After the review of the state’s 2030 strategy, the New South Wales Government has set the visitor economy expenditure target for 2035 at $91 billion – a near 40 per cent increase on the target set for 2030.
The latest figures from Tourism Research Australia put visitor spending in NSW in the year to June 2024 at $52.9 billion.
To reach its $91 billion target inside the next 11 years, the government has forecast that the state will need another 40,000 hotel rooms – 41 per cent more than what is currently available – and to plug labour shortages in areas like tour guides and cheffing in addition to increasing business events facilities, in Sydney, in Western Sydney and in key regional locations.
Within the review, which has been released today, one of the recommendations to meet the new spending target is to “dominate Australia’s business events sector”.
The review identifies science, technology, manufacturing and agriculture as the key growth opportunities for business events, but highlights a lack of appropriate conference venues across the state as a challenge.
Carbon reduction, particularly in aviation, through the likes of greater use of sustainable aviation fuel, is also flagged as a necessity to reaching the spend target through increased business events activity.
The review also suggests BESydney’s remit should be extended to Western Sydney, indicating it is not currently a focus for the bidding agency. Western Sydney – at least in the short term – is not in line to overtake Sydney’s traditional CBD for business events, with the west tapped for smaller conferences and other business events in the strategy review.
BESydney has already received a $1.5 million increase in funding for this financial year to boost the number of business events secured for the city. Given BESydney’s focus is primarily international, micenet expects the boost to be driven largely by international business.
“This is a very exciting moment for the NSW visitor economy,” said the NSW tourism minister, John Graham.
“We’re taking a sector that is already very strong and raising our ambitions even higher.
“This review dares us to dream big, but it also outlines the hard work needed to meet the opportunity.
“To reach this ambitious new target we need to build more hotel rooms, attract and train more workers and create and market the experiences that connect visitors with the culture, nature and people of NSW.
“NSW has the nature, the culture and incredible experiences. We just need to match it with hard work and planning,” said Graham.
The review also recommends a move towards more experience-led tourism – for example culinary experiences, nature-based experiences and agritourism – swinging away from a dependency on the state’s icons like the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge to promote NSW to visitors.
