Destination Download | October 2021

• Skills and Training Survey Reminder | Hospitality + Tourism
• NATOC workshop | Best Practice in Community Engagement
• Destination Drop In | Grant Writing Virtual Workshop
• Funding Opportunities 
• Industry Insights
• Business + Skills Development, Events, Resources

Skills and Training Survey Reminder | Hospitality + Tourism

Tourism and hospitality business owners are encouraged to provide their feedback to a survey developed by the Illawarra South Coast Local Jobs Program Working Group. Insights will assist in determining the skill needs for training programs, to identify job vacancies and employment demand across the region, and to better understand the current situation and future needs of the sector.

The survey has 14 questions, and takes approximately 7 minutes to complete.
All will responses remain confidential and feedback received will also assist Destination Sydney Surrounds South with planning and delivery of the South Coast Centre of Excellence.

Please provide your feedback by next Monday, 11th October.

For information about the survey, please contact the Local Jobs Program Support Officer, Sandra Gray at [email protected] or on 0455 053 240.

NATOC workshop | Best Practice in Community Engagement

Join us for a 90 minute virtual workshop, presented by NATOC.

The session will be a look into some key concepts in gaining the best awareness around respectful approaches, opportunities and familiarisation within the Aboriginal business and tourism space.

NATOC’s combination of skilled industry expertise along with lived continued tourism product experience brings together the best of both worlds to move forward.

Key topics to be covered include:

• Gain a better understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives
• Build a knowledge base on more proactive ways of engaging with communities
• Assist in building a baseline understanding of Indigenous knowledge systems
• How the diversity of language, culture and tradition is a tangible breathing concept
• Develop positive and proactive relationships in a range of aspects in the community sector

Destination Drop In series | Grant Writing Virtual Workshop

With a significant range of funding programs available for tourism and events, we are pleased to offer a Grant Writing webinar as part of our Destination Drop In series.

Learn from successful grant writers, Linda Tillman and Kushla Gale of Tilma Group, on how to write applications that have a higher chance of securing funding and hear from guest presenters (further announcements to follow).

• WHEN: Wednesday 20th October, at 11am
• WHERE: Online via Teams

Registrations are essential for this free event. REGISTER HERE

Quick interviews + previous webinars
Catch up on previous sessions and quick interviews with Aaron Matis, our Industry Development Manager, as he chats with business owners and operators, as well as government and non-government industry stakeholders. Watch here.

Accommodation Support Grant now available

Hotels and accommodation providers who experienced cancellations as a result of COVID-19 restrictions, can now access financial support, through the Accommodation Support Grant. Eligible applicants will be required to show booking cancellations between Friday 25 June and Sunday 11 July inclusive as a result of the lockdown restrictions.
Accommodation providers can apply for the grants via the Service NSW website.

Regional Events Acceleration Fund

The NSW Government’s $20 million Regional Events Acceleration Fund is still open for applications.
The program includes two streams of funding with $50,000 to $200,000 available per grant. Applications close 17 December, or when fully committed.
Event organisers are encouraged to read the guidelines prior to applying.
Read more and apply here.

A report card on the Australian tourism industry 2020-21

Australia’s tourism industry has grappled with the impacts of COVID-19 for more than 18 months. Tourism Research Australia has released its latest data on the tourism industry. The data gives insights into how the industry responded to these challenges during 2020–21. Read more for the five features that defined tourism in 2020-21.

NVS results for year ending June 2021 now available 

As at the year ending June 2021, total domestic overnight visitor expenditure decreased by 21 per cent to $61.3 billion compared to $77.5 billion for the same period in 2019. The National Visitor Survey (NVS) results provide statistics on how Australian residents travel within Australia. The report also contains information on the factors influencing travel within Australia and charts the changes compared over various timeframes impacted by bushfires and COVID-19.
 

Latest National Visitor Survey results released for July 2021

Tourism Research Australia has released the snapshot for the month of July 2021. 
It provides statistics on how Australian residents travelled in your state or territory and nationally during this period. July 2021 saw a deterioration in results after months of gradual recovery in domestic travel earlier in the year. This was due to a rise in COVID-19 Delta variant clusters, resulting in widespread lockdowns and border restrictions expanding across the country.

New resources for the NSW First program

The NSW Government has launched a set of new guides to bolster tourism businesses resilience to bushfires and other natural disasters as part of the NSW First program.

The three guides provide information on how to prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters. They have been developed by Destination NSW, in collaboration with Resilience NSW and the NSW Rural Fire Service, in response to recommendations from the NSW Bushfire Inquiry.

Webinar Series: Facebook and Instagram for Tourism

Tourism businesses can join a series of free Facebook and Instagram for Tourism webinars, featuring presenters from Facebook and the Destination NSW social media team. Each webinar in the series will: 

• Share tips for optimising your tourism business’ social presence 
• Inspire new ideas to capture and create effective content  
• Highlight how to effectively engage visitors through Facebook and Instagram  
• Provide tools and resources to assist you to promote your online presence

Restaurant & Catering | Customer Service – online short courses

Destination NSW has partnered with Restaurant and Catering Australia to deliver three, free online short courses – known as micro credentials – for NSW tourism and hospitality businesses. On completion of each course, you will receive a digital badge which is a recognised credential to add to your CV and your LinkedIn profile. Course topics include:

• Customer Service
• Managing Customer Expectations (Covid-19)
• Emtional Awareness in Customer Service

Event Industry Bounce Back Chats

Hosted by Australian Regional Events Alliance (AREA), the regular event industry chats are back. Join the sessions to have direct access to an outstanding line up of marketing, strategy and event development guru’s from across the regional event industry – the Industry Bounce Back Chats are a chance for you to keep up to date and tackle problems in real time. Next chat is Friday 15th October, at 12pm.
Read more and join the conversation here.

Sustainability support for NSW businesses

• NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
• NSW Environment Protection Authority
• NSW Sustainable Business and Government
• Sustainability Advantage

• NSW Environmental Trust Environmental Grants
• Commercial Refrigerator Rebates
• Bin Trim Rebates Program
• Building Upgrade Finance
• Coastal Estuary Grants
• Circular Challenge Funding Scheme
• Love Food Hate Waste
• Basix