The territory government has committed another $3 million to the region’s Major Event Fund, which supports both public and business events.
Since launching in 2011, close to $12 million in distributed or approved funding has yielded a $1 billion return for the Canberra economy, with events and exhibitions attracting 5.2 million attendees.
Although budget papers have not yet been released, the ACT Government has indicated the tourism and events budget spend will also support the territory’s Aviation Stimulus Fund, to grow aviation links between Canberra, the rest of Australia and the world, extend the Tourism Product Development Fund and help fund destination marketing activities throughout the year.
“Late last year, we launched T2030: ACT Tourism Strategy 2023-2030. This is an ambitious strategy that sets a target to grow our visitor economy to $4 billion by 2030 and outlines how we are going to get there,” said ACT’s Chief Minister, Andrew Barr.
“Through the Budget we will continue to invest in initiatives that have measurable impact and demonstrated success.
“These initiatives will support the growth of the visitor economy and deliver a calendar of events that will attract domestic and international visitors to the ACT.
“They will also generate positive economic activity and a net benefit to the ACT through attracting more tourists, sector wide job creation and new investment in tourism products and events,” he said.
