Ayres realigns tourism priorities

NSW continues to be most visited state in Australia, and there’s plenty more where that trend came from.

According to the NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayres, there is “more to do in this area” to “leverage opportunities to promote NSW into international markets.”

Citing the recent broadcasting of the US Today Show from Sydney, Ayres said the government is taking tourism as an industry very seriously, with regional tourism and business events high priority.

“We are meeting our targets of doubling overnight expenditure, and are adding an extra $123 million over the next four years to further this drive,” Ayres said.

This brings a 25% boost to the Destination NSW’s budget, with over $640 million now being poured into state tourism, as well as $40.6 million into growing regional tourism.

This regional tourism funding sits at record levels, and the business is “ripe for reform” according to Ayres.

Destination marketing planning is a key element that Ayres has his sights set on, with the capacity to better engage local governments critical.

“There is quite a disparity between local governments and how they treat and utilise tourism,” he said.

“And we need to think of tourism and trade as being closer together.”

Business events are another way NSW can bring the big guns down under, with the $1.5 billion investment into the impending ICC Sydney just the tip of the iceberg.

“We’ve already got 100 events coming up through NSW through to 2022, in an industry worth more than $277 million in investment,” Ayres said.

“We’re putting $290 million for events in NSW, and this month we’re in bids to attract conferences that would bring over 15,000 delegates to Australia.”

“The business visitors to NSW are known to outspend other visitors, and continue to drive other components of the visitor economy, therefore we have a strong emphasis around growing business opportunities.”

But another challenge the state is yet to face is the bidding for major sporting events, which lags behind other states down under, and in his second position as NSW Minister for Sport, Ayres says this is another area that demands attention.

“The big challenge for NSW when bidding for sporting events is infrastructure,” Ayres said.

According to Ayres, NSW peaked when every effort was poured into Olympic Park for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

But compared to other states, such as Queensland and Western Australia, with numerous refurbished and new build stadiums, NSW has let its guard down.

“NSW is not in the game, and we’ve let our assets slip away,” Ayres said.

“Our biggest challenge is not consolidating venues. We still have 14 tier two stadiums in NSW, but have to consolidate into a smaller number of venues with higher quality.”

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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