More than $680 million dollars was spent on tourism in the Riverina over the March 2016/17 year, a new report from Destination NSW has revealed.
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The number is up $136 million dollars from the previous year and is a sign of the region’s diversity, chair or Destination Riverina Murray, Genevieve Fleming said.
“We’re seeing more sophistication of product development in the region,” she said.
“About 50 per cent of the people who came into the region were driven by food and dining.”
It’s the experience that Graham Bailey is after. From Yarrawonga near Lake Mulwala, Mr Bailey and his wife have a fully portable motor home at Wilks Park.
The two always make an effort to holiday in Wagga whenever they get the chance.
“We always stop through here whenever we’re on the way back home,” Mr Bailey said.
“We come here quite a bit and are always meeting new people.
“We’ve made a lot of friends in Wagga. We go to the pubs and clubs here and spend our money here, too.
“We joined the RSL because we come here so much and it’s just nice to be somewhere different.”
It comes as the NSW Government released the Regional Conferencing Strategy and Action Plan to drive more businesses, events, and visitors to rural and regional NSW.
The six-million-dollar strategy will see the launch of a website portal named Meet in Regional NSW to help showcase the array of business event venues and destinations in regional NSW.
It will allow businesses to well and truly see what is in offer in particular regional towns, Ms Fleming said.
“If I’m an event organiser in Melbourne, for example, and I’ve got to organise a conference for the royal college of surgeons in Griffith,” she said.
“I would go to the portal and I would be able to see everything that Griffith has on offer.
“What these businesses are looking for, for their conference delegates, is a wow factor and that’s why Destination Riverina Murray is very excited because we know we can offer people an experience.”
