Your Margaret River Region’s visitor centres located at Busselton, Dunsborough, Margaret River and Augusta have secured a slice of the first round of a $4.2 million Liberal-National Government scheme designed to grow regional tourism.
Hon Terry Redman MLA said the Regional Visitor Centre Sustainability Grants Program rewarded innovative ideas to improve visitor experiences and drive repeat business.
“These grants are about empowering local centres to compete in our increasingly online world, where more people are making bookings via the internet,” Mr. Redman said.
“We know the importance of maintaining tourist traffic through visitor centres because research shows they generally spend more and stay longer in regional areas.
“Support for innovation will help sustain and grow the tourism sector, which means more jobs and opportunities in local communities.”
The visitor centres operated by the Margaret River Busselton Tourism Association will receive $120,500 following a matching contribution of $120,000 by the Association itself.
Pip Close, CEO of MRBTA said that the grant will be instrumental in enabling the Association to develop the next generation of visitor centres.
“With the new Your Margaret River Region brand now in place, there is huge potential for the region’s four visitor centres to become the first place where that brand is brought to life once visitors arrive in the region.
The other major opportunity is to equip the visitor centres with the latest digital technology to make visitors aware of the hugely diverse world-class tourism experiences that await them. We are aiming to do this through interactive content development and storytelling, which will help us to service visitors more effectively and, ultimately, provide greater dispersal throughout the region.
Our plan is to develop our visitor centres over a three year period and we will be applying for the second round of funding of this programme in March 2016.”