Rural and Remote Area Tourism
Planning Places provides a range of tourism planning services to land holders and collaborates with a range of specialist consultants such as waste water engineers, in the preparation of planning reports.
Link to papers written for conferences:
Georgetown Powerpoint Presentation
Community Consultation Presentation
Where to start:
Establishing a tourism business on a piece of land is not a simple matter of build it and the tourists will come. In fact it is a great deal more complex than most people ever imagine. For those people who are on rural land and currently manage an agricultural production business, the decision making process of adding tourism to the business portfolio is no different to the process that you would undergo in deciding whether or not to venture into another crop, or value add within the agricultural supply chain. The business must acquire new skills, develop infrastructure, conduct extensive research into the idea, develop a business plan and then decide whether or not it is worth the investment in relation to the expected or desired returns.
It is important to note that tourists generally go to rural and remote areas because they exhibit features perceived as not yet destroyed by modern society and they portray life and nature as it presumably used to be (Blomgren and Sorenson 1998). There is a simple approach to developing a strategy for tourism on rural land:
- What type of tourism is your land suited to:
- Conduct a site evaluation to determine the unique and outstanding natural and cultural features go to farm and nature tourism. www.crctourism.com.au/farmtourism
- What sorts of activities or range of activities can the land support that would maximise the use of the land for tourism and agricultural production
And remember that possession of an interesting landscape, old building, unique event or historic site is no guarantee that tourism will flourish. Success according to Prideaux (2002), is related to marketing, pulling power, viability and informed management.
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Who participates in the activities that your land is suited to?
How big is that market and what does the market prefer in terms of how much to develop the site?
What is your competitive advantage? Can tourists do this activity any where else? What makes your place so special by comparison? -
Business Planning:
When you have decided upon the range of activities that you propose to supply, the locations of these and the types of infrastructure required to support the activities. Draft up a business plan that details the proposal.
But before you finalise this you need to understand what implications the Land Use Planning laws and regulations have upon your proposal. You need to find out what the difference is between what you want to provide and match this up with the state and local government requirements. -
Applications and Permits required? The following refers to the Queensland requirements:
The Council process is a bit complex, but I have attached a copy of a power point presentation that I did for a group in the Etheridge Shire for you to gain an understanding of what may be required. Etheridge power point
If you are on Leasehold land and your proposal caters to more than 16 people then you will be required to go through two application processes. The first of which is with the state government for an amendment of the Lease agreement, and once this has been achieved then the application process with the Council may commence. -
Final business Plan:
Then when you know for sure what you are required to supply and what you want to supply, then you can do your final business plan. There is just one thing that I should mention that is often overlooked – Health and Safety management. When you operate a farm business you must train your staff to ensure that they are aware of safety risks and what measures have been taken to minimise these risks. When you invite people to your property you don’t get that opportunity to conduct a safety induction, and maybe the tourists don’t want one either! So you need to think about safety from an entirely different perspective. This means that you will need to invest time and money to address your duty of care and the cost of your risk management strategies must be incorporated into the business plan.
Blomgren K. & Sorenson, A. (1998) Peripherality – Factor or Feature? Reflections on Peripherality in Tourism Research. Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research (4) 319-336
Prideaux, B. (2002) Building Visitor Attractions in Peripheral Areas – Can Uniqueness Overcome Isolation to Produce Viability. International Journal of Tourism Research 4 379-389
