TOURISM PROFILE: ONE-ON-ONE WITH CURRINGA FARM’S DIRECTOR TIM PARSONS
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rom managing 3000 sheep to winning three National Tourism Awards with his wife Jane, Tim Parsons is no stranger to hard work and hospitality. Over more than three decades he has honed his skills and grown the farmstay business his mother pioneered in the early 1980s at Hamilton, north-west of Hobart. Together with Jane he owns and operates Curringa Farm, a working sheep and cropping farm that operates in conjunction with accommodation, restaurant and farm tour experiences. He is excited by the opportunity he now has to spread his knowledge as one of the new board directors of the TICT, representing the Australian Tourism Export Council Tasmania Branch. “I am really looking forward to being involved at a broader, statewide level and playing a more intensive role aside from what I have been doing locally and regionally,” Mr Parsons says. Mr Parsons was the inaugural chair of the Rivers Run Tourism Association, which is now known as Derwent Valley Tourism Group and says he’s always relished the opportunity to network and engage in local and regional tourism associations, and take advantage of opportunities
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Curringa Farm Photo credit: Tourism Tasmania
presented through Tourism Tasmania for marketing and media advice. As a member of the Australian Tourism Export Council which represents the country’s $45b tourism export sector, board member of Destination Southern Tasmania and member of the Tasmanian branch of the Australia China Business Council, he is no stranger to representing the industry. “I will certainly take the sentiments and thoughts from regional operators through Destination Southern Tasmania and now to the TICT with a focus on international access, helping rebuild the inbound tourism market, which has suffered massive hardships, border issues and trade opportunities through the Australia China Business Council,” he says.
It’s the loss of international visitors from the Asian market that has decimated many tourism operators across the state. Curringa has not been immune, having to transition its marketing toward local visitors to help generate income.
