes.”

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River Derwent, New Norfolk, Stu Gibson

POLICY WATCH: NEW STRATEGIES TO BUILD A STRONG TOURISM WORKFORCE

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IXL Long Bar - The Henry Jones Art Hotel, Adam Gibson

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k, so it might be hard to believe right now, with large parts of the country in lockdown and hard borders in place with some of our largest visitor markets, but we are still working on the expectation of a busy peak visitor season this summer.

The visitor numbers over the first part of this year before the latest delta disruption, along with the tracking of consumer travel preferences and forward bookings, all gives confidence that once we hit the magic vaccine rate and border restrictions are lifted

permanently, demand for Tasmania will spike. And quickly.

The T21 Steering Committee, bringing together the senior government and industry representatives, continues to meet regularly to consider and prioritise responses to each disruption to our visitor economy, while also planning for the inevitable recovery and growth that will occur.

One area that is dominating our attention is how we plan to meet the demand for workers across our tourism and hospitality sectors, should we have that bumper summer season.

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Jam Packed Cafe - The Henry Jones Art Hotel, Adam Gibson

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Central to this will be a new website that will list in one place all the tourism and hospitality job vacancies across Tasmania, along with the training available in the market. This site will be a game changer for employers across the tourism and hospitality sectors to connect with potential employees, and for Tasmanians to see in one place all the opportunities to join our industry.

There is short-course training already being rolled out by TasTAFE, along with VXT – our new industry-owned and led tourism and hospitality training organisation.

Importantly, VXT training is all about up-skilling Tasmanians quickly and effectively to fill some of the most critical skill gaps, such as cookery, room attendants and front of house.

It’s about providing employers with the opportunity to up-skill existing staff to fill some of the most pressing needs in the business, while fast-tracking Tasmanians into the critical employment needs.

Finally, you’ll see a marketing and media campaign both within Tasmania and interstate inviting Tasmanians back to our industry or encouraging people to consider our industry for the first time. We need to get on the front foot and tell Tasmanians that despite the uncertainty, there are still amazing opportunities out there right now to join our industry.

Our workforce is the backbone of Tasmanian tourism.

Like all parts of the visitor economy we’re having to rebuild it from the disruptions of COVID, but out of crisis presents opportunity to attract a new team of Tasmanians into our industry and be a part of the exciting post-COVID era of Tasmanian tourism.

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Like so many parts of Tasmania’s visitor economy, our workforce has also been heavily disrupted.

Many Tasmanians left our industry through 2020, taking their highly transferrable skills to other high-demand areas like aged care. While the international border restrictions literally closed the gate on our army of visa workers that have previously filled critical skill gaps across the industry, particularly in our regional areas.

This left many businesses critically under-staffed over the past few busy months, and a lot of very exhausted operators across the state. It also exposed some critical skill gaps, particularly in our hospitality sector, that inevitably compromised the quality of the visitor experience.

We simply must have some new solutions in place this summer to ensure operators have the staff to meet expected visitor demand.

Over the next few months, you will see the State Government, with the tourism and hospitality industries, roll out some practical initiatives designed to bring Tasmanians back to our industry, up-skill the Tasmanians we have, and invite some interstate tourism and hospitality professionals to consider spending a few months working in our industry.

Luke Martin, Chief Executive Tourism Industry Council Tasmania

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MEETING OF MINDS: WHY IT’S IMPORTANT FOR WOMEN TO CONNECT, SUPPORT AND INSPIRE

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t’s said that when women connect, women succeed and studies around the world prove the benefits of such networks. So, we made Connect our first name.

Recognition of WITH’s role has grown through relationships developed with major industry bodies and funding offered to us for training and professional development.

In 2009, when Women in Tourism & Hospitality Tasmania (WITH Tas) was founded, women made up 60% of the tourism and hospitality industry but were always under-represented at events and business meetings.

Seeing the need, Sally Deane founded WITH to provide support, mentoring and the opportunity for women to connect.

WITH representation in the TICT Board’s Associations College was secured for another term in 2021 with Emily Hopwood of West Coast Wilderness Railway elected.

Since then, hundreds of women have gathered at our events, North and South, where conversations start and personal and professional connections are made.

In a welcoming and nonjudgemental atmosphere, it’s easier to share experiences, contacts and expertise – all helping to grow confidence and feel part of the tribe.

WITH’s longevity and feedback show the need remains, reinforced during COVID-19 lockdown with our “Virtual Cuppas”.

These drew women from all levels of business into small group chats about a wide range of topics – feedback unanimously said it helped participants to reconnect.

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Support is our middle name and this expanded significantly in 2021. Funding gratefully received from the Tasmanian Government and Hydro Tasmania is to assist emerging women leaders fast-track their leadership, business and board director skills, and for individuals to improve their business acumen.

Scholarships for the I-LEAD program and the AICD Company Directors Course have been awarded and planning is underway for a Tourism Tune-up program and a face-to-face Business Masterclass.

Since 2013, the next generation of passionate tourism women has been a focus with annual student scholarships of cash and mentoring awarded. In 2020, this support was expanded to include a Student Member on the WITH Committee and to appoint a Marketing Intern.

Inspire is our last name. Every event or activity aims to inspire, motivate and inform and in October our Industry Leaders Breakfast shines brightly. Three successful women from different businesses and backgrounds candidly discuss their career trajectories – the challenges, the champagne cork times and everything in between. It always makes an early morning worthwhile in buckets!

So, connect with us: withtas.com | info@withtas. com | Facebook | LinkedIn Jill Bannon President Women in Hospitality and Tourism Tasmania

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CONNECT WITH

WOMEN IN YOUR INDUSTRY

• Relaxed networking • Peer support • Inspiring events and guest speakers • Student and corporate scholarships • Development and training • Supportive, casual environment

Connecting •

Supporting •

Inspiring

info@withtas.com

withtas.com

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TOURISM PROFILE: ONE-ON-ONE WITH TOURISM TASMANIA BOARD NOMINEE CLINT WALKER

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rom dropping out of university and having to close down his first business to becoming a successful tourism operator and industry leader - Clint Walker has learned a lot during his career.

His early stumbles have helped shape him and rather than be embarrassed about them, he’s happy to share his story in a bid to help shape the future success of Tasmania’s tourism industry.

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Clint is the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania’s recent nomination to the State Government for a vacant position on Tourism Tasmania’s board. A decision is expected in September and if the nomination is accepted, Clint will become the first person from the North West to serve in the role.

“I am absolutely thrilled with the nomination, which I see as a massive compliment from the TICT directors who

see fit to nominate me to represent the TICT and in turn Tasmania’s tourism industry to that position on the board.

It is something I have aspired to for many years,” Clint says.

The Circular Head native has been an owner and operator within the tourism industry for 23 years and on the board of the TICT for 11 years.

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Together with his parents, Geoff and Rosemaree Walker, Clint and wife Katinka bought the leasehold of the Stanley Seaview Inn - at the time a 24-room three-and-a-half star motel that had suffered from a lack of investment.

Two years into the lease they bought the freehold and over the past 20 years they have improved their offering to include luxury accommodation, with Horizon Deluxe Apartments built in 2007.

Another 4 new villas are proposed to be built in the near future.

In a bid to reduce the risk associated with the seasonal nature of tourism in coastal towns, Clint and Katinka diversified to develop Burnie City Apartments, which is now a six-apartment operation aimed at corporate clientele.

As the current President of his Local Tourism Association, Circular Head Tourism, and the founding Vice President of his regional tourism organisation, West by North West, Clint has an enviable CV. But he doesn’t sugar coat his journey.

During his early days at university he spent too much time establishing a social club focussing on beer and bands rather than the equations and economics of the accounting degree in which he was enrolled.

Clint Walker with wife Katinka and children Rakelle, 18 and Jarrah, 16 at Wineglass Bay

“As a consequence I dropped out of uni without an accounting degree, but I did meet the love of my life Katinka there in our second year while she was studying social work,” he muses.

Together the pair travelled the world working in a number of tourism and hospitality roles.

It was during a stint managing a backpacker lodge that offered eco-tours in Durbin, South Africa, that their fates were sealed.

“We came back six months earlier than we had planned with the idea of replicating the business in Tasmania and in 1997, while we couldn’t find a suitable place to set up a backpackers, we started Devils Playground Eco Tours,” he recalls.

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“It was extremely difficult to take on the workload but I wanted to learn as much as I could and I achieved satisfyingly high results in contrast to my first foray into uni!

“After three years we relocated to Stanley to take up the leasehold and management of what is now known as Stanley Seaview Inn. That business required Katinka and I to put in 90-hours a week because it had been run into the ground.

It meant I wasn’t able to efficiently manage the tour business and we started to lose money and when it became unprofitable we had to close the doors and liquidate the business and realise a $35,000 loss.

The Tourism Tasmania Board nomination is reward for the hard work and he is keen to put into practice everything he has learned on the journey.

“I am happy to tell people that because that’s the risk of being an entrepreneur - you are probably not trying hard enough if you haven’t lost any money over the journey.”

While the tour business may have stalled, his drive to achieve certainly didn’t.

“Tourism Tasmania is an absolutely crucial and pivotal aspect of our tourism industry that performs the single most important task of generating demand for our destination,” Clint explains.

“If we don’t have an effective state tourism office we will only have a fraction of the tourists come here and therefor the industry will be a fraction of itself.

“My biggest goal is to address seasonality with real regional dispersal because the winter season in Tasmania is the real handbrake on our development and prosperity and that impacts on profitability and workforce.”

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“We started with an eight-seater in the first year and then upgraded to a 14-seater offering day tours out of Launceston and then we replicated the operation out of Hobart.

“I want to contribute to the development of our strategic path forward to achieve our goal of increasing tourist numbers and maximising customer spend.

“About five or six years ago I was feeling stale and wanted to improve myself, stimulate my brain and make myself more employable to bigger, broader tourism organisations and boards, so I completed my MBA at UTas over three years,” Clint says.

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TALKING POINT: PROTECTING OUR RENOWNED PARKS AND WORLD HERITAGE AREAS

Waterfall - Russell Falls at Mount Field National Park. Picture: Chris Crerar

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ollowing the release of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) Tourism Master Plan (TMP) the government has committed to a range of new initiatives on the edge of the TWWHA. These include a commitment of $1.8M in additional funding for an arrival experience at the gateway to the Mt Field National park; $2.5M to camping and visitor facilities at Cockle Creek; $3M for redevelopment of the

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Hastings thermal pool; and a continued commitment to the implementation of the Cradle Mountain master plan.

The TMP, released in June, aims to achieve a balance between opportunities for diverse, high quality visitor experiences in the globally recognised area, while protecting and presenting the cultural and natural heritage that underpins the significance of the TWWHA. The development of node master-planning for parks with high visitation such as Mount Field National Park is one of

WINTER | 2021 | ISSUE 6 Walkers at Tarn Shelf at Mount Field National Park within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Picture: Chris Crerar 21

the initiatives in the TMP, a document which provides guidance and policy direction for management of tourism and related recreation into the future.

It is envisaged that the planned investment at the visitor node at Mount Field will provide a new arrival experience, addressing congestion at the park entry during peak demand days and catering for all vehicle types, including coaches and campervans.

Planning will inform future use and vehicle movement at the park entry, including improved management of traffic on the Lake Dobson Road, especially during snow events.

Due to its proximity to Hobart and it’s reputation as a ‘park for all seasons’, Mount Field is one of the most visited National Parks in the state with 204,000 people taking in the beauty of the park in 2018-19 (pre-COVID-19), with Cradle Mountain attracting slightly more people at 284,000 in 2018-19.

Visitor nodes at Mount Field and Cradle Mountain are the main entry point to the TWWHA by interstate and international visitors, while Tasmanians make up the biggest proportion of users in most of the remote and less well-known areas.

The TMP also identifies sites for secondary nodes at Cockle Creek, Melaleuca and Strathgordon.

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The Cockle Creek investment is stage two of a multi-year redevelopment of the reserves at the southernmost gateway to the South West.

Alongside a $3M investment in Hastings thermals pools, and a potential Darklab art project at Ida Bay, these capital projects will transform visitation to the south, providing much needed investment and confidence following the 2019 bushfires. It will be great to see the condition of assets and experiences vastly improved through this funding.

The TWWHA TMP contains a range of other important initiatives which will be undertaken over the next 10 years. Initially, the PWS will focus on the master plan for Mount Field National Park gateway; development of the TWWHA ‘Country’ Protocol; and the preparation of an Air Access Policy.

Aboriginal involvement in decision making and support to develop authentic experiences remains a top priority emerging from the plan The Air Access Policy will see the PWS work with operators to develop a Code of Practice, which will be included in a revised Fly Neighbourly Agreement. It is envisaged that aircraft operators will be required to agree to the behaviours as part of ongoing compliance and accreditation.

Overall the TMP contains themes around acceptable thresholds for visitation, which protect the experience that people come to enjoy, and to avoid degradation of the natural and cultural environment of the TWWHA which spans an impressive 1,584,159 hectares across the state.

The TWWHA TMP, shaped by 14 weeks of community consultation, can be downloaded at: https:// dpipwe.tas.gov.au/ conservation/tasmanianwilderness-world-heritagearea-(twwha)/twwha-tourismmaster-plan

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ver 150 representatives of the Tasmanian tourism and property sectors converged on the Elwick Racecourse in July for the 2021 Tasmanian Tourism Investment Luncheon.

This annual event is a joint initiative of TICT and the Tasmanian Division of the Property Council of Australia.

This year’s event featured a presentation from Business Events Tasmania’s Marnie Craig on the outlook for the conference and convention market, along with a key note address from Larry Kestleman, Executive Chair of the National Basketball League, on his vision for the Tasmania JackJumpers NBL Team, and the redeveloped MyState Arena (Derwent Entertainment Centre).

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TOURISM FACES: TASMANIAN INVESTMENT LUNCHEON

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The Podcast Series for Tasmanian tourism operators and industry professionals.

60 Bite Size Conservations with our best and brightest, the influential and the inspiring in Tasmanian tourism.

Listen in the car, at the desk, in the shower, walking the dog…

Wherever and whenever suits you.

Best of all, they’re 100% FREE Stream from www.tict.com.au Or search for ‘Talking Tourism’ wherever you get your Podcasts.

Talking Tourism is an initiative of

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Of the many reasons we travel, one of the strongest is our desire to have unique, authentic experiences...

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Level 5, 29 Elizabeth Street Hobart TAS 7000 (03) 6231 2244 info@tict.com.au www.tict.com.au 26