DSSS Industry Update | July 2023

July 4th, 2023

DSSS Board Director Changes

Destination Sydney Surrounds South would like to formally farewell three of our longest serving board members; Chair and Director, Catherine Shields, along with Directors Frank Howarth AM, and Scott Bridgement.

We sincerely thank Catherine, Frank and Scott, for all their hard work, dedication and invaluable guidance that has helped strengthen DSSS as an organisation and grow the visitor economy over the past seven years. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours!

With the changing of the guard, we would also like to congratulate and welcome the new Chair of Destination Sydney Surrounds South, Lyndel Gray, and new Directors:

Libby Cupitt (Strategic Partnership Manager, Cupitt’s Estate),
Roger Stephan (CEO, Illawarra Shoalhaven Joint Organisation) and
David Campbell (F&B Operations Manager, The Shellharbour Club).

Libby, Roger and David will join Lyndel and ongoing Director Mark Bourne.

We are very excited to have such a diverse wealth of knowledge and experience on our board, and look forward to continuing to support and grow the visitor economy with their collective support.

Destination NSW & NSW First Programs

Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard

Destination NSW has partnered with Ecotourism Australia to provide free access to the pre-certification Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard for eligible NSW visitor economy businesses. The free Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard supports visitor economy businesses including attractions, tours and accommodation providers to assess their current performance across the four pillars of sustainability:

Environmental impacts
Socio-economic impacts
Cultural impacts
Sustainable management.

Measuring business performance can assist with making informed decisions and taking steps to enhance and promote sustainable practices.

The scorecard will help visitor economy businesses to:

Learn how business can positively impact people, the planet and culture
Evaluate current sustainability performance (in less than a day*)
Receive personalised and practical insights for continuous improvement
Clarify and simplify sustainability practices through a snapshot evaluation.

* The scorecard can be completed at your own pace. The average completion time is 4 to 8 hours.

Expressions of interest open on 23 June 2023. Places are limited. Successful applicants will be notified by email and provided with log-in details to commence the scorecard.

Find out more and apply now!

The fully-funded Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard is delivered by Destination NSW in partnership with Ecotourism Australia as part of the NSW First Program, which assists businesses across the state to Develop, Promote and Sell world-class visitor experiences.

Image: Destination NSW

DNSW Digital Accelerator for Tourism: eMarketing 2023

Destination NSW in collaboration with Tourism Tribe is offering this fully funded Digital Skills Accelerator for Tourism: eMarketing, designed to advance visitor economy businesses with digital support and training.

The eMarketing content will provide NSW accommodation, tours and attraction businesses with knowledge and skills to maximise artificial intelligence (AI) tools, Canva, eMarketing platforms and video content to increase website visitation, formulate email marketing campaigns, generate new leads, and create a digital brochure to use as a lead magnet.

As part of this free Digital Skills Accelerator, participants will receive:

Three 90 minute live online workshops
Two 1:1 one-hour coaching sessions
Twelve online group coaching sessions
Access to Online Self-Paced Learning Library for six months

This fully funded Digital Skills Accelerator for Tourism: eMarketing is delivered by Destination NSW in collaboration with Tourism Tribe as part of the NSW First Program to assist visitor economy businesses across the state to Develop, Promote and Sell world-class visitor experiences.

Image: Destination NSW

NSW First | ATEC Host Market Specialist Training

Destination NSW has partnered with the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) to provide free access for internationally-ready NSW tour, attraction and accommodation businesses to access three ATEC Host online learning modules.

These include:

China Host
India Host
Accessible & Inclusive Host

By completing these training programs, you will learn how to:

Effectively attract and service visitors from key markets by being culture-ready, product & service ready, and marketing & trade ready
Work effectively with key travel distributors

This collaboration is part of the NSW First Program, delivered by Destination NSW to assist visitor economy businesses to develop, promote and sell world-class visitor experiences.

Image: Destination NSW

Industry Assistance

NSW Grants & Funding Finder

Business owners across the State can now enjoy the same convenience as individuals when trying to navigate the range of financial help available from the NSW Government with more than 500 grant and funding offerings accessible from one easy-to-use webpage.

The NSW Grants and Funding Finder is a one-stop shop for people to locate the financial support they need, when they need it, by bringing together savings, rebates and budget relief from 46 separate government websites into one place.

The finder is part of a broader project to make it easier for people and businesses to find information, complete tasks and provide feedback through a single location at nsw.gov.au

It has been developed by the Department of Customer Service in partnership with the Department of Regional NSW and Service NSW.

The NSW Grants and Funding Finder is available at: nsw.gov.au/grants-and-funding

Between our updates you’ll find us on the socials – head over to follow us on LinkedIn and you’ll also find us on Instagram. We also encourage you to share our updates with your networks, simply forward this email and they can register here.

Speak soon,
The DSSS team