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IIPT Australia Chapter

Peace Parks, students and partners across Australia

IIPT Chapter · Australia

Peace Parks, students and partners across Australia

IIPT Australia was formed in 2001 and incorporated as a non-profit association, IIPT (Australia) Inc. From its base in Sydney, the chapter brings tourism businesses, universities, government and community partners together to make every traveller an Ambassador for Peace.

The chapter is led by its President, Gail Parsonage, and was earlier led by Daphne Lowe Kelley, who also served as IIPT’s international Chapter Coordinator. Over two decades it has held national conferences, brought peace into university tourism studies, launched the IIPT Student Peace Prize and dedicated five IIPT Global Peace Parks, from the Blue Mountains to Tropical North Queensland, Hobart and Melbourne.

Close ties with Skål International clubs across Australia, PATA and IIPT coalition partners such as World Expeditions and Flight Centre Travel Group keep the chapter connected to the industry. Its links with Türkiye run deep: the shared memory of Gallipoli inspired both the Lone Pine Peace Park in Leura and the IIPT Kepez Olive Peace Park facing the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Our story

Twenty-five years of peace through tourism

  1. 2001
    The Australian chapter is formed and incorporated as IIPT (Australia) Inc., a registered non-profit association.
  2. 2002
    With IIPT’s representative in Türkiye, the chapter proposes a peace concert after Anzac Day and reciprocal Peace Parks in Türkiye and Australia, honouring all who lost their lives at Gallipoli.
  3. 2003
    The inaugural Australian conference, “Tourism – Passport to Peace”, is held at the Avillion Hotel Sydney on 29 March with IIPT Founder Louis D’Amore: 21 speakers in five panel sessions. As IIPT’s Chapter Coordinator, chapter President Daphne Lowe Kelley also circulates the first guidelines for IIPT chapters.
  4. 2004
    The second Australian conference, “Travel Promotes Peace – Meeting the Challenge”, is held in September.
  5. 2005
    After the Indian Ocean tsunami, the chapter runs a campaign for IIPT’s special “Just a Drop” appeal for survivors.
  6. 2006
    The third Australian conference, “Tourism – Agent for Peace?”, is held in Sydney on 15 July with Louis D’Amore, a keynote by AFTA CEO Mike Hatton and an address by the Ambassador of Timor-Leste, H.E. Hernani Coelho Da Silva.
  7. 2011
    The chapter marks its 10th anniversary, with Ben Sherman, Chairman of the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance, as guest speaker.
  8. 2015
    Australia’s first IIPT Peace Park, the Lone Pine Peace Park in Gordon Falls Reserve, Leura, in the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains, is dedicated in April with the Ambassador of Türkiye, H.E. Reha Keskintepe, and Mayor Mark Greenhill, as the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign is marked. More than 200 people watch two Lone Pine trees being planted.
  9. 2016
    IIPT’s 30th anniversary is celebrated at Parliament House, Sydney, with Skål Sydney and PATA, and an address by the NSW Minister for Tourism, Hon. Adam Marshall.
  10. 2022
    On the International Day of Peace, 21 September, Hobart is inducted as an IIPT City of Peace and the IIPT/Skål Peace Promenade opens at Macquarie Point. Isabella Mayday of the University of Technology Sydney is named IIPT Student Peace Ambassador.
  11. 2023
    Madara Vasko of Griffith University wins the IIPT Student Peace Prize. On 27 August the Victoria Point Urban Forest in Docklands, Melbourne, becomes the fifth IIPT Global Peace Park in Australia, a legacy of the Skål Australia National Assembly.
  12. 2024
    Gail Parsonage joins the 2024 Sydney Peace Prize ceremony at Sydney Town Hall, awarded to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
  13. 2025
    IIPT Australia helps plan the IIPT Kepez Olive Peace Park in Çanakkale, Türkiye, facing the Gallipoli Peninsula, and Gail Parsonage joins its dedication on 23 April. Later in the year she takes part in the ICSOA Interfaith Conference at Parliament House, New South Wales, and the United Nations Association of Australia’s 80th anniversary conference.
  14. 2026
    IIPT Australia joins the Council of Australian Tour Operators’ International Women’s Day event in Brisbane, celebrating women across the touring sector.
Peace you can visit

IIPT Peace Parks in Australia

Each park is a place to reflect on peace, reconciliation and care for the land. Most were dedicated with the help of Skål International clubs.

Blue Mountains, NSW · 2015

Lone Pine Peace Park, Leura

Australia’s first IIPT Peace Park, in Gordon Falls Reserve in the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains. Its two Lone Pine trees recall the Anzac and Turkish bond formed at Gallipoli.

Sydney Harbour, NSW

Q Station, Manly

The second Australian Peace Park, at the historic former quarantine station in Sydney Harbour National Park, where visitors can sit and read the IIPT Credo of the Peaceful Traveler.

Hobart, Tasmania · 2022

IIPT/Skål Peace Promenade

At Macquarie Point, inaugurated as Hobart was inducted as an IIPT City of Peace on the International Day of Peace.

Read more →

Kuranda, Queensland

Rainforest Station Nature Park

The fourth Australian Peace Park, welcomed with Skål Cairns and the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council in recognition of its leadership in Aboriginal tourism and employment.

Melbourne, Victoria · 2023

Victoria Point Urban Forest

The fifth, a community-led green space in Docklands with more than 5,000 native plantings, dedicated with Skål Melbourne and the Victoria Point Owners Corporation.

Read more →

Çanakkale, Türkiye · 2025

IIPT Kepez Olive Peace Park

Across the Dardanelles from Gallipoli, dedicated with IIPT Australia’s President among the official party on Türkiye’s National Sovereignty and Children’s Day.

Read more →

What we do

Building a culture of peace through tourism

IIPT Student Peace Prize

Each year a partner university’s lecturer shortlists student essays, which a panel of Australian tourism executives and IIPT committee members then judges. The winner becomes an IIPT Student Peace Ambassador.

Read the 2023 winning essay →

Peace in the classroom

The chapter helped bring a Peace through Tourism programme to the University of Sydney, and member Prof. Ian Kelly gathered an international team of authors for a book on peace through tourism to support university courses.

Conferences and events

Three national conferences in 2003, 2004 and 2006, World Tourism Day events and celebrations such as IIPT’s 30th anniversary at Parliament House, Sydney.

Industry partnerships

Networking functions with Skål International clubs, work with PATA, and taking part in World Expeditions’ annual Responsible Tourism Symposium.

Beyond Australia

Two events with the City of Sydney for Timor-Leste, where members helped develop tourism products; a Travel for Peace tour to Jordan that visited Syrian refugee families in Azraq; and the IIPT Kepez Olive Peace Park in Türkiye.

Voices for peace

IIPT Australia represents peace through tourism at gatherings such as the Sydney Peace Prize, interfaith conferences and the United Nations Association of Australia.

Gallery

IIPT Australia at work

“Tourists, I beg you to consider peace in your destination selection.”

Madara VaskoIIPT Student Peace Ambassador 2023, Griffith University
Contact

Get involved in Australia

Dedicate a Peace Park, join the Student Peace Prize as a university partner or become a member of IIPT Australia. Write to IIPT and we will put you in touch with the chapter.

In your email, please include:

  • Your name, and your organisation if you have one
  • Where you are based
  • How you would like to be involved
Gail Parsonage President, IIPT Australia
Ajay Prakash IIPT Global President ajay@iipt.org
Andreas Larentzakis IIPT Executive Director andreas@iipt.org
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IIPT around the world

Our Chapters

Each chapter brings the IIPT vision to life in its own region. Chapters marked with an arrow have their own website.