Tuesday, 3 October 2017
A new and independent Visitor Economy Taskforce will undertake a review of the NSW Government’s Visitor Economy Industry Action Plan, Minister for Tourism and Major Events Adam Marshall announced today.
Mr Marshall said the Taskforce would take a long-term look at the NSW visitor economy, consider opportunities for growth and additional methods to measure success into the future.
“NSW is the number one visitor destination in the country across every metric and now is the perfect time to look at what we can do to make our domination over the other states even greater,” Mr Marshall said.
“Since 2011 the Liberals and Nationals have overseen record growth in the visitor economy and this Taskforce will create a new road map for the visitor economy and explore the next frontier of tourism in our State.
“Tourism is big business and vital to the NSW economy, contributing $32.5 billion each year in revenue and directly employing more than 261,000 people throughout the State.
“We need to start looking beyond 2020 and ensure every corner of the State reaps the benefits of this booming sector, which is why I have established this Taskforce to assess how we are performing and help establish new priorities and areas of focus.
“Rural and regional NSW is an important part of our future plan and our newly established Destination Networks will play key role in working with the Taskforce to ensure stakeholders are consulted across the State.”
From March 2011 to March 2017 NSW has seen a 24.3 per cent increase in overnight visitor numbers, a 28.2 per cent increase in visitor nights and a 37.3 per cent increase in overnight visitor expenditure.
The NSW Government has delivered 92 per cent of the actions outlined in the initial Visitor Economy Industry Action Plan in 2012.
The review will focus on any outstanding actions still to be delivered, with a particular attention on individual tourism sectors and regions across NSW.
The Taskforce will report to the Minister by 31 January 2018. Taskforce members are Mr John Hartigan (Chair), Hon Bruce Baird AM, Mr Russell Balding AO, Mr Simon McGrath and Ms Robbie Sefton.