Creating a shared tourism vision for Outback Queensland
Outback Queensland Tourism Association | Destination Management Plan 2030 | Outback Queensland, Australia | 2025 – 2026
Destination Management Plan developed for Australia’s largest tourism region
Engagement across 19 local government areas
Extensive product and experience audit of almost 800 tourism businesses
More than 400 stakeholders engaged
Action Plan structured around six strategic themes
Alignment with the Queensland Destination 2045 Plan
The Challenge
Outback Queensland Tourism Association engaged Sparrowly Group to develop the Destination Management Plan 2030 (DMP) for one of Australia’s largest and most diverse tourism regions. Covering almost 68% of Queensland and spanning 19 local government areas, Outback Queensland presents both immense opportunity and unique strategic complexity.
The region required a unifying, long-term plan to guide sustainable tourism growth while recognising the realities of remote communities, dispersed infrastructure and highly seasonal visitation patterns.
Key challenges included
Planning across an extremely large and diverse geographic area
Understanding the needs and aspirations of multiple councils
Building a consistent evidence base across tourism operators
Aligning regional priorities with state tourism policy settings
Creating an achievable plan that reflects incremental growth and capacity constraints
Our Approach
Sparrowly Group delivered a place-based, highly collaborative methodology designed to reflect the scale, diversity and character of Outback Queensland. Our approach combined rigorous data analysis with deep regional engagement to ensure the plan was both evidence-led and community-driven.
Our methodology included
A comprehensive tourism product and experience audit of almost 800 businesses
Targeted stakeholder engagement with more than 400 people across industry, government, community and visitors
Interviews, focus groups, workshops, surveys and regional immersion
Alignment with the Queensland Destination 2045 Plan framework
Development of a shared regional vision and measurable objectives
Creation of a practical Action Plan tailored to local capacity
This process enabled the development of a clear line of sight between current conditions and future priorities, ensuring that strategic directions were grounded in real-world opportunity.
Outcomes and Impact
Strategic Outcomes
A unified vision for sustainable growth of the Outback Queensland visitor economy
Strengthened regional identity and destination positioning
Clear priorities to lift experience quality and industry capability
Improved coordination across local government, operators and industry bodies
Strong stakeholder buy-in across 19 LGAs
Economic and Socal Impact
The DMP is designed to support incremental, sustainable change across remote and regional communities.
Success will be measured not only by visitation growth, but by:
Improved quality of visitor experiences
Stronger and more resilient tourism businesses
Better connectivity and access
Increased collaboration across the region
Enhanced stewardship of natural, cultural and heritage assets.
The Action Plan is built around six interconnected themes - ecotourism, events, connectivity, experiences, brand and industry - providing a practical framework for coordinated implementation.
Services Delivered
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