We are pleased to announce Associate Professor Simon McArthur, Deputy Chair, Australian Regional Tourism Network as a Keynote Speaker at the 3rd Australian Regional Development Conference; Participation and Progress to be held in Canberra on 5 – 6 September 2016.
Simon will be speaking on; ‘Out with the Plan, in with the Model’.
Many standard tourism plans have tried to introduce actions to move tourism towards a more sustainable approach. But plans are like a visitor’s photo – almost as soon as the shot is taken, the people and place changes. Enter a new approach – the Sustainable Tourism Model (or STM). The STM is like a living, breathing plan, but it only triggers action when reliable feedback says it is critical, and even them it has an armament of sliding scale responses to choose from. Now we monitor, learn and respond when needed, and when it’s fixed, we back off and return to monitoring.
The STM addresses three questions:
- Where do we want to be (the conventional desired future stuff of a tourism plan)
- How do we know how close we are (clever monitoring linked to maximum and minimum realistic standards)
- What do we do if the standards aren’t being met (multiple choice options to respond, known as adaptive management)
This presentation will profile a collection of STM’s and derive some key lessons for those contemplating them. Case studies will include: South Australia’s Kangaroo Island (the longest running STM); Sydney’s former Quarantine Station (where the STM is managed by a tourism operator to look after their cultural tourism site, and avoid expensive regulation, and the Bahamas (covering a marine environment and multiple local communities) and Cyprus (featuring the latest in information technology for any user to grasp).
Simon has 25 years’ experience in tourism planning, development and operations. He has extensive qualifications that include a Masters in Business Administration, PhD in Tourism Management, Associate Professorship in Hotel Management and Bachelor of Applied Science in Natural Resource Management. He has published several books on heritage and visitor management in protected areas and cultural sites. Simon has received some 20 awards for heritage tourism planning and development, marketing, product innovation and sensitive environmental design. He was recently awarded the Australian Travel Innovator Award (Travel and Leisure Magazine).
Simon is both creative and logical, moving from ideas generation and market and financial analysis to full implementation and evaluation. He is renowned for his ability to interpret social trends into unmet market needs and then into creative product development that meets these needs.
Simon is Deputy Chairperson of the Australian Regional Tourism Network and has been a Board Member for several years.
The 3rd Australian Regional Development Conference; Participation and Progress will be held in Canberra on 5 – 6 September 2016 to register for the conference CLICK HERE.
Early bird closes on 25th July so be quick to receive a discounted rate. To view the Conference Program CLICK HERE. With over 60 speakers and 7 keynote speakers, an Awards Dinner for the ‘Regional Innovation Awards’ (now open) it is a Conference opportunity not to be missed.
The conference explores opportunities for innovation in regional Australia. With its rich resources, diversity, and value, regional Australia is the catalyst for the future and the Conference addresses issues such as sustainable development, environmental sustainability, land use, community development, investment, agribusiness and innovation.
