Community invited to take action on St Arnaud Tourism

Published on 07 December 2021

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The St Arnaud community is being called upon to participate in a tourism survey that will form the basis of Northern Grampians Shire Council’s St Arnaud Tourism Action Plan. The survey will open 10  December 2021 and help identify the vision and aspirations of community members for tourism in St Arnaud for the next five years.

Council has appointed DTM Tourism, a consultancy specialising in tourism business mentoring, to lead the engagement process. The firm has already commenced an initial polling of key tourism industry stakeholders and undertaken site visits to several tourism assets. The survey is the next step in the community engagement process.

The need for an action plan was identified by the community in the St Arnaud Community Plan 2020-30 driven by the Economic Development Strategy and Action Plan and council Vision.

Desired outcomes of the St Arnaud Tourism Action Plan are:

  • To grow the tourism economy across the shire
  • To establish a shared vision of the visitor economy and enable the coordinated delivering of key actions
  • To increase the competitiveness of St Arnaud as a visitor destination and enable strong promotion, levering off existing opportunities
  • To grow jobs and visitor spend in Northern Grampians
  • To unlock and facilitate opportunities for private sector investment in the tourism offering.

Northern Grampians Shire Council Mayor, Cr Tony Driscoll encourages everyone in St Arnaud and surrounds to participate in the community engagement process.

“As a St Arnaud based councillor, I know how passionate this community is about their township and I anticipate that many residents will want to have their say in this survey.

“Council relies heavily on your input to ensure that we provide what you want for your town’s tourism so please hop online and give us your thoughts or call in to customer service for a hard copy of the survey.

“When complete, we hope this process will meld the views of St Arnaud business operators and the community and put everyone on the one path to building a strong and competitive visitor offering and burgeoning tourist economy.”

Further information and the survey is available at www.ngshire.vic.gov.au/StArnaudTourism and paper copies of the survey are available from customer service or the library in St Arnaud. The survey will close on 10 January 2022.