Exhibition of Draft Economic Development & Tourism Strategy – seeking community comment

A Strategy that sets a 10-year plan to create a strong, sustainable and diversified Blue Mountains economy providing increased local employment, education and learning opportunities is now on public exhibition.

The Draft Economic Development and & Tourism Strategy – developed through extensive community and stakeholder engagement in 2020 – highlights the importance of collaboration between Council, businesses, industry and the community.

“This Strategy sets the future direction of economic development and tourism in the Blue Mountains,” Mayor, Cr Mark Greenhill, said. “It will involve Blue Mountains City Council, community, business owners, educators, key industries and the tourism sector all working together collaboratively to shape a vibrant and sustainable economy. It will coordinate this effort to create positive economic outcomes for residents, a world-class visitor experience and protect our pristine natural environment.”

The Strategy provides clarity on the approach, focus and performance targets for strengthening economic development and tourism into the future. 

It sets out the City’s five-to-10 year approach to building a more sustainable and prosperous economy, providing clear connection to the City’s Community Strategic Plan together with the Regional, State and National context for action. 

In developing this Strategy, Council has acknowledged the significant contribution tourism makes to the economy as well as the contributions made by the health, social services, education and training sectors. 

“The Strategy supports a sustainable economic development approach that contributes proactively to the achievement of positive economic, social and environmental outcomes in a balanced way. It seeks to reorientate our visitor economy to an eco-destination focus, with visitors staying longer and treading more lightly,” Mayor Greenhill said.

Stakeholder engagement delivered in 2020 informed the development of the Strategy. In summary, the engagement process included 13 separate group workshops, 21 in-depth interviews and 188 respondents to an online survey.

The Strategy has been placed on public exhibition to seek wider community feedback on the Strategic Directions and Action Plan items identified in the document. These will be reported to Council in Quarter 1 of 2021/2022 and if adopted, incorporated into future operational planning and delivery programs. 

You can have your say on the Draft Economic Development & Tourism Strategy until Friday, 9 July.