More than 100 tourism industry leaders last week heard more details about the NSW Government’s plans to promote the State globally as Australia’s premier tourism destination.
Minister for Tourism, Major Events, Hospitality and Racing and Minister for the Arts George Souris provided the keynote address at a function hosted by Southern Cross University’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management and The Hotel School Sydney.
Souris said attendees at the event at The Hotel School Sydney were delighted to hear the NSW Government’s plans to double expenditure by tourists in the State by 2020.
“It’s clear that the industry is excited by the plans we have to ramp up our tourism promotion and major event attraction activity,” Souris said.
“We need to do more to promote tourism in regional areas and the NSW Government has committed an additional AUD$5 million this year to help regional operators develop new business and new products to attract visitors.
“This Government is determined to increase the State’s market share with action to attract more major events to both Sydney and our regions – we need to make sure our regions win their share of the economic benefits of major events.
“We need to put more emphasis on the development of much needed infrastructure, including the development of a new Convention and Exhibition centre in Darling Harbour to cope with the ever increasing flow of major business and cultural events traffic into Sydney.”
Souris said there was cross party support for the creation of Destination NSW, combining the talents and budgets of former agencies including Events NSW and Tourism NSW.
“Destination NSW will help fast forward the re-emergence of New South Wales as the premier tourism destination in Australia,” he said.