Byron Council has thrown its hat in the ring to host the region’s largest tourism symposium in a bid to generate much-needed energy for the local visitor economy.
As local operators and other businesses continue to recover from what was one of the quietest off seasons in recent times, Council has decided to make a bid to host the 2025 North Coast Tourism Symposium and Tourism Awards.
The symposium, run by Destination North Coast, brings together tourism leaders from across the region to discuss changing trends and attitudes to travel and the so-called ‘experience economy’.
It also features an awards event, with 17 categories that recognise growth, entrepreneurship, and innovation within the local industry.
‘There’s been a lot of discussion about how we present ourselves to the world as a destination,’ Mayor Sarah Ndiaye told councillors and staff earlier this month.
‘This is an opportunity to take the questions and ideas that different groups and people have had and funnel them into a symposium where we have some of the best brains in the business come to the region.
Hero experiences
‘It’s also a chance for us to showcase our “hero experiences” – things like diving out at Julian Rocks, or the markets, Indigenous tourism opportunities, [and] wellness’.
Council recently came under heavy fire for failing to properly promote and advocate for the interests of local businesses and the tourism industry.
Its draft Tourism, Industry and Visitor Economy Strategy was described by Byron Chamber, President Matthew Williamson, as a ‘missed opportunity’ that reflected Council’s ‘disdain’ for local business.
Council’s decision, soon after, to summarily close a large section of Lawson St for drainage works poured more fuel onto the fire.
Mayor Ndiaye acknowledged some of the criticisms levelled at Council and the ‘dissatisfaction’ with the draft business strategy.
‘There’s been very different ideas in terms of what our role is in the space of the visitor economy,’ she said.
‘We saw how Tweed [Council] managed to attract a lot of funding and get good outcomes in terms of their website’, she added.
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