A destination management model thought to be the oldest operating in the world is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

The Tourism Optimisation Management Model (TOMM) has attracted international attention and put Kangaroo Island, off the South Australia coastline, on the tourism map.

Crucially, though, the island and its population of just over 4,000 have over the past decade provided an object lesson in sustainable tourism that has been replicated around the world. And despite the global spotlight thrown on Australia’s third largest island, the Sunday Telegraph recently described Kangaroo Island as “one of earth's last unspoilt refuges” and it featured late last year in the top ten of world island destinations as rated by National Geographic.

TOMM is now widely regarded as a world-class tourism optimisation management model, its great strengths being its longevity and very strong collaboration from partner agencies, operators and community stakeholders. In fact, in Australia, TOMM is one of only two destination management models that aim to optimise rather than set limits to achieve community and industry agreed outcomes within acceptable ranges on a spectrum of indicators. The other model, based on TOMM, is currently operating at the Quarantine Station in Sydney harbour.

The TOMM initiative is a “community-based monitoring initiative responsible for monitoring the long term health of the tourism industry and therefore the Island itself.”

The impetus for its development was the dramatic rise in visitor numbers following the introduction of a fast ferry service to Kangaroo Island. To protect the teeming wildlife and the pristine bush, it quickly became clear that protective measures would need to be taken. The sustainable tourism management model that emerged was innovative and specifically geared at monitoring and communicating the health of tourism on the Island quantitatively and qualitatively to community, industry and management agencies.

Their tourism model works, says TOMM, by addressing attitudinal and cultural change within the tourism industry and its stakeholder base, as well as generating tangible evidence that the viability of the industry is dependent upon the quality of the visitor experience it generates, and the condition of the natural, cultural and social resources upon which it relies.

TOMM constantly prompts action within the local tourism sector by initiating a range of monitoring schemes based upon a series of measurements including:

* the health of the environment;
* the number and type of tourists visiting;
* the health of the Kangaroo Island community;
* the health of the economy; and
* the type of experience visitors are having.

Explains the project: “TOMM then presents the information in a simple way to show whether the current situation is a healthy one or not. If some aspect is not healthy, TOMM suggests what sort of things could be done to solve the problem.”

Useful links
http://www.tomm.info
http://www.tourkangarooisland.com.au