Go west: visitors to boost Western Sydney economy

Published on : Monday, December 2, 2013

Destination-NSW-300x103Acting Premier and Minister for Trade & Investment Andrew Stoner will make the announcement today while meeting with Western Sydney business leaders in Parramatta.

“Western Sydney is one of the largest, most diverse and fastest growing economies in Australia and an engine room for the nation’s economic growth,” Mr Stoner said.

“Western Sydney has its own vibrant cultural identity, with iconic sports teams like the Western Sydney Wanderers and new attractions like Wet n Wild drawing thousands of visitors to the region.

“With over a third of all people employed in the Sydney Metropolitan area working in Western Sydney, the region is also set for significant infrastructure and business investment, employment and population growth in the coming decades.

“We need to seize this opportunity and capitalise on the region’s cultural, sporting and events assets, as well as its infrastructure, to get more tourists to Western Sydney and drive economic growth.

“Total visitor expenditure for international and domestic visitors to Western Sydney in the year to June 2013 was $3.5 billion. If we can increase annual visitation by 10 per cent, this could inject an extra $350 million to the Western Sydney economy.

“As part of the NSW Government’s industry policy focus in 2014, we will work with industry partners and government agencies to promote Western Sydney’s local tourism and other significant sport and recreation assets.

“We will work with Destination NSW, Business Events Sydney and local government and industry to develop a packaged tourism offering for Western Sydney to attract more business and leisure visitors to the region.

“This could include promotions, marketing material and specialist targeting of visitors to increase visitors to Western Sydney,” he said.

Priority industry initiatives for Western Sydney next year also include:

Partnering with the NSW Business Chamber to investigate ways to link research and industry with a focus on advanced manufacturing;

Developing globally competitive supply chains with a new $1.4 million Supply Chain Accelerator pilot program including an advanced manufacturing pilot in Western Sydney;
Investigating options for expansion of small business advisory services, particularly in Western Sydney and with a focus on multicultural businesses.

Mr Stoner said the initiatives were detailed among the State Government’s announcement of 2014 priority actions under the NSW Economic Development Framework. The priorities paper identifies 34 actions for 2014 including:

Knowledge Hubs led by industry in five key sectors (Creative Digital; Energy; Financial Services; MedTech; and Transport, Logistics & Rail) to boost industry competitiveness through access to world leading information and research, information sharing and collaboration.;
An Accommodation Supply Plan to ensure that Sydney and NSW have sufficient capacity to meet future demand for overnight visitor accommodation.
Strengthen capacity building for NSW exporters with high growth potential under a new $1.2 million Export Accelerator pilot program.
A Regional Economic Development Strategy to position regional economies for long term growth and improving alignment of federal, state and local regional development activities.

“As well as revitalised focus on Western Sydney, we will be pursuing actions to promote regional economic development and to further improve Sydney and NSW’s global standing as Australia’s leading state for innovation and investment,” Mr Stoner said.

“Our progress on these and ongoing actions from the NSW Economic Development Framework will be reviewed at the 2014 NSW Business Leadership Forum in the second half of next year,” he said.

Source:- Destination NSW

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