Minister for Tourism and Major Events, George Souris, today (28 Feb) announced that the NSW Government has delivered on its election promise of greater financial support for tourism in regional NSW.
Souris said Destination NSW received a great response from the tourism industry for tourism development proposals, as part of the $5 million Regional Tourism Product Development Funding Program.
Souris said Destination NSW received a great response from the tourism industry for tourism development proposals, as part of the $5 million Regional Tourism Product Development Funding Program. “I am pleased to confirm that the NSW Government has delivered on its election promise of greater support to Regional Tourism Organisations and tourism operators across NSW.
“Since the beginning of this year, this Government has delivered a total of $5 million of extra funding across 129 projects to develop new experiences and improve existing visitor attractions – to ensure NSW remains the number one state in Australia for tourism,” he said.
Destination NSW worked in conjunction with The Forum of Regional Tourism Organisations (FORTO) to assess and approve projects as part of ‘Stream One’ of the Regional Tourism Product Development Funding Program.
Tourism businesses also showed strong interest in ‘Stream Two’ of the program, which focused on proposals for large-scale tourism projects. Destination NSW received 100 applications from the tourism industry and 16 projects were finally selected for funding.
Souris said the aim of the Regional Tourism Product Development Program is to encourage industry growth and tourism spending in regional NSW.
“Tourism in regional NSW is worth $8.7 billion to our State’s economy and jobs in this sector account for one in every twenty one jobs in NSW.
“As these projects are completed over the next twelve months, visitors to NSW will benefit from an even better choice of experiences and activities such as; new and upgraded heritage and nature touring trails across NSW, Indigenous cultural tours, upgraded conference and event facilities, new overnight wildlife encounters, extensions to popular festivals and improvements to a number of existing attractions across the State.
“This program is only part of the Government’s commitment to growing regional tourism – we also continue to invest in year-round marketing campaigns and a strong regional events calendar to promote the best of NSW to international and Australian travellers,” Souris said.
