GDC201312645 - Gascoyne Tourism Strategy

The Gascoyne has a diversity of tourism opportunities spread across the whole region. Each local government area showcases a different tourism product or experience, however there has been very limited opportunities for regional marketing and promotion of the Gascoyne as a package for tourism. Regional collaboration to maximise the use of limited resources will ultimately maximise and increase the profile of the Gascoyne region as a destination, benefitting and growing local businesses and prosperity. Collaboration will also assist in removing barriers to ensure each local government area sees the other as a tourism partner and not a competitor, leveraging off each other to achieve greater outcomes.
Over the past four years the GDC has supported the Shire of Carnarvon through the development of the Carnarvon Tourism Strategy, released in 2010, the formation of the Carnarvon Tourism Alliance (CTA), a representative group of key agencies, businesses and local community members from Carnarvon, and the employment of a part time Tourism Development Officer, all of which are responsible for overseeing the implementation and ongoing development of the Carnarvon Tourism Strategy. This model has been very successful in developing the tourism potential of Carnarvon, resulting in increased outcomes and the Shire of Carnarvon receiving a bronze award in the 2012 WA Tourism Awards.
The development and implementation of the Gascoyne Tourism Strategy will be based around the successful Carnarvon model. Taking a regional approach to tourism through cooperation and collaboration from the four local government areas and key regional tourism stakeholders along with industry (e.g. ACC & TWA) is considered critical to achieving sustainable growth in tourism for the Gascoyne.