Project SCAN – A collaborative effort to help drought affected areas in NSW

Project SCAN is a partnership between Tourism Snowy Mountains, Capital Country Tourism, Australian Capital Tourism and Tourism NSW. Each organisation is contributing financially with the aim of stimulating tourism throughout Canberra and the surrounding regions.

Tim Fischer, Chairman of Tourism Australia and Ambassador for SCAN, says how critical it is, particularly during the drought, to get travellers out into our regional communities to give the bush a helping hand. Sad but true, he says, scents are better during a drought as are many country roads and the night skies are crystal clear.

This two year project, covering many local council areas, is about people working together and working smarter. It will analyse existing research and work out how to fill the gaps, with community people and businesses sharing commercial information and knowledge to assist in creating quality visitor experiences, turning new opportunities into dollars. “We have five million visitors in Australia each year but they don’t spend enough money or stay long enough” says Tim Fischer, “We need to encourage foreign tourists away from the Harbour Bridge, the Barrier Reef and Uluru”.

One of the project’s aims is to be transparent in its findings – whether they are good or bad. It will also look closely at social trends to try and determine what will happen socially in the future. Some of the interesting findings in this area have been that we will need to work harder to maintain our current standard of living and also that happiness increases as choices decrease!