Debbie and Josie speak with Dianne Dredge about the Islander Way regenerative tourism project on Flinders Is, Tasmania, Australia.
Dianne explains the innovative, emergent, community-led approach to co-designing a visitor economy with the community that respects the community’s values, contributes to a resilient economy, and that takes responsibility for the impacts of tourism on the natural environment.
"Let's do community consultation in a genuine way, and really experiment with what the solutions might be as well. So this regenerative tourism Living Lab is not only just about delivering a framework for Regenerative tourism, it's actually trying to unleash the local creativity of local people to find solutions and find ways that they can actually benefit from tourism as well, because quite often tourism is done to them, rather than with them."
In 2019 the 'tipping point' for the Island was identified: "if the population continues to age, if there's less people on the island, then it's going to actually reach a point where the local economy is not going to be able to sustain the social and economic economy, the social services that it needs."
Dianne describes how the comprehensive data collected through the community consultation process allows tourism to be considered in a bigger system to identify what is really needed to help address this tipping point. Before you can actually be a good community to host visitors, you have to have a sustainable, resilient local community.
Community consultation has identified 7 directions for the future of tourism on the Island. So far, emerging business ideas identified through the project focus on waste and circular economy, food security and tourism experience.

Show notes and links
Learning from a Regenerative Living Lab | https://www.islanderway.co/post/learning-from-a-regenerative-living-lab
The Islander Way project | https://www.islanderway.co
The Tourism CoLab | https://www.thetourismcolab.com.au
Dianne Dredge | https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianne-dredge
FTI Consultants, Study of Economics, Business and Social Structure on Tasmania's Flinders Island (the 'Tipping Point' report) https://www.flinders.tas.gov.au/client-assets/images/Learn/downloads/Council%20Reports/2019.03.31%20-%20FTI%20Consulting%20'Study%20of%20Economics,%20Business%20&%20Social%20Structure%20on%20Tasmania's%20Flinders%20Island'.pdf
This podcast is created for Designing Tourism by Debbie Clarke and Josie Major from GOOD Awaits. Audio Production is by Clarrie Macklin. Check out their podcast: https://www.good-travel.org/goodawaitspodcast
Music by Judy Jacques, The Mesmerist; Wybalenna Prayer from Making Wings © 2002 with kind permission of the artist.
Extract from the Islander Way read by Jana Monnone co-created by the local community with Brand Tasmania as part of the Flinders Island brand story.
Original photography by Sammi Gowthorp.
The Islander Way project is funded by the Tasmanian Government. We also acknowledge our partners, Flinders Council, Visit Northern Tasmania and T

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