Well, Ahmed Fahour, managing director and group CEO, and John Stanhope, chairman, please answer my questions as my contribution to the “national conversation”.

We received mail from Canberra, dated  Wednesday, March 11 on Friday, March 20 this year.  

That is nine days to come 244km along the most developed transit corridor of Australia.  

It could have been delivered by someone walking on foot for all 244km in that time, and then some. So, where had that letter been, Mr Fahour and Mr Stanhope? Is that timeframe OK by you? Can that be considered reasonable service?

Seeing Mr Fahour takes home an annual salary of $4.8 million,  you would think he could organise to provide something resembling a decent mail service to Australia for that amount of money.  

Also on the same day, we received a letter dated Thursday, April 9, from Wagga City Council, requesting comments on a development application. The comments were due Friday, April 17, at 5pm.

No one would expect that a letter despatched from a section of the city council late on one day would be subsequently despatched early the following day, ie Friday, April 10, for delivery that day around the basic postcode, 2650. Possibly the sender also thought so, allowing just a week for reply to the development application.

However, the letter only arrived at this 2650 address mid-morning Tuesday, April 14. Hardly satisfactory for recipients to research and comment on something that could be of major importance to them.

Again, I ask, can this be considered  a reasonable timeframe for a mail service?

KEITH Wheeler’s column on Monday, April 13 (Tourism pitch needs makeover) missed some important points about Destination NSW’s promotion of regional tourism.

The aim of the magazine is to showcase a selection of the incredible range and quality of events and experiences on offer in NSW to help inspire potential travellers to seek more information to plan a trip to and around our great state.

With so many destinations, events, products and experiences, no newspaper insert format can feasibly detail each event and attraction (it would resemble a phone book) which is why every page encourages readers to go to VisitNSW.com to explore our state in more depth.   

The VisitNSW.com website is packed full of detail on events, accommodation and attractions all across the state. The Wagga Wagga page features 48 accommodation providers in Wagga, 34 attractions in Wagga and 57 local events, many more than the “only three events” Mr Wheeler refers to.

Destination NSW’s focus on attracting visitation to Regional NSW, which includes publications like ‘Sydney and NSW in Winter’,  is yielding results – the recent National Visitor Survey confirms Regional NSW last year attracted the highest domestic overnight expenditure since 1998 and the highest number of domestic overnight visitors since 2004. Mr Wheeler should also note that DNSW has recently produced two significant guides focusing specifically on Regional NSW events and attractions.

We encourage all local tourism operators, attractions and festivals to get in touch with us to explore how we can assist in promoting your product or service and grow your local visitor economy.