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WELCOME: From the Editor
One 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.
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Their actions inherently encourage greater engagement and drive investment - success starts breeding success. 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. 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.
