InterNATIONAL PARK Tours (IPT) – Lisa Groom

www.parktours.com.au

InterNATIONAL PARK Tours is a Beechmont based business that promotes international walking tours throughout the world. Director, Lisa Groom, embarked on the Mentoring, Training and Leadership program earlier this year and has been linked up with Innes Larkin, President of Beaudesert Country Tourism and Director of Mt Barney Lodge, as her mentor.

Ms Groom has been running IPT since 2001 and her vision for the company focuses on creating ‘slow’ tours and sustainable, educational travel.

Her commitment to sustainable travel was inspired by her very first assignment as a tour guide with IPT when she visited Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain. During that trip she saw great potential for tourism to help rebuild and support local communities.

“To me, there is a long-term, positive side to tourism when it can assist in the revitalisation of depressed local economies and meaningfully employ people in local communities,” Ms Groom said.

“At IPT, we recognise that our own business operation needs to be reviewed and overhauled to lighten our ecological footprint and better-support our own community and region.

“We are aiming to come home to the Scenic Rim region more, hone our international travel so it focuses on life-changing education and experience, and create a business that helps people to savour this amazing part of the world.

“We’re excited to be working with Innes Larkin and the BSSB program because we will receive relevant, practical, expert assistance to help us transform our business, make it more relevant to the 21st Century and ensure it is financially healthy too,” Ms Groom said.

Director of Mt Barney Lodge and President of Beaudesert Country Tourism, Innes Larkin, is a keen supporter of Building Sustainable Small Business and recently signed onto the program as a small business mentor.

Mr Larkin is part of the team who have successfully pitched the Scenic Rim Region and the Mount Warning Wollumbin Caldera as a major international tourism destination through the National Landscapes initiative.

“I anticipate that this shire and region could become a national and international tourism destination because of our extraordinary flora, fauna, national parks and unique natural environment, as well as the diversity of local businesses that are skilling up to provide high-quality, eco-friendly experiences for visitors,” Mr Larkin said.

“We have an incredible natural heritage – one of the most biodiverse and beautiful in the world as recognised through World Heritage Listing in so many parts of the shire. Now our local businesses have the opportunity to become leaders in sustainable business and industry.

“I am thrilled to be part of the Building Sustainable Small Business program as a mentor because I will be working closely with some of our shire’s tourism businesses to help them become accredited ecotourism operators as well as to develop sustainability transition plans,” Mr Larkin said.