Million dollar boost to Hunter Tourism
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
17 Dec 09 (TravMedia.com): January 1st will not only mark a new beginning for the year but also a new beginning for Hunter Tourism, who will become a Tier One Regional Tourism Organisation with access to more than $500,000 in dollar for dollar ‘Demand Building’ Funding from Tourism NSW for a $1M marketing campaign.
Hunter Regional Tourism Organisation CEO, Sheridan Ferrier, said “The Board of Hunter Regional Tourism Organisation has been working closely with local government to ensure the organisation meets the requirements of becoming a self-sustaining RTO and is delighted to selfnominate to become a Tier One RTO as of 1st January 2010, two years prior to the deadline”.
“Hunter Councils have confirmed a ‘one-off contribution’ to replace the capacity building funding of $85,000 from January to June 2010, whilst we finalise our three-year strategic plan, which is currently underway and will be completed by 31st March ready for implementation by 30th June 2010” she said.
This is an exciting time for operators in the Hunter who are now able to access this funding and participate in the $1,021,000 marketing campaign set for the region in 2010. The funding has been exceptionally well received by industry with more than 470 operators registered to participate in the campaign.
The Marketing Plan, developed in collaboration with the Tourism Managers from each Council and Tourism Association, focuses on the seven anchor destinations of the Hunter, under an umbrella campaign using the one call to action as www.visithunter.com.au, a new website to be developed in time for the first campaign activity in March.
Three additional inter-regional campaigns have also been developed to promote ‘Food and Wine’, ‘Events’ and ‘Cruise Hunter’.
2010 is set to be a bumper year for tourism operators in the Hunter with the influx of funding opportunities from Tourism NSW as well as the recently announced TQUAL funding of $500k for Pacific Coast Touring Route.
Hunter Regional Tourism Organisation will be working closely with operators in the region to ensure they take advantage of the funding that is set to grown overnight visitation to the region.
The Hunter region received more than 6.6 million domestic and international overnight visitors in the year ending June 2009. Visitors spent more than 6.8 million nights in the Hunter, and injected $1.3 billion into the region’s economy.
Comments are closed.