Tourism strategy’s billion dollar bet

Tourism Noosa has launched its Tourism Strategy Noosa 2017-2022, setting a strategic vision for the future of tourism in the region.
Tourism Noosa CEO Damien Massingham said the tourism strategy outlined Tourism Noosa’s future directions for the leadership and management of the tourism industry.
“The strategy recognises the importance of tourism as the Noosa region’s largest single economic driver, with flow-on benefits to the wider community, and aims to secure and build on Noosa’s position as one of Australia’s leading visitor destinations by identifying opportunities for growth,” he said.
“Importantly it sets as its number one key performance indicator, the target of achieving tourism expenditure of over $1 billion a year, every year by 2022. This is vital to be able to retain and build on the 22,000 local jobs that currently exist due to the tourism industry.”
Mr Massingham said Tourism Noosa had identified four key goals in the priority areas of marketing, events, product development and sustainability.
The goals include developing a focus on value over volume by targeting high-yielding visitors, particularly from interstate and international markets, as well as identifying, attracting and nurturing new world-class visitor experiences, events and accommodation options in the region.
The plan also outlines Tourism Noosa’s goal to spread the benefits and reduce the impacts of seasonality with greater dispersal of visitor expenditure across the destination and through increased off-peak and mid-week visitation, as well as lift customer satisfaction by assisting tourism operators to deliver exceptional customer service.
Mr Massingham said the key goals will be achieved by a range of specific actions in each year of the five-year strategy.
“Noosa is one of Australia’s leading holiday destinations, attracting approximately 2.36 million visitors in 2016, generating over $900 million annually and the tourism strategy aims to ensure we continue to grow the value of tourism across the Noosa region,” he said.
“This new tourism strategy builds upon the previous plan we developed for 2013-2016 and clearly identifies key opportunities for the destination to further grow the benefits of tourism, simultaneously promoting the economic, social and ecological sustainability of the region.”
Mr Massingham said Tourism Noosa will continue to take a destination management approach in implementing the goals and targets set out in the new strategy, drawing down relevant actions into each year’s business plan, and will review achievements annually with progress communicated to members and stakeholders.
“Through strong leadership and commitment across all four priority areas, the key goals of this strategy will be achieved for the benefit of Noosa’s visitors, tourism operators, our community and stakeholders,” Mr Massingham said.