A TOURISM industry expert is confident more than $850,000 was injected into the Port Stephens economy during May alone after a number of events were held in the area throughout the traditionally quiet month.
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Janelle Gardner, Port Stephens Council’s tourism and events coordinator, said the variety of sport, history, music and leisure events held across the local government area last month would have “easily” injected $850,000 into the economy.
“The estimates are fairly conservative when it comes to events like this,” Ms Gardner said. “We’ll known in a few months when the data becomes available to us just how much it has boosted the economy.
“But you could see that visitation was up and we’ve had positive feedback from accommodation hubs and the business community.”
Some of the key event held in Port Stephens last month was the Karuah Lost Highway Bluegrass Music Festival, Step Back King Street Heritage Festival, Port Stephens Triathlon, Port to Port MTB and PSSA AFL state championship.
Penny Blythe, a committee member of the Nelson Bay Marlins Junior AFL Club, volunteered at the state championship which was held at Tomaree Sporting Complex between May 24-26.
The event attracted about 1000 people including 300 players, friends, family and officials to the Bay.
“Everyone seems to have just loved coming here and visiting Nelson Bay,” Mrs Blythe said.
“A lot of the families seemed to be pretty excited to stay here. The team from Broken Hill and the Barrier region [in the far west of NSW] all loved that they woke up to the water. They didn’t even mind that it rained [Thursday morning].”
The May 26 Port to Port MTB race attracted 600 riders.
Port Stephens councillor John Nell thanked organisers for bringing riders to Nelson Bay “because we like to showcase Port Stephens to the world”.
“You’re important to us and important to our economy,” Cr Nell told riders before the race start.
Not only “positive” for the economy, the successes of the events held during May signal a slow but steady trend in the tourism sector’s push to make Port Stephens a destination to visit all year round, not solely in the warmer months.
To continue the visitation momentum into winter the council, Destination Port Stephens and tourism operators such as Moonshadow-TQC and Imagine Cruises have again worked together to put on Naturefest.
Naturefest is a month-long series of events aimed at showcasing the Port’s natural beauty and attracting further visitors to the area.