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Comments Sought On Tourism Plan

Public and tourism industry comment is now being sought on the Draft East Gippsland Strategic Tourism Plan 2006-2011 adopted by at last night’s Council Meeting.

By East Gippsland Shire Council - 9th June 2006 - Back to News

East Gippsland Shire Councillors adopted the comprehensive tourism strategy that covers the entire East Gippsland region for the next five years and have made it available for comment until Friday, 30 June.

Chair of the East Gippsland Tourism Advisory Board, Adrian Bromage said the Plan is a comprehensive document that provides an integrated tourism industry strategy.

"Its objective is to generate increased visitation, yield, length of stay and visitor dispersal driven by strong industry leadership and commitment from across the region," he said.

"The Tourism Advisory Board is pleased with the outcomes produced in the Draft Plan that were achieved after considerable work by consultants Colin Bransgrove and Kevin Bascomb, Board members and Shire officers who provided logistical support."

Mr Bromage said the consultants studied the status of tourism in East Gippsland including current visitation trends that show there has been growth of only 1 percent per annum over the last six years in domestic overnight visitors.

"Although this figure hides some wide yearly fluctuations, and daytrip visitation has been up about 5% per annum over the same period," he said.

"They have identified several of the factors negatively influencing tourism at the moment including a shift to short breaks and budget air travel."

Mr Bromage said the Draft Plan’s recommendations focus on what are called the ‘Four Pillars of Sustainable Growth’.

"The first of these is based on marketing and branding including the development of a comprehensive marketing mix to enable the better promoting of East Gippsland outside of the region.

"It is also proposed to build a new destination website and re-brand East Gippsland to reflect a more sophisticated image," he said.

"The second ‘Pillar’ identified in the Draft Plan is the development and maintenance of public, and private infrastructure.

"These are linked to four project areas that use a ‘hub and spoke’ concept with the ‘hub’ being the Gippsland Lakes and the ‘spokes’ the Sydney Melbourne Coastal Drive, the Great Alpine Road and the Snowy River Valley including Buchan."

Third is product and industry development including touring itineraries that disperse visitors across and around the region to areas of current market strength such as seafood, wildlife viewing, conventions, meetings and events.

"With respect to industry development we expect greater cohesion and unity of purpose as a result of the new Plan," Mr Bromage said.

"The fourth ‘Pillar" addresses the steady growth and good tourism outcomes that will flow as a result of growing trust, cooperation and coordination between all stakeholders."

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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