Tourism has a significant role to play.

Most people want to increase the number of visitors to their community.

So, the next thing you might do is revitalise all the community tourism activities, including the central business district, accommodation, restaurant quality, and local tourist attractions, which have become tired.

The value of tourism to a community is usually overlooked. However, there is more to tourists than their money. Sustainable regional communities can make a massive difference by focusing on their business and non-profit organisations’ primary strengths and opportunities, and becoming more action-oriented in involving visitors and tourists.

The people who live in rural, regional and remote Australia, including Indigenous and non-indigenous people, have the courage, determination, skills, leadership and intelligence to envision and implement a positive future.

They are hardworking and committed, and they are not looking for handouts but for investment in our collective future. They seek an understanding of their challenges and practical support to create a sustainable future for their communities, the environment they care for, their businesses and their families.

They are firmly attached to their “country” and “place” and will, over time, continue the long tradition of their ancestors and predecessors in caring for the land, the people and the history of the places they live.

It is in the nation’s interest to maintain solid regions and regional communities that encourage migrants to contribute. Migrants can bring new opportunities and resources and set up new businesses at no extra cost to their chosen community.

A good facelift will also lift the community’s overall morale and attitudes. So start with the worst building on the main street and work your way up.

We all must reassess our attitudes and actions regarding living in our regional, rural, and remote communities and how tourists and new arrivals can more successfully transition into a future lifestyle they will love.

Addressing the challenges will need the collective commitment of the communities, all spheres of government, the businesses and service providers that have a stake in effective regional communities.

Quotable quotes.

“How entrepreneurial is your community? Last month, you said we would focus on tourism tomorrow, but never acted on it, so why didn’t you”? Peter Sergeant

“I think we had a different view of what the 21st century could be like. With much more of a sense, from our perspective, of trying to have an interdependent world. Looking at solving regional problems and conflicts. Having strength in alliances, operating within some kind of a sense that we were part of the international community. And not outside of it”. Madeleine Albright