Sustainability & Positive Impact
See our Sustainability Plan here.
At Hidden Lanes, slow travel is more than the pace of a tour. It shapes how we design our experiences, choose our partners and encourage visitors to explore Ballarat, the Victorian Goldfields and beyond.
Our aim is to create memorable experiences that have a positive impact on the places and communities we work within, while keeping our environmental footprint as light as practical for a small tourism business.
Travel slowly, experience more
Walking is at the heart of many Hidden Lanes experiences. Our tours encourage visitors to explore Ballarat on foot, spend longer in one place and notice the stories, architecture, businesses and details that can easily be missed when travelling quickly.
Where appropriate, our experiences also incorporate public and heritage transport, including Ballarat’s historic tramway, and encourage visitors to explore compact precincts without relying on a car throughout the day.
Supporting local businesses
We deliberately build local economic benefit into our experiences.
Our tours and packages work with local cafés, hotels, attractions, caterers, makers and other tourism businesses. Wherever practical, we source inclusions locally and create experiences that encourage guests to spend more time in Ballarat and support other businesses during their stay.
By developing collaborative packages rather than operating in isolation, we aim to spread visitor spending across the local tourism economy.
Small groups and thoughtful experiences
Hidden Lanes specialises in small-group and private experiences rather than high-volume tourism.
Smaller groups allow us to provide a more personal guest experience while reducing pressure on heritage spaces, public places and partner venues. They also allow us to adapt experiences more easily to individual accessibility, dietary and other guest requirements.
Celebrating and protecting heritage
A major part of our work is helping people understand and value Ballarat’s heritage.
Through researched storytelling, access to historic interiors and interpretation of the city’s social and architectural history, we encourage guests to see heritage buildings and streetscapes as living places worth understanding and protecting.
We work respectfully with the venues and heritage spaces we visit and follow their requirements regarding access, group size and visitor behaviour.
Inclusion and accessibility
We want Hidden Lanes experiences to be welcoming to as many people as reasonably possible.
We provide clear information about walking distances, terrain and accessibility, and encourage guests to discuss mobility or other requirements with us before booking so we can adapt routes where practical.
For food-based experiences and events, we collect dietary requirements in advance and work with our suppliers to provide inclusive options wherever possible, with the aim of ensuring guests with dietary needs receive the same quality of experience as other participants.
Registered service animals are welcome on suitable experiences.
Reducing waste
As a small business, we focus on practical ways to reduce unnecessary consumption and waste.
We use durable and reusable equipment wherever appropriate, including existing vintage crockery and picnic styling items for our hosted picnic experiences. We avoid purchasing new equipment where suitable items are already available, minimise disposable materials where practical and increasingly use digital information, booking systems and guest communications.
Printed materials are produced in considered quantities, and we aim to create items that have lasting value rather than short-lived promotional use.
Working toward lower emissions
Walking tours form the core of Hidden Lanes’ business, helping keep direct operational emissions relatively low. For local business travel, deliveries and travel to and from Ballarat tours, we use bicycles or e-bikes wherever practical. For longer journeys where a vehicle is required, we recently purchased a hybrid vehicle to reduce fuel use and emissions compared with a conventional petrol vehicle.
We also aim to reduce unnecessary travel by combining errands and supplier visits, prioritising local partners and designing experiences that encourage walking, longer stays and deeper exploration of one destination.
Continuous improvement
Sustainability is an ongoing process rather than a finished project.
We review our products, partnerships and operating practices regularly and look for practical improvements that are appropriate for a small tourism business.
Our priorities include:
maintaining walking and low-impact experiences at the core of our product mix
increasing collaboration with local businesses and suppliers
reducing unnecessary waste and purchasing
improving accessibility and inclusion
encouraging visitors to stay longer and experience Ballarat more deeply
progressively improving our understanding of our operational emissions
supporting the protection and appreciation of Ballarat’s heritage and local character
We believe tourism can be commercially successful while also contributing positively to the places people come to experience.