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Minister for Tourism and Major Events Adam Marshall visited Port Macquarie for the first time in his ministerial position on February 8 to announce funding for two events.
Member for Port Macquarie Leslie Williams was also in attendance to support the minister’s visit and contribution to the region.
The Tastings on Hastings festival received $20,000 through the NSW government’s 2017 Flagship Event Fund.
The Beatles Festival also received a $5000 grant.
The Flagship Event Fund is set up to boost regional tourism by supporting marketing activities to drive overnight visitation to the region.
Mr Marshall said the grant for the Tastings on Hastings festival would be used to support the event’s continuation and help provide more promotion initiatives.
The minister said it is important to use events whether by showcasing music or food produce as a hook to entice people to stay.
“If we can increase the visitation numbers to an area like Port Macquarie that’s great for everyone and the local economy,” he said.
He said just because an event is small doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve any financial support from the state government.
More broadly Mr Marshall would like to target international visitors who are flying into Sydney but who would be open to visiting the country areas of the state.
“The good thing about Port Macquarie is that it has so much to offer and it’s got really good transport links from a destination like Sydney,” he said
“It’s very easy for people to fly up with the air services you’ve got, the timetables and pricing,” he said.
Mr Marshall said a lot of other regional places are difficult to get to in a timely manner but that factor does not apply to Port Macquarie.
Beatles Festival spokesperson Neil Porter said prior to the grant the event was unable to fully cover their costs and labelled the $5000 grant as a ‘god send’.
“It was totally unexpected,” he said.
“We were wondering how we were going to make ends meet and now we’ll be fine.”
Mrs Williams said it is possible that as the festival grows it will receive more government financial support in the future.
Mr Porter said the organisation team will make another submission for a NSW Destination grant in 2018.
Mrs Williams said the $5000 will be used to help stage the event and also to undertake further research to enable the economic impact of the festival to be quantified.