Now in its 24th year, the NSW Tourism Awards provide the benchmark for best practice within the tourism industry, offering the opportunity to publicly recognise and showcase the State’s finest tourism operators.
Speaking at the Awards, sponsored through the Government’s tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW, Minister for Tourism and Major Events, George Souris highlighted the role of the importance of tourism to NSW’s economy, the state which leads the nation in international and domestic tourism.
“Tourism now contributes more than $50,000 every minute to the NSW economy – that is more than $3 million per hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year! This is an increase of more than six per cent since 2011.
“Tourism is the lifeblood of many of the State’s towns and we are committed to promoting tourism in the regions as well as supporting events, which all create local jobs, providing a boost to regional economies even further,” he said.
“In the past year, the value of tourism in regional NSW was more than $13 billion in overnight and Day Trip visitor expenditure, with more than 18 million overnight visitors.”
The NSW Tourism Awards, comprising 32 categories, includes attractions, festivals, events, ecotourism, tour and transport operators, marketing and accommodation and outstanding contribution from individuals.
Mr Souris presented four of the award categories: People’s Choice; Young Achiever in Tourism; Outstanding Contribution by an Individual to Local Tourism and; Outstanding Contribution by an Individual to NSW.
He said he was particularly pleased that the 2013 Awards received the strongest ever representation for entries in the Indigenous Tourism category as well as the Destination Marketing category.
"This further reinforces the NSW Government’s plans to grow the Aboriginal cultural tourism industry for NSW, as outlined in its Aboriginal Tourism Action Plan,” Mr Souris said.
The award for Major Tourist Attractions was sponsored and presented by Destination NSW.
Destination NSW CEO, Sandra Chipchase said: “Destination NSW is proud to support the NSW Tourism Awards, which acknowledge the efforts of individuals and organisations who not only strive to ensure that NSW is the number one visitation destination in Australia, but also that we reach our goal of doubling overnight visitor expenditure in NSW by 2020.”
Photo L-R: Minister Souris (second right) with Individual Award winners Julian Ledger (L), Neil McGarry and Linda Tillman at the 2013 NSW Tourism Awards.
For a full list of winners, please visit the NSW Tourism Awards website at: www.nswtourismawards.com.au
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