Our services

Working with and through regional, rural, and remote communities to build place-based, community-led, and nature-positive actions.

Our Story: Text

[Re]inventing tourism is our mission

Communities are rising. Ground-up, place-based approaches are emerging in response to decades of homogenising approaches and prescriptive solutions. Communities and networks of communities are building new ways of working that honour local values, knowledge, and lived experience.

This emergent approach requires that we connect, respect, and care for our communities, regenerate places and nature, and build resilient local economies. Catalysing local networks and supporting ground-up collaborations takes time. It is a journey. It starts with meeting communities where they are at, and working with, for and through communities to address the the challenges they face.

The tourism industry needs to recognise this shift. Social licence is increasingly questioned. Communities are wanting to host travellers willing to give back and contribute to their place. Transition strategies are essential for the future, not destination management plans. Instead of asking 'How can we grow tourism?' we should ask 'How can the hosting of visitors contribute to making a positive impact to our place, our community, and to nature?'

Sometimes we have to [un]do, [un]make and [un]think in order to imagine a better way! The Tourism CoLab specialises in creating new pathways and honest discussion and change-making journeys for the change ahead.

The CoLab Edge

The CoLab is different. We bring unique experience and skills and a different way of working:

We are systems thinkers, always connecting dots and thinking outside the box. Our interdisciplinary background and experience in environmental planning, community empowerment, diverse economies, design and policy provide the foundations of our 25+ years' of expertise in tourism.

We engage in deep and genuine ways. We believe that learning, coaching, and creating change together are key ingredients to [re]inventing genuine relationships between hosts and guests, travellers and special places.

We leave capacity in the place and community. We are not consultants. We leave communities and places better off by building capacity, understanding and connections with other like-minded communities, for the future.

We work in complexity and span boundaries. We bring skills in environmental planning, community engagement, creativity and design, learning pathways, organisational change, research and policy development, and stretch well beyond tourism, for the future.

We are brave and courageous. We will have the conversations that we need to have for the future. We bring research, deep thinking and new approaches and build the courage to do things differently, for the future.

We are not consultants. We are not interested in selling you tools and promising sustainability. We believe old consulting models are dead. Instead, we work with places, people and organisations keen to disrupt, experiment and innovate, for the future.

If you are an edge walker, creative thinker, and changemaker, take a course, reach out, and find out more!

Who we work with

We have worked with tourism organisations, destinations, governments, communities, higher education, peak bodies and professional networks across the world to inspire, and promote curiosity, and creative thinking in an increasingly complex and disrupted tourism sector.

We are interested in working with forward-thinking organisations, communities and businesses who want to transition to being purpose-led, deliver positive impact, and journey towards regeneration.

We all know that big change lies ahead, and it's important to tap into critical, creative and collaborative processes in order to understand and navigate the change ahead.

And if you are unsure... Just join a Tourism CoLab course, meet the team, and see the content and discussions about tourism [re]invented!

Unlearning

Learning to unlearn, recognise barriers and blindspots, and unleashing creative thinking is key to innovation. We offer a range of learning opportunities:

Online courses and workshops
Face-to-face workshops
Professional development retreats
Bespoke learning journeys for your community, conference or organisation
CoLab community of practice.

Community engagement & resilience building

We use critical, creative and design thinking methodologies to build regenerative journeys in the following areas:

Regenerative place design
Regenerative organisations
Regenerative leadership
Regenerative experiences with and through community
Regenerative destination development
Creative community engagement design and activation

Regeneration journeys

Regenerative projects and journeys include our experimental lab on Flinders island, positive impact activation programs and activation journeys with local communities.

Regenerative ideas incubator
Living lab and experiments
Project co-design
Hosting courageous conversations

Colab Community of Practice

Change happens through systems change and the flows of information, energy, and resources that connect us. Our community of practice seeks to facilitate these flows, share resources, and connect us on this journey together.

Transitions

Tipping points, polycrisis, and cascading impacts - how are they affect people, places, and local environmental systems? Identifying and acknowledging local triggers and tipping points, and building resilience is key to building the resilience for future change. Our work includes:

sense-making - Identify triggers, tipping points and opportunities
Complex systems thinking and taking tourism outside its silos

Creative Actions

Activating change and understanding impact:

Identifying and activating mission, vision, values and impact
Stories of change and impact
Social licence
Destination and place-based stewardship strategies
Measuring what matters

Our impact

We deliver our social mission through:

Education and training to drive systems change.
Pro bono time pledge to support communities.
Contributing time and expertise to the UN Islands 2030 Network's regenerative tourism community of practice.
Mentoring and higher education engagement.
Thought leadership and public engagements
Workshop, keynotes and public talks.
Fee waivers for education and training courses (by application).

Regenerative tourism
by design