Your chance to help shape the future of tourism in Mitchell Shire

With natural assets such as rolling hills and picturesque waterways, to historic buildings and a rich military heritage – it’s little wonder Mitchell Shire is establishing itself as a burgeoning tourism destination.

According to Tourism Research Australia, visitors to Mitchell spent about $85 million in the shire in 2017, with a 19.2 per cent increase (583,700 to 695,600) in the number of visitors from 2016 to 2017.

In order to harness this growth and make sure it continues tracking upwards, we’re developing a new Tourism and Visitor Economy Plan – and we want your input.

The four-year plan will play a pivotal role in developing initiatives for council, businesses and the wider community to undertake to support further growth in visitation.

To help inform the plan, we’ve developed a community survey to get your thoughts on things such as where you access information about things to see and do in the shire and what the most important things are to tell our visitors about when they are here.

We’ll also be speaking directly with tourism-related businesses, services and groups to get their thoughts and ideas.

Mitchell Shire Mayor Rhonda Sanderson said it was important to develop a strategy to make sure tourism in the shire continued to thrive.

“The tourism industry is so important for a variety of reasons including the local economic benefits it brings and the jobs it creates, and the enhanced sense of community pride it can create,” Cr Sanderson said.

“You only have to look at some of the fantastic entries we received in the recent MyMitchell Photo Competition to see a sample of the wonderful assets our shire has to offer.

“Council’s role is to help plan for new tourism opportunities, help businesses develop tourism offerings, encourage all businesses to provide a welcoming experience, and encourage people who live and work here to bring family and friends to the area.

“The plan will also identify the best ways council can work with our tourism bodies to promote the region.

“While the data shows the number of people visiting our shire each year is increasing, it is important that we continually look at new ways improve Mitchell as a tourism destination and this new plan will help us achieve that.”

The community survey will help inform the draft plan, which will be presented back to the community for feedback later this year.