An overhaul of the state government’s support structure for tourism promotion promises to fill the void left when Inland Tourism went into receivership, but it’s still business as usual as far as Tenterfield Shire Council tourism officer Caitlin Reid is concerned.
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Inland tourism assisted with promoting tourism across most of north and western NSW, and oversaw several campaigns for the New England High Country tourism promotion group, to which Tenterfield belongs. Inland Tourism was funded by membership fees from participating councils and from its 17 per cent share of tourism promotion grants it secured, which it took as an administration fee.
Ms Reid said New England High Country had been successful in securing two grants through Inland Tourism – My Favourite Corner (a motorcycling campaign which ran last September) and Adventure Touring (currently in production) – but was unsuccessful in its application for a second My Favourite Corner promotion.
It was this missed grant and others which led to Inland Tourism suffering cash flow problems and its subsequent demise. Nevertheless the state-wide tourism body Destination NSW and marketing agency Bauer Media committed to works in progress and Bauer had people in Tenterfield in April filming for the Adventuring Touring campaign.
While the new tourism network will be better funded with the state government committed to covering administration costs for the first four years and boosting grant funding for tourism promotion campaigns, Ms Reid said it’s a wait-and-see game at this stage. She feels it will take six months for boards to be appointed for each of the six new regions (Tenterfield falls into Country/Outback NSW) and for their offices to be staffed and organised.
Adventuring Touring is due to be launched onto social media and other electronic and print platforms, hopefully in Spring 2016. Ms Reid said the members of New England High Country are very enthusiastic about keeping momentum going from the successful first instalment of My Favourite Corner and will continue with the second instalment, through other funding sources, if the Destination Network isn’t ready for business.
The government has promised increased funding for the Regional Visitor Economy Fund (RVEF), from which New England High Country’s campaigns were funded, and for Regional Flagship Event Funding. Ms Reid said the latter is generally only for events which run over several days, and Oracles of the Bush organisers have managed to progress through the application process in the past although without success in securing a grant. There does also appear to be funding available for new events. Both funding models are yet to be released by Destination NSW.
In the meantime it’s business as usual, although the new model’s promise of reducing red tape is welcome news to Ms Reid and her counterparts. New England High Country members met on Tuesday to discuss the new funding landscape, and will meet with Bauer representatives shortly to finalise the Adventure Touring campaign and continue the good working relationship members have with the media business.
The member councils (Armidale, Glen Innes, Guyra, Inverell, Uralla and Walcha, along with Tenterfield) are an enthusiastic group and would be promoting the region regardless of how things panned out with the Destination Networks, according to Ms Reid.
“It’s going to be an exciting 12 months with New England High Country,” she said.