Domestic tourism accounted for $26.2 billion, and broken down by category, highlighted the value of day-trips ($6.6 billion), inter-state visitors ($7.9 billion), and visitors from within NSW ($11.7 billion).

Tourism directly employed 164,000 people, with another 97,000 people indirectly employed.

The largest share of direct tourism employment in NSW comes from the takeaway food/café/restaurant sector. 

The benefit of day-trippers to a local economy whilst highlighted in these statistics, could not be more clearly evident than during local community based functions, events and promotions.

One only has to experience the boost of a National Cherry Festival, Kite Festival, Irish Woolfest or similar to see how these events can contribute to such impressive figures, however the indirect benefits are seldom as dramatically evident, but never the less, they are still contributing to the local economy.

Any strategy which aims at boosting visitor numbers must recognise the limitations of Regional NSW and leverage the community events that are run almost every weekend of the year; sporting carnivals and competitions, art and cultural events, shopping promotions and sales, retail events and countless other events are tourist attractions in their own right.

We must support such events to get the greatest benefit from them, as positive word-of-mouth and active promotion are essential tools in ensuring the buck stops here!