The federal government’s decision on the Badgery’s Creek Airport and the long sought after economic and social benefits it will bring to the region is encouraging a new perception of Penrith.
A council initiative to further this new perception is the desire to be known, also, as the “Adventure Capital” to increase visitation.
“This is a very exciting start to a new direction for tourism in Penrith,” Mayor, Ross Fowler, said to some 60 industry representatives from Penrith and the Blue Mountains.
Guest speaker, Sydney Weekender’s Mike Whitney, Randall Walker and Daniel Myles from Blue Mountains Tourism and Allison Sammut, from Destination NSW, spoke at the event, the theme of which was “Making your mark in the New West”
They highlighted the need for operators to value digital technologies as a means to accessing a wider audience and driving economic growth and to collaborate on designing packages to entice tourists to visit a number of attractions while in the region.
Barbara McGee, council’s manager, corporate communications and marketing, said “adventure” was to not limited only to adrenalin-rushing activities, such as, indoor skydiving.
“The rich arts and culture, sport and natural beauty of Penrith is also an adventure of discovery for visitors to our city,” she said.
Ms McGee described the new structure within the organisation aiming to provide leadership in boosting tourism.
The total tourism and hospitality sales in Penrith were $410.0 million and the total value added was $183.6 million, in 2012/13, according to the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research.
Material distributed at the event showed Penrith attracts more than one million visitors annually, with domestic day-trippers representing 82.3 per cent of the total, overnight domestic visitors, 16.3 per cent, and international tourists, 1.3 per cent.
Some 61.8 per cent of domestic day trippers come from the Sydney area, 52.1 per cent of domestic overnight visitors come from regional NSW, and 29.0 per cent and 17.8 per cent from New Zealand and the UK respectively.
With regard to business travellers, 15.5 per cent were domestic day-trippers, 12.2 per cent domestic overnighters and 13.0 per cent in the international category.
What’s in a name? Penrith aims to leverage its new identity and tourism and hospitality assets to compete in a digitised and globalised environment.
