Blockbuster sporting battles, artistic and cultural showcases, family-friendly community events and exhibition openings have provided a strong start to summer and 2023 for the state's visitor economy.
The NSW Liberal and Nationals Government has supported 38 events across the state in December, January and February, which are expected to attract more than 230,000 visitors and generate more than $260 million for the visitor economy across their full season run.
Led by the NSW Government's Summer in Sydney event series of OPEN FOR LUNCH, Noël Sydney and ELEVATE Sydney and record-breaking ticket sales at Parkes Elvis Festival, the state's summer event calendar is providing a boost for local accommodation providers, hospitality venues, attractions and retailers.
Minister for Tourism Ben Franklin said the program of new and returning events was drawing visitors to all corners of the state.
"The NSW Liberal and Nationals Government has worked hard to secure a calendar of exclusive, diverse and unmissable events to turbocharge our visitor economy and support local businesses," Mr Franklin said.
"The Summer in Sydney event series has showcased our Harbour City in new, spectacular ways and added value to our full events program.
"This is in addition to incredible, place-defining regional events such as Parkes Elvis Festival and the Tamworth Country Music Festival which attract tens of thousands of visitors collectively.
"By delivering a rich and broad-ranging schedule of regional and city-based sporting, cultural and family events, we attract visitors who stay in our hotels, visit our attractions and spend in our retail stores, restaurants, bars and cafes.
"We're backing events, we're bringing in more visitors through our $60 million Aviation Attraction Fund and we've got world-class experiences in abundance - we are on track for a bumper 2023."
The strong summer program will contribute to and build on the recovery of the state's visitor economy, which has reached $27.9 billion in value.
The latest data from Tourism Research Australia for the year ending September 2022 shows international visitation to NSW continues to rebound exponentially with 946,200 visitors generating $3.6 billion in expenditure in the reporting period.
Other highlights include:
- NSW received 85.8 million domestic overnight and daytrip visitors in the year ending September 2022 (up 19.5% year on year), who spent $31.4 billion (up 40.6%)
- NSW received the largest daytrip visitor and expenditure share (28.6% and 28.3% respectively)
- Sydney reaffirmed its status as Australia's most vibrant capital city, with the highest share of visitors (26.3%), nights (23.1%) and expenditure (24.3%) of all domestic visitors nationally
- Regional NSW leads regional Australia in domestic visitors with 24.2 million overnight visitors to regional NSW (up 17% year on year) who spent $16.6 billion (up 28.9%).
"This growth has been turbocharged over summer, with Sydney Airport reporting its busiest Christmas in 3 years and more than 2.2 million passengers passing through its terminals during the peak holiday period from 12 December 2022 to 1 January 2023," Mr Franklin said.
Get more information about events happening across the state, go to Visit NSW and Sydney.
