The Council adopted its Ararat Visitor Economy Strategy 2018-2021 at its July meeting on Tuesday.

In his report to the council, Tourism and Community Information manager Matt Wood said the strategy looked at future growth of visitor economy in the municipality.

“To capture growth from an economic and visitation perspective, it was recognised that an updated framework was required to provide strategic direction over the coming four-year period,” he said.

“The strategy identified that the strengths of the region were found in nature based tourism, Heritage history, wine, National Parks and villages.”

Mr Wood said one of the main objectives of the strategy was to analyse the current tourism industry to find gaps and potential future opportunities.

Other objectives included identifying tourism opportunities from federal and state governments, and private investment, and uniting internal council operations by having a shared tourism vision.

“The strategy has been developed in consultation with internal and external stakeholders including local businesses, community members, business groups, local and state government,” he said. 

Councillor Peter Beales asked whether the strategy was locked in with council’s other strategies.

Council chief executive officer Allan Bawden replied that it was.

“This consultation has been right across the region to embed this strategy with others,” Mr Bawden said.

Cr Beales noted the work that had gone into creating the tourism strategy.

“I know there’s a been a lot of work involved in this and there is potential financial commitment, but they are well managed,” he said.

“Tourism is a really important industry not just for our area, but also for our neighbouring councils. We need to support them.”

Cr Bill Braithwaite agreed with Cr Beales.

“I think it’s a very important piece of work as it means that we’ll have to think very seriously in the coming years on how we use our natural resources to support this strategy,” he said.

Cr Jo Armstrong said there was great economic potential in future tourism opportunities.

“There will be return on investment for council in supporting this strategy, but the community will also benefit as it will help build regional pride,” she said.

Both Mayor Gwenda Allgood and Mr Wood agreed that further discussion of the strategy would be of benefit.