At the Local Government NSW Conference in May 2025, Destination Southern NSW General Manager Richard Everson delivered a powerful presentation titled “The Value of Tourism to Local Councils and the Role of the Destination Networks.”
Drawing on his experience as a tourism operator and regional development leader, Richard highlighted how tourism drives economic growth, social wellbeing, education, employment, and community vibrancy. He also explained how councils can unlock this value through collaboration with Destination Networks and Destination NSW, the “tourism triangle.”
A presentation video and accompanying notes included in this resource provide insights into the strategic role tourism plays in shaping thriving, resilient regional communities.
Destination and Visitor Economy Conference 2025
Phillipa Harrison, Managing Director Tourism Australia
Destination and Visitor Economy Conference 2025
Destination NSW CEO Karen Jones
Destination and Visitor Economy Conference 2025
Richard Everson, GM, Destination Southern NSW
Destination and Visitor Economy Conference 2025
Top Tourism Town awards winners for 2025.
The Value of Tourism to Local Councils | The Role of the Destination Networks Presentation
Additional Resources
Presentation Summary
Tourism and the Visitor Economy
Definitions:
- Tourism = the act of traveling and visiting. Tourism focuses mainly on the travellers themselves and their experiences.
- Visitor economy = the total economic impact of all kinds of visitors on a destination.
In destination management, focusing on the visitor economy helps ensure that planning benefits not only tourists but also residents, businesses, and the broader community. In the summary below, the focus is very much on the visitor economy and destination management, so when you see the word ‘tourism’, be aware that it is being used in the broader ‘visitor economy’ context.
Tourism is a growth industry. Today, Australia is home to the highest number of visitor economy businesses ever. For example, the visitor economy in the Eurobodalla Shire has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 5% over the last decade.
Tourism is an export income generator. Our CommBank Destination iQ data indicates that approximately 30% of LGA expenditure comes from non-resident spending. In August of last year, at the peak of the snow season, almost 67% of Snowy Monaro expenditure was from non-residents. Similarly, the export income generated by the visitor economy is extremely valuable for Australia, and it is equally valuable for our local governments (LGAs).
Tourism supports home-grown businesses. Approximately 95% of visitor economy businesses in Australia are small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) employing fewer than 20 people. This strong SME focus keeps money local. SMEs employ locally, spend locally, and invest their profits locally. Visitor economy businesses typically have lower establishment costs and fewer barriers to entry, making the visitor economy an ideal opportunity for local entrepreneurs.
Economy
Social and community wellbeing
Tourism creates and places a value on shared community assets. Tourism promotes investment in community amenities, infrastructure, and events. These assets and experiences are available to all, including residents. Tourism places a value on the natural assets, culture, and heritage of a region, encouraging investment into the care, preservation, and sustainability of these incredibly valuable assets.
Tourism generates vibrancy. Tourism is often the catalyst for place activation, with events, festivals, and markets bringing precincts to life. Consider the numerous statewide initiatives of the Office of the 24-Hour Economy and their project partners for some excellent examples of the visitor economy adding vibrancy to a community.
Tourism builds local identity and pride. The process of creating local brands contributes to the development of a ‘sense of place’, civic pride, and identity. When Tourism Snowy Mountains launched their ‘It’s an altitude thing’ campaign, it was embraced by locals and visitors alike, because it perfectly captures the unique attributes of that special place.
I’ve met dozens of people who have shared their ‘treechange’ and ‘sea change’ stories – stories about how they fell in love not just with a place, but with the people, and upgraded their holiday destination to their home.
Education drives tourism. Educational programs often involve travel and tourism. School camps, excursions, international students, and residential educational campuses bring students into our regions. These students, their families, and friends quickly become tourists, making a significant contribution to local expenditure.
Tourism drives education. The strong growth of experiential tourism creates increased opportunities for cultural and place-based education. Visitors contribute to the utilisation of educational and cultural institutions, including libraries, museums, and galleries. There is a strong and accelerating demand from visitors for indigenous cultural education, which has led to a wave of new operators entering the sector.
Tourism jobs are growing. Today, we have the highest number of tourism jobs ever. Nationally, tourism employs about 4.4% of the workforce. In Destination Southern NSW, Tourism employs almost double that amount at 8.7%, and on the Sapphire Coast, an iconic tourism destination, tourism accounts for more than 11% of all jobs.
Tourism provides career mobility and flexibility. Tourism provides opportunities for local career advancement, unlike many other industries that require relocation to metro areas for meaningful career progression. In the cost-of-living squeeze, the visitor economy is a great source of flexible, casual employment.
Tourism creates jobs for humans, not machines. With its focus on soft skills and a reduced reliance on formal qualifications, the visitor economy offers a diverse range of job opportunities for people with a wide range of abilities. And those soft skills make people in the visitor economy less likely to be replaced by automation or AI.
Education
Health, Sport and Fitness
Tourism promotes active lifestyles. Many tourism activities promote physical activity. Investing in sectors that promote physical activity as a form of preventative medicine provides a far higher return on investment (ROI) than treating illness and disease.
The infrastructure, spaces, and suppliers that tourists use are also equally available to locals, all year round.
Tourism promotes sports. By embracing sports tourism, a council can justify and underpin investments in sporting infrastructure. Hosting regionally significant events brings athletes, officials, families and spectators to the region, with the legacy benefits impacting local sporting organisations, providing expanded opportunities for competition and training for local athletes, and supporting the local visitor economy.
Goulburn Mulwaree is a regional sporting powerhouse, and this has seen the Council commit to upgrades to the Goulburn Regional Hockey Centre and Seiffert Oval.
Down on the South Coast, the Sea Otter Australia mountain biking summit, competition, and expo in October this year is anticipated to attract up to 8,000 mountain bike enthusiasts to the region in its inaugural year, cementing the region as Australia’s preeminent mountain biking destination.