Simon Talbot
Chief Operating Officer, Parks Victoria
Biography
Simon is Chief Operating Officer at Parks Victoria, Australia’s most visited national park agency with over 106 million visitations per annum across 3000 urban, metro and marine parks.
Simon is charged with leading Visitor Economy investment across Victoria’s Nature Based locations – projects include:
- The 12 Apostles Great Ocean Road - 2.7 m visitors per annum
- Grampians Peak Trail – 1.5 m Visitors per annum
- Wilsons Prom Sanctuary - 700k visitors per annum
- Falls to Hotham Alpine Walk – 400k per annum
- Yarra River Activation and Management – 4m visits per annum
He describes his role as a 3 legged stool – “Cultural Heritage, Conservation and Visitation” if one of those legs get out of balance the stool falls over. He is passionate about both protecting Australia’s natural and cultural values and sharing deep connected stories with visitors who become ambassadors.
His teams face over visitation challenges at a number of sites but he believes that we can move from a transactional click and collect visitor mentality to meaningful relationships and connected communities. He loves the Danish move towards from ‘tourists and locals’ to ‘short and long-term residents’.