Fitzroy Falls, Southern Highlands | Credit: Destination NSW
Welcome to Destination Download
As we come to the end of 2025, we would like to sincerely thank you for your continued support and collaboration throughout the year. We are especially grateful to our Board for their leadership, guidance, and ongoing commitment.
In light of the recent events in Bondi, our thoughts are with everyone affected and we extend our heartfelt support to the wider community at this time.
Please note our office will be closed for the holiday period from 24 December, reopening on 12 January but if you need anything urgent during this time please reach out. We also wish our amazing Tash all the very best as she commences parental leave for the year ahead.
We wish you a safe and prosperous holiday period, and we look forward to working with you again in the year ahead. As always, if there is anything we can support you with please let us know.
In this edition:
News & Announcements
Business & Skills Development, Resources, Events
Industry Insights
Local Updates
Grants & Funding Opportunities
New in 2026: Monthly Visitor Economy Insights webinar series
We’re excited to launch a new monthly webinar series in 2026, designed to give our industry direct access to the insights shaping our region and key visitor markets.
Held on the second Wednesday of every month, each one-hour session will feature an industry stakeholder sharing real data and market intelligence – from demand and supply trends, visitor numbers, distribution insights, to trade activity and upcoming opportunities across the DSSS footprint.
These sessions are practical, insight-led and focused on helping businesses plan ahead and stay competitive.
Our first session kicks off with Booking.com – Market Pulse Webinar
Online – via Zoom | Wednesday 11 February2026 | 1.00pm-2.00pm Reserve your spot >>
Key discussion topics will include:
Travel predictions for 2026 and what they mean for regional tourism
AI in travel and how it’s influencing discovery, booking behaviour and conversion
Optimising your Booking.com listing to maximise visibility and performance
South Coast and Southern Highlands performance insights, including demand trends and booking patterns observed over the summer period
More sessions, speakers and topics will be announced soon…all designed to give you the knowledge and confidence to make informed business decisions.
Watch Australian Regional Tourism’s recent Agritourism in Australia Insights webinar
During this session, Garrett Tyler-Parker and Bronte Rice-Jenkins from Tourism Research Australia presented the latest agritourism research, diving into the agritourism growth and opportunity, and wider tourism sector insights, to understand the tourism market in 2025 and beyond.
Share the Shore is a campaign delivered by Saving our Species, the NSW Government’s flagship threatened species conservation program. The initiative highlights the simple, practical actions that can help protect endangered shorebirds during nesting season.
Industry partners are encouraged to support the campaign by amplifying key messages across their own channels. There are several easy ways to get involved:
Share campaign videos across your social media platforms
Include Share the Shore content in internal and external newsletters
Embed key messages and assets on your website to raise awareness with your audiences
A shared Share the Shore Google Drive folder is available and includes ready-made assets such as images, graphics, videos and copy. These resources are designed to be easily reused and shared with your stakeholders to help encourage broader participation in the campaign.
A workers’ compensation deal is finally over the line, giving NSW small businesses relief from soaring costs, protecting jobs, and providing the certainty they need to grow and succeed.
Regional events industry insight survey
Australian Centre for Regional Events are calling for input from regional events across Australia.
After their win at the recent nbn Innovate Awards, Australian Centre for Regional Events are getting ready to create a suite of AI-powered tools, templates and resources to make event planning easier for regional organisers – but they want to build exactly what you need. This is your chance to tell them what would genuinely help you save time, reduce stress and deliver better events.
Agritourism Blueprint for Regional NSW is now available on our website
The Agritourism Development Blueprint for Regional NSW aims to support growth of the agritourism sector. The document has been adapted from documents prepared by Sparrowly Group for Destination Sydney Surrounds South and Destination Central West.
NSW reaches 100,000 EV milestone
NSW has reached the milestone of 100,000 electric vehicles on its roads, signalling strong consumer demand and helping cut emissions, with an estimated 121 million litres of petrol saved every year—equal to nearly 145,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
New data on summer travel plans
Tourism & Transport Forum research shows 74 per cent of Australians are planning a holiday this summer, including 34 per cent intending to travel in their own state and 25 per cent travelling interstate.
Manage your business before, during and after bushfires
Develop a business continuity plan (BCP). A BCP is a plan that explains how to keep your business operating during and after a disaster or emergency
New AI features for tourism
Google has expanded its AI-powered search with new tools designed for travellers, including itinerary and trip planning, finding the best deals and supporting the real-time bookings
Discover what’s been happening across our industry.
To share your new product, experience or event, please get in touch with us at [email protected]
Regional snapshots
On the road with Kylie Bushby, Business Development Manager
Is it a constant full moon? The energy and pace over the past few weeks have been a little hectic… but also incredibly exciting, in the best possible way. As we head toward Christmas, I’ve been back on the road reconnecting with operators, partners and collaborators right across the region.
It’s been a huge year, and the last few months in particular have been full, fast-paced and deeply rewarding.
Recent highlights from my travels and conversations include:
It’s been a very busy and incredibly fruitful year and I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved together. Working alongside our operators and stakeholders continues to be the most rewarding part of my role.
As we head into the festive season, I wish you all a safe and happy break. I hope your venues and businesses are buzzing and that visitors continue to head south and experience everything our region has to offer this summer.
Holiday notice: I’ll be on leave over the Christmas and New Year period and will be back on deck Monday 12 January 2026. My calendar is now open from the 15th January via my booking link.
Regional Business Improvement Program
The objective of the Program is to help SME manufacturers in regional NSW identify and implement continuous improvement/lean principles in their business operations to drive efficiency and productivity improvements.
The Program is offering:
An audit of select SME manufacturers to identify the requirements and expected costs to implement continuous improvement/lean principles in their business operations to drive efficiency and productivity improvements. The audit will investigate the potential for efficiency improvements in each business through the adoption of lean principles.
Thank you for taking the time to read this update.
Don’t forget between our updates you’ll find us on socials, head over to follow us onLinkedInand you’ll also find us onInstagram.
We also encourage you to share our updates with your networks, simply forward this email and they can register here.
Talk soon, The DSSS team
Destination Sydney Surrounds South acknowledges the Aboriginal Nations and Aboriginal People of the Sydney Surrounds South region as the traditional carers and custodians of the land that we all now live and work on. We pay our respect to Elders past and present. Destination Sydney Surrounds South values the diversity of this region and works in partnership with local Aboriginal communities to respectfully celebrate and share Aboriginal culture with visitors to the region and also with locals who live here.
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