Breaking out of lockdown: How NSW Tourism businesses fought back

Before the pandemic hit, Nicole Farrell was leading small-group tours to countries like India and Morocco. But in September 2020 she started a new business called Country Food Trails (countryfoodtrails.com.au), showing visitors the vibrant food scene in her own region around Orange and the Central West. Within 12 months, more than 700 guests had joined the tours, meeting local farmers, tasting wines, and discovering heritage villages.

“Whereas they would normally be exploring vineyards and olive groves in Italy, suddenly we had such a huge amount of people who came for the first time. It blows me away that people haven’t been out here before,” said Ms Farrell.

Country Food Trails has been nominated in the New Tourism Business category, as has Sydney Oyster Farm Tours (sydneyoystertours.com) at Mooney Mooney. The farm has been supplying oysters for more than 15 years but, after disease spread through the Hawkesbury one season, Sheridan Beaumont decided to diversify the business and added a visitor experience where you can take a boat ride to the oyster lease and taste some of the fresh produce.

Little did Ms Beaumont know that she would only run a handful of tours before the coronavirus would strike, but there’s been a silver lining because she’s now created another experience where you can eat oysters on tables in the water, a socially distanced activity that also looks incredible.

“People want really unique fun experiences that are kind of Instagram-ready, and so the in-water experience is a fusion of a foodie’s dream with Instagram images,” said Ms Beaumont.

Also in the Hawkesbury, Blueberry Hills on Comleroy (blueberryhillsoncomleroy.com.au) has been nominated for the Hosted Accommodation category. During harvest season, you can visit the blueberry orchard and pick your own fruit, but the rest of the year, it’s the guesthouse rooms and self-contained cottages that are the main attraction, with their relaxed farm-stay atmosphere and mountain views.

The lockdowns have been hard for the bed and breakfast, but they’ve done it tougher than most in recent years, with floods just weeks before the pandemic started, and bushfires a couple of months before that. Owner Ruth Schembri said she and her husband never thought about giving up, though.

“It’s more than a business to us. You push through it all and you have to see that things will get better. We’ve invested a lot of time and effort and you want to see it recover, so you give it your best shot,” she explained.

While some businesses faced floods and fires, it was drought that threatened Quentin Park Alpacas & Studio Gallery (quentinparkalpacas.com ) on the edge of the outback between Dubbo and Parkes. But after owners Amee and Shaun Dennis bought some alpacas to protect the sheep from foxes, and Amee started to make her artwork from the alpaca wool, they saw how tourism could help them survive. They opened up their property in September 2020 for visitors to meet the alpacas, see the artwork and spend some time on the farm.

“It’s about giving people the opportunity to learn about an animal that’s a little bit different, but also have that really authentic hands-on, one-on-one interaction, and have that connection with the alpacas,” said Ms Dennis.

Connecting with nature has certainly been a trend during the pandemic, but it’s something that Chris Fenech has appreciated for a long time. He owns HWH Stables (hwhstables.com.au), a horse-riding company in the hinterland of Coffs Harbour, which has been nominated for an Adventure Tourism award. What makes his rides so special is that they can be through the rainforest, along the beach or even up the middle of a river, with the horses happy for people to jump right from the saddle into the water.

“I’ve become a bit of a specialist in novices and families and children,” said Mr Fenech. “I get a lot of satisfaction from taking out nervous beginners and creating wonderful lifelong experiences, and I would suggest probably 80 per cent of my customers have ridden once or never.”

When COVID-19 shut down almost all the tours Wendy Bithell runs with her Vision Walks Eco Tours (visionwalks.com.au) business, she used her background in interactive learning to start doing virtual tours on Zoom, broadcasting from the bush around Mullumbimby. Even though she’s now running in-person tours again, the virtual events (particularly the ones with koalas) are still popular with the international market, and she has bookings from schools to retirement homes.

“I go out with my smartphone to where the koalas are, so they can see what I’m seeing and I can flick it up onto the corner of the tree, and then I talk all about its biology, its habitat, the threats, and things like that,” said Ms Bithell.

Vision Walks Eco Tours is a nominee in the Ecotourism category, and it’s something at the core of everything Ms Bithell offers, with tours covering the nature around the Byron Hinterland, Indigenous heritage, and even the hippie culture.

One of the positives to come from the pandemic, according to Mark Saddler, is that there’s been much more interest from Australians in learning about the heritage and culture of the country. Mr Saddler runs Bundyi Cultural Tours (bundyiculture.com.au) , which has been nominated in the Excellence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tourism category and offers a variety of experiences in Wiradjuri Country around Wagga Wagga.

“I immerse my clients with the knowledge of smell, touch, and taste, and I teach them about their own backyard, which they’ve never really been educated on,” he explained.

Although the Indigenous aspects are the priority, through the sites and the stories, the tours often also include stops at a winery or a brewery because, when it comes to tourism, Mr Saddler believes “you can’t just have black culture all the time or white culture, it’s got to be blended”.

Across the whole state, it’s the blend of experiences on offer that makes the NSW Tourism Awards such an impressive list, although it’s the people behind each of the businesses that really give it its heart. That they’ve come through the pandemic still offering incredible and authentic travel opportunities is certainly worth celebrating.

* Keep an eye out for the winners of The NSW Tourism Awards at businessnsw.com.au