City of Wagga Wagga and local businesses combining to boost tourism

An innovative partnership to market local businesses and the Wagga Wagga region is set to be bigger and better in 2017/18.

Applications to take part in the Wagga Tourism Partner Program are now open following a successful first year of the City of Wagga Wagga initiative.

Team Leader Visitor Economy Fiona Hamilton said the Wagga Tourism Partner Program brings together businesses, individuals and industry to showcase what is great about Wagga and help boost visitation to the city and surrounds.

“Annually, about 1.3M tourists choose Wagga as a destination for short or long stays for work or leisure and spend about $340M at local businesses,” she said.

“The first year of the Wagga Tourism Partner Program has been a great success, with 70 partners joining the program, the new Visit Wagga website launched and a new-look Visitor Guide to showcase our region created.

“Local tourism operators have had some great ideas about how to expand the program and we’ve taken that on board with two more partner categories, new marketing collateral and networking events.

“We will also be working with the new Riverina Murray Destination Network to create fresh opportunities for our local tourism operators.”

The new partner categories will allow smaller boutique retail, café and accommodation operators, as well as a regional section for businesses within 120km of the Local Government Area boundary.

The 2017/18 program will be launched at a special networking evening on 31 May, giving current and prospective tourism partners the chance to meet and find new ways of working together.

Businesses and other organisations can sign up for the Wagga Tourism Partner Program at any time during the year, but to be included in the 2017/18 Visitor Guide they will need to join by 15 June.

More information and a copy of the program prospectus can be found at visitwagga.com/partners.