A $6 million boost to Regional Conferencing in New South Wales
A successful conference says a great deal about an organisation, which is why it’s imperative to elevate your event with a unique location.
New South Wales continues to reign as Australia’s leading tourism State and offers a fantastic location to do business from the bush to the coast.
In conversation with Destination NSW CEO, Sandra Chipchase, we discuss the State’s booming regional business events offering.
What’s happening at DNSW in the business events space?
Destination NSW CEO, Sandra Chipchase says increasing regional conferencing and other business events in rural and regional NSW is a key focus of the NSW Government, and Destination NSW is constantly looking for opportunities to support this.
“The NSW Government committed $6 million over four years to develop and implement a Regional Conferencing Strategy to assist regional operators to secure more conventions, corporate meetings and other business events across Regional NSW.
Our investment in this sector is so important because we know that overnight business visitors spend, on average, $237 per night in NSW—nearly double those of overnight leisure visitors. They are also more likely to return for a future holiday with family or friends, encouraging repeat visitation to regional areas.”
What is NSW doing to drive regional conferencing?
Ms Chipchase says a NSW Regional Conferencing Toolkit has been especially designed to help rural and regional NSW suppliers, or those considering entering the business events arena, to assist them in growing their business, better understanding their potential and achieving even greater success.
“The establishment of the NSW Regional Business Event Development Fund has also helped stakeholders create, attract and support exciting business events for regional destinations and to support new business event initiatives aimed at enriching the events with opportunities offered by iconic towns and regions, while helping secure successful conferences and business events for their future.”
In NSW, our partnerships program is all about a balanced portfolio of business and tourism and the respective visitors it attracts. The business events sector generates $290 million in delegate expenditure, additional visitor expenditure of $11.6 million from pre and post conference touring and the employment of more than 2,300 people across NSW. We know how important it is and, as such, it forms a key part of our focus.”
About Destination NSW
Destination NSW is the lead government agency for the New South Wales (NSW) tourism and major events sectors. Our role is to market Sydney and NSW as one of the world’s premier tourism and major events destinations; to secure major sporting and cultural events; to work in partnership with Business Events Sydney to win major international conventions and incentive travel reward programs; to develop and deliver initiatives that will drive visitor growth throughout the State; and to achieve the NSW Government’s goal of doubling expenditure within the State’s visitor economy by 2020.