Preparation for this conference has taken a lot of my time this year, and that of fellow organizers Roger Smith and Caz Bartholomew of Echidna Walkabout Tours in Victoria

The conference was organized by Wildlife Tourism Australia, of which I’m chair and Roger is vice chair, and held in Geelong, Victoria.  Our primary sponsor was Tourism Victoria, other sponsors and supporters including Parks Victoria, Phillip Island NatureParks, Rocklily Wombats, Zoos Victoria, Moonlit Sanctuary, Longhorne Tours, Echidna Walkabout and Araucaria Ecotours

About 140 people attended, including delegates, organizers, keynote speakers, sponsors and volunteers.

The program can be downloaded here, showing titles of all presentations and round table discussions       ConferenceProgram

A report of the conference can be viewed here:

http://www.wildlifetourism.org.au/blog/events/wildlife-tourism-conference-geelong-2015/

There were excellent presentations by academic researchers, tourism practitioners, government officials  and others, and much lively but amicable discussion on a wide range of topics.  We could easily have kept talking for another couple of weeks!

Delegates gathering at the welcome reception