Rob Pennicott & Wendy Hills join the Ecotourism Australia Board
This years Board Elections have seen two new Directors elected to the Ecotourism Australia Board, each for a two year term. Ecotourism Australia is excited to welcome the newest members to the Board; Rob Pennicott of Pennicott Wilderness Journeys, and Wendy Hills of NSW Parks & Wildlife Service. While welcoming the new Directors, we bid a farewell and many thanks to Peter Gash of Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, and Lizzie Corke of the Conservation Ecology Centre, who have both made an invaluable contribution to our organisation over the past two years.
Robert Pennicott is the Managing Director of Pennicott Wilderness Journeys, a multi-award winning ecotourism company based in southern Tasmania. His passion and enthusiasm has seen the business he founded in 1999 grow to become one of Australia’s most acclaimed tourism enterprises.
Today it operates five iconic nature based tourism experiences – Bruny Island Cruises, Tasman Island Cruises, Bruny Island Traveller, Iron Pot Cruises and Tasmanian Seafood Seduction. All of these products hold Advanced Ecotourism Certification, the entire operation is 100% Carbon Offset and the company contributes directly to conservation and community projects through its own Pennicott Foundation.
Pennicott Wilderness Journeys has won 10 Australian Tourism Awards and it has twice been inducted into the Australian Tourism Awards Hall of Fame. In 2014 Robert was also recognised as an Australian Tourism Legend for his individual contribution to the Australian Tourism Industry. He is also on the Board of Brand Tasmania and the Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania.
Wendy has spent the last 23 years working in the tourism industry in various marketing and development roles, including destination, product and industry development with a proven expertise in sustainable indigenous tourism and the importance that this sector plays in identifying Australia's cultural strengths and 'point of difference', in a very competitive global marketplace.
She has worked for private enterprise companies, two State Tourism Organisations and Tourism Australia as the head of the Australian Experiences team, responsible for the development and marketing of Australia's 7 key experiences, including ‘Natural Australia’ and ‘Aboriginal Australia’.
In November of 2008, Wendy joined Indigenous Business Australia (IBA), the federal agency responsible for assisting Indigenous Australians maximise opportunities for wealth creation through home ownership, businesses enterprise and/or equity investments.
Her portfolio included managing the three states of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, as well the primary spokesperson for IBA’s Tourism strategy, and the Indigenous Tourism Champions Program which was managed by Wendy on behalf of IBA, along with Tourism Australia and the State Tourism Organisations.
In December 2011, Wendy joined the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in the role of Manager, Cultural Tourism, which was directly related to the Office of Environment and Heritage’s (OEH) responsibility to support the NSW Government’s Aboriginal Tourism Action Plan, NSW 2021 and the Visitor Economy Industry Action Plan. Wendy’s primary role was to develop a model to support the development of Aboriginal owned and operated enterprises focusing on economic generation and employment outcomes, through the development of cultural tourism experiences within relevant NSW National Parks and Reserves.
She is currently the Manager of the Tourism and Partnerships Unit which is responsible for developing, implementing and evaluating nature and cultural tourism strategies for NPWS, managing the Visitor Research agenda as well as establishing and enhancing key relationships and partnerships with both private and public sector organisations for (mutual) commercial benefit.
Ecotourism Australia looks forward to working closely with Rob and Wendy over the next two years.