ON Wednesday June 16, the NSW Deputy Premier Mr John Barilaro and Member for Coffs Harbour Mr Gurmesh Singh held a media conference at Sealy Lookout to announce a new State Government fund of $30m for tourism infrastructure in regional NSW.

The fund will be available in two streams, with Stream One offering grants between $200,000 and $5 million for projects delivering unique and high impact visitor experiences, while Stream Two grants of between $50,000 to $500,000 will be aimed at projects that will improve the accessibility and inclusion of tourism experiences for people with disability.

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The funding of the Regional Tourism Activation Fund comes from the Government’s $2 billion Regional Growth Fund and is aimed at increasing tourism opportunities in the state and encouraging people to travel and holiday in regional NSW while overseas travel is restricted.

Mr Barilaro said, “We have an opportunity to showcase regional and rural NSW and take advantage of the pandemic influenced boom in tourism, and to upgrade our infrastructure and give people a reason to come off the highway and holiday.”

Mr Singh said that the recent NRL match at the stadium and upcoming Super W Rugby tournaments put the region on the map and often lead to people returning for holidays and tourism experiences.

Funding could go towards projects like the already approved upgrades to the Nyanggan Gapi café and other cultural tourism offerings around Niigi Niigi (Sealy Lookout) and surrounding areas.

Coffs Harbour Mayor Denise Knight told News Of The Area that one possible area that might benefit from the funding was the Jetty precinct and Jetty itself.

Applications open 16 June and close on 11 August 2021.

For more information, go to: www.nsw.gov.au/RTAFund.

By David TUNE