Jackie Hicks

Background

About Jackie Hicks

Jackie leads research and project management and is a business mentor for Sparrowly Group projects across the visitor economy, economic development, and community development sectors.She has more than 10 years of experience across health, visitor economy, economic development, infrastructure, and community development sectors and is particularly passionate about creating opportunities that drive positive change for communities and destinations.Jackie has an ability to quickly acquaint herself with clients and their offering to understand business needs from the inside out. Her research, strategy development and project management experience includes leading projects for the Department of Regional New South Wales, Destination Sydney Surrounds South, Destination North Coast, Fraser Coast Tourism and Events, and IMPACT Community Services.Jackie mentors small businesses on customer service, digital marketing, experience development and accessibility and inclusion strategies. In her mentoring, she provides guidance and support around experience development, distribution, creating and delivering tourism experiences, and guiding mentees through the ‘overwhelm’. She supports tourism operators by training them on the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse and digital marketing and actively reviews operators to identify areas for learning around visitor experience. Jackie is the lead researcher and co-author of Sparrowly Group’s annual white paper on accessible tourism: Creating real inclusion: a call to arms to the tourism industry.She is on the Steering Committee for the Accessible and Inclusive Tourism Conference and was a semi-finalist in the 2022 NSW/ACT Young Achiever Awards.