City of Newcastle has set its sights on capturing more of the lucrative leisure tourism market by encouraging visitors to discover the city's eclectic and unexpected experiences.
Maintaining the colourful 'Newcastle' brand with the new tagline and campaign 'Seek Off Beat', City of Newcastle (CN) aims to increase awareness of the city's diverse mix of tourism offerings, driving both day and overnight visitation to Newcastle.
City of Newcastle Acting Manager Major Events & Corporate Affairs Georgia Lazzari said through its Destination Management Plan 2021-2025, CN is strategically focused on positioning the city as a premier tourism destination, with quirky visitor experiences as well as its signature offerings.
"Our new tourism tagline 'Seek Off Beat' taps into the curiosity of potential visitors by encouraging them to look beyond their existing perceptions and discover a vibrant, sophisticated city with stimulating culture, history and coastal experiences," Ms Lazzari said.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said illuminating the City's visitor economy strengths would provide an important boost to the economy and further support local job creation.
"Newcastle is steeped in heritage, bustling with arts and culture, with a lively night-time economy, and world-class major events," Cr Nelmes said.
"Prior to COVID-19, Newcastle's thriving tourism industry contributed more than $945 million to the local economy each year and supported 4,920 jobs, with the city welcoming more than 5.1 million international and domestic visitors.
"As we face the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 in the Hunter region, there is significant opportunity for a tourism-led economic recovery, with initiatives and projects designed to attract new visitors and increase tourist spend.
"We've seen the industry show confidence in Newcastle's leisure tourism potential, investing significantly to deliver our first two five-star hotels in the heart of our city's cultural precinct.
"From 2024, an expanded Newcastle Airport terminal will welcome more than 250,000 international passengers annually as a result of runway upgrades that will cater to Boeing 787s and Airbus A330s, enabling direct flights to more international destinations.
"To help attract more leisure visitors, a key action in the Newcastle's Destination Management Plan has been to work with the business sector to increase the number of bookable visitor experiences on offer.
"By continuing to raise awareness of our city's unique offerings in a way that appeals to visitors from outside the region and abroad, Newcastle's future as an international tourism and major events destination is bright."
The new tourism brand will be in market for stage one of a multifaceted campaign on 4 August 2022 for an initial period of eight weeks.
www.visitnewcastle.com.au/Seek-Off-Beat
