Substantial advances have been made in the development of tourism indicators and regarding the capacity of tourism research to generate evidence for sustainable tourism. This progress contrasts with an ongoing limited utilisation of such evidence in tourism decision-making. This presentation reflects on barriers and opportunities of evidence use and showcases promising approaches toward greater employment of evidence in policymaking. The presentation reflects on experiences from the Australia’s South West Sustainable Tourism Observatory. It suggests that a continuous engagement with evidence users over different stages of the policymaking process enhances the chances of evidence-informed decision-making. The presentation delivers recommendations on how to develop impactful tourism research and it suggests future research to improve our understanding of the research/policy interface.