Published on Friday, 13 April 2018 at 9:19:14 AM
As a result of an initiative that was borne out of the City of Greater Geraldton’s Growth Plan and the Progress Midwest Tourism Cluster, Geraldton will play host to the region’s first Tourism Investment Summit on May 27 and 28 2018 at the Queens Park Theatre.
Growing Greater Geraldton Tourism…Naturally is an event that will be held over two days commencing with a Welcome to Geraldton Sundowner at The Broady, Sunday 27 May.
This will be followed by a full day of interactive sessions with a list of high profile speakers on Monday 28 May, and topped off with a closing celebration at the Harbourview Restaurant that evening.
The event is a partnership between the City of Greater Geraldton and Tourism Geraldton.
According to Tourism Geraldton Chair Scott Cogar the event is designed to explore tourism development and investment in Geraldton.
“The aim of the summit is to unlock Geraldton’s potential as a tourism destination by laying out the vision and facilitating participation and collaboration to realise its potential,” he said.
“It will be a high-level, investor-driven event and will bring together key players in the real estate and hotel industry, developers, investors, hotel operators, owners as well as representatives of the banking and legal sectors.
“The first of its kind for the Midwest, this event will provide the opportunity for industry, policy makers, regulators and funders to share information, understand the opportunities for success and help align on priorities for future industry development, in particular around the development of the natural iconic attractions such as the Abrolhos Islands and Pink Lake.”
City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn believes the time is now to call for tourism investment in Geraldton and the Midwest region.
“Tourism has become a vital component of Geraldton and the Midwest region’s economic wellbeing,” he said.
“The latest tourism numbers that track the industry’s performance show that whilst tourism visitation to Western Australia may have declined slightly, the tourism industry continues to grow faster than the national economy.
“In a report produced as part of the Growing Greater Geraldton Growth Plan, the visitor economy generated $148m per annum and supported 770 jobs in 2016-17.
“The value of the tourism industry is that tourism creates a greater downstream economic effect than mining, agriculture or financial services. For every dollar directly earned by tourism, another 81 cents are generated in other parts of the economy.
“The importance of tourism for this region will only increase as we start to move away from being heavily reliant on the resources sector and more focused on service exports.
“With a dedicated focus and increased investment in this market we could see our tourism economy grow to $197 million annually by 2020-21.
“If you explore the global travel trends, active and adventure rank highly. Geraldton has what they want in abundance – incredible nature based and aquatic experiences as well as a world-class café and dining offering.
“Geraldton is a very diverse destination, and this can seem overwhelming to new visitors. So, we need to make it easy for people to digest and see the vast array of different activities they can do here. For this to happen, we need investment in tourism products and infrastructure which is why this Tourism Summit is so important.
“We are lucky to be able to genuinely say that we have something for everyone,” Mayor Van Styn added.
For more information about the event, visit www.progressmidwest.com.au
Back to All News