Minister for Tourism and Major Events, George Souris, and Member for Monaro, John Barilaro, today announced a $305,000 NSW Government grant for Tourism Snowy Mountains that promises to attract more visitors to the region.

Mr Souris and Mr Barilaro presented the cheque to Tourism Snowy Mountains representatives in Jindabyne today while visiting the region to meet with local stakeholders.

“The funding is being provided for two separate marketing campaigns. The first is a winter campaign to highlight the best our NSW ski resorts have to offer. The second is a campaign to encourage more visitors to experience the Snowy Mountains during the warmer months outside of the ski season,” Mr Souris said.

“This will give a much needed boost to a region that has plenty to offer visitors all year round, and offers a range of attractions that cannot be found anywhere else in the state. The funding will be matched by Tourism Snowy Mountains, meaning the total campaign spend will be more than $600,000.”

Mr Barilaro thanked local tourism representatives for the hard work they do to showcase the Snowy Mountains region to Australia and the rest of the world.

“Tourism is vital to the Monaro region. We welcomed over 1.3 million visitors in the year ended September 2013. These visitors injected over $630 million into the local economy, and we must strive to grow that figure in the coming year,” Mr Barilaro said.

“With a large number of local athletes competing at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, it’s important that we do all we can to market the Snowy Mountains region, encouraging tourism, job creation and participation in winter and summer sports. No other region of the state can offer what can; and there is no better time to showcase what our region has to offer.”

“Today’s funding announcement will provide additional support to attract even more visitors to enjoy the region all year round, which can only be a good thing for local shops, hotels, restaurants and attractions.”

The NSW Government has committed nearly $22 million to the Regional Visitor Economy Fund over three years – a $6 million increase from the previous three year period – to help boost the economies in Regional NSW. Tourism in Regional NSW was worth more than $13.7 billion in visitor expenditure at year end September 2013, an increase of over 11 per cent on the previous year.