Those in attendance heard first hand how Council's Tourism and Events team are working hard to establish Greater Shepparton as a key events destination in Victoria and indeed regional Australia.
Presentation summary
- 2014/15 saw 75 major events with over 240,000 attendees
- 95,800 external visitors from outside Greater Shepparton
- Economic impact of $35.8 million
- Helping support around 250 ongoing jobs from Council's investment in the major events program.
2016 Highlights
- 27 national and international events represented and around 25 state championships or equivalent.
- The overall program is stretching strongly from August right through to April (traditionally we have been November to March)
- Filling more of January with the recent Australian seniors Tennis.
- Even bigger March - so many we cant fit them on the calendar
- June Long weekend (1500 person Softball Masters event)
- Very solid August and September and expanded October.
- Strong visitation events in April, September school holidays and Easter.
Key Strategy points
- Balance of events across arts and culture, food, festivals and celebrations, business and conferences, motoring, equestrian and sporting events.
- Sport Tourism continues to play a big part in the program building on Greater Shepparton strong reputation as a key sporting destination in regional Australia.
- Our arts and culture food festivals and celebrations offerings will continue to impress and expand. We've just had the "Screen on the Green" outdoor Movie Festival in a new format, receive record numbers.
- The Shepparton Festival continuing to build its brand across March, Murchison Tomato Festa and the Albanian Harvest Festival and the Converge Festival (formerly Emerge at Twilight) will be held in March.
- The St Georges Rd Food Festival will be held in October.
- We are looking to add a new winter festival and some night and food events in the CBD in November with the Fryers St Food and Wine Festival.
This complements the great work the Shepparton Art Museum and our Riverlinks team are doing this space to gives us a well rounded offering who key visitation events have been included on the calendar.
Stimulating business, tourism providers and industry with a strong focus on increasing visitation, building Greater Shepparton's profile and changing our city's perception on a national scale to help build a more attractive and liveable city.
As a result, Council's Tourism and Events team are really building a strong reputation as a destination for events and tourism and starting to get some where to dispel the myths that we are not a tourist destination.
