NSW Centre Stage at G’Day USA

Sydney and NSW have taken the spotlight in the United States at this week’s G’Day USA tourism summit, with exciting new events, venues and attractions showcased to industry leaders, promoting the State as a premier travel and events destination.

The event is attracting more than 200 invitation-only travel, tourism and marketing professionals.

Held from 9-10 January, G’Day USA is an annual event demonstrating Australia’s strengths in business, innovation and tourism in the United States.

As a sponsor of the summit, Destination NSW is sharing details of the State’s many exciting developments, such as Barangaroo – one of the world’s most significant waterfront redevelopments; Sydney’s new White Bay Cruise Terminal; the expansion of the Art Gallery of New South Wales; and the transformation of the Royal Randwick Racecourse.

Also featured is the new 20-hectare Sydney International Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Precinct (SICEEP) – Australia’s largest and first fully-integrated facility of its kind – due to open in Darling Harbour in late 2016.

NSW’s line-up of new events is also being showcased, including The Lion King: The Musical, the world premiere of Strictly Ballroom: The Musical, and Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour: Madama Butterfly.

Also on show is the list of events featuring US sporting stars, including the Major League Baseball Opening Series with LA Dodgers versus Arizona Diamondbacks; Hurley Australian Open of Surfing on Manly Beach luring top ranking US surfers; and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk attending this year’s Vans BOWL-A-RAMA at Bondi Beach.

Delegates also receive an update on NSW Best Job in the World winner, 'Chief Funster' Andrew Smith, who arrived in Sydney from California in late December to launch The Funster Experiment – a challenge to find 802,000 moments of fun in six-months, one for every square kilometre in NSW.

Destination NSW CEO, Sandra Chipchase said the vast array of world-class developments and events calendar additions will help NSW meet the goal of doubling visitor expenditure by 2020.

“Sydney and NSW have entered a bold new era of investment and infrastructure development, adding new and exciting events and experiences, and strengthening our existing offerings to visitors.”

“There has never been a better time to visit NSW, with experiences and events to suit every type of traveller.”

Australia welcomed 464,634 Americans in the 12-month period to end of June 213 – an increase of 6.1% on the previous financial year. Almost two thirds (64.5%) of those travellers visited NSW, spending nearly 4.2 million visitor nights in the State during the period.

Photo: Australian singer Kylie Minogue performed exclusively for more than 150 Australian guests at the Qantas Spirit of Australia event at Mr C. Hotel in Los Angeles on the first evening of the G'Day USA event.

For more information on G’Day USA, visit www.australia-week.com

For more information on events in Sydney and NSW, visit www.sydney.com and www.visitnsw.com