Enriching our way of life
High-quality cultural, sporting and tourism infrastructure make NSW an exciting place to visit and encourage spending in local communities, ultimately leading to more jobs and stronger local economies.
This enhances the quality of life of the people of NSW and contributes to the development of vibrant, healthy and cohesive communities. Delivering high-quality infrastructure is key to ensuring stronger links between different sectors of the visitor economy, supporting visitor needs and increasing the appeal of destinations. The NSW tourism and events industry supports more than 260,000 jobs, which equates to one in 14 jobs in the state.
The NSW Government is developing a number of strategies to ensure effective investment in culture, sport and tourism infrastructure across NSW:
- We are developing a Cultural Infrastructure Action Plan 2018, outlining the government’s vision.
- We will also develop a Sport Infrastructure Strategy and a whole-of-sector investment framework.
- We will develop a Tourism Infrastructure Strategy to establish a whole-of-sector, evidence-based framework to guide investment in state-owned tourism and visitor economy–related infrastructure.
- The mid-term review of the Visitor Economy Industry Action Plan, and the Tourism and Transport Plan as part of the Future Transport Strategy 2056 are due to be released in 2018. Transport investments will be especially important for supporting tourism opportunities in regional NSW.
- We will finalise business cases for Sydney Football Stadium and Stadium Australia.
These strategies will help ensure NSW has modern facilities that offer a great experience for artists, sportspeople and fans. This will allow NSW to attract national and international events; and will help create
great local communities by promoting arts, culture, sport and visitation in Western Sydney and across regional NSW.
The NSW Government is also exploring ways to support related business and industries:
- The cruise industry is experiencing record growth in NSW. In 2016–17, it provided $1.6 billion in direct tourism expenditure and more than 12,800 jobs. The NSW Government, with industry representatives, is preparing a Cruise Development Plan and business case to explore ways to solve cruise berthing capacity issues in Sydney.
- Sydney Airport needs to operate efficiently to support Sydney’s growth until 2026, when Western Sydney Airport will open. The NSW Government is engaging with Sydney Airport Corporation on the review of its master plan.