29 June, 2023

Advertising application form for the 2023 Destinations Guide

Council is in the process of preparing the 2023 Visit Upper Lachlan Destination Guide and is reminding advertisers it’s time to submit your information if you want to be included.

The Destination Guide is Council’s primary hard copy promotional publication and complements the Visitor Information centre’s extensive social media channels and the Visit Upper Lachlan website.

Advertisers in the guide have typically included accommodation, entertainment, retail, attractions, events, services and food and eating venues.

The Guide is distributed to Visitor Information Centres and businesses across the state to entice people to visit the region when next they travel, or to extend their current journey in this direction. As such it offers an unrivalled opportunity to advertise your business across such a large area.

The Guide is also distributed to walk-in visitors to the Crookwell Visitor Information Centre to assist them in determining what to do, where to stay and what to eat and drink whilst in the area.

Intending advertisers can download an application form from the website, grab one in person from the Crookwell Visitor Information Centre, call on (02) 4832 1988 or contact us by email at info@visitupperlachlan.com.au. Closing date for advertising submissions is 31 July 2023.

9 June, 2023

We want your photos – #2023loveourshire

We want your photos!

Send us your photos highlighting the best the Upper Lachlan Shire has to offer, for your chance to be showcased on the front cover of the 2023 Upper Lachlan Destination Guide.

Your photo will be printed over 10,000 times and distributed all over NSW, showcased on the Visit Upper Lachlan website and social media for everyone to see for 2 years!

To Enter:

1. Upload your photos to Instagram with the tags #2023loveourshire and @upplachtourism

2. Follow Upper Lachlan Tourisum’s Instagram account “upplachtourism”

3. Follow us on Facebook “Visit Upper Lachlan – The Shire of Villages”

Competition opens June 12 2023 and closes 11:59pm July 15 2023

For full terms and conditions visit: https://www.visitupperlachlan.com.au/photo-competition-terms-and-conditions/

30 May, 2022

Tourism Happenings – May 2022

Tourism Meet & Greet

 

On Tuesday 10 May 2022 our Tourism Unit held the first of its Meet & Greets. It was a great success! Every month people from different sectors will be asked to speak about their business or industry and promote their product.

 

This month Belinda Foley from Beelinda’s Bee Hive was provided the opportunity to provide tastings of her award winning honeys and speak about her most recent awards.

 

Collector Wines and Hatherleigh and Laggan Estate kindly sponsored the wine tastings. It is our intention to have tastings by our local producers every month.

 

The get togethers will be held on the second Tuesday evening of each month and provide an opportunity for business and community groups’ shire wide who are involved in the visitor economy to network, share ideas, and gain an understanding of each other’s businesses so that we can cross promote each other.

 

The next get together is scheduled for Tuesday June 14th at 5.30pm at the Crookwell Visitor Information Centre. Please RSVP for catering purposes to info@visitupperlachlan.com.au.

 

Development of new Destination Management Plan (DMP) Industry & Stakeholder Session

 

Each of the Destination networks is currently reviewing their DMPs.

 

The aim of this collaboration is to ensure shared consistency across the series of plans, while leveraging uniqueness and maintaining the focus of each region.

 

This process includes a wide range of stakeholder engagement, including with Councillors, Council staff, industry and sector stakeholders.

 

On the 9th May, Mayor Kensit and I participated along with Industry, stakeholders and Council participants from Upper Lachlan & Goulburn Mulwaree Councils in the Stakeholder session run by appointed project consultants, TRC tourism.

 

It was a great opportunity for stakeholders to get involved in big picture planning for our entire Southern Region. Thank you to those who attended. Your input was greatly appreciated.

 

 

Southern Tablelands Art Regional Advisory Panel Meeting

 

The Deputy Mayor, Mandy McDonald and I attended our first Regional Advisory Panel Meeting as appointed delegates of Southern Tablelands Arts for our Shire.

 

The meeting was held at the stunning National Trust property, Retford Park in Bowral. We along with all other delegates provided Arts & Culture updates for our regions.

 

It provided a fabulous opportunity to network, discuss challenges and opportunities, grant funding and learn about what other Councils across Southern NSW have been up to and have planned in the Arts & Cultural Space.

 

As an added bonus we got to meet and witness an inspiring heart felt session with the STA Artist in Residence at Retford Park as well as finishing the day with a tour of the fabulous John Olsen exhibition at Ngunggula, Southern Highlands Regional Gallery.

 

It is an incredible state of the art gallery and a partnership between the NSW State Government, Wingecarribee Shire Council, the National Trust and donors.

 

Do you run a business or micro business in the Upper Lachlan Shire?

 

If you run a business, micro business, not for profit or community organisation in the Upper Lachlan Shire we would like you to get in touch if you are not receiving correspondence from us.

 

We are trying to update our contact lists and want to ensure that every business in our Shire is listed.

 

Having correct details is important to ensure we can keep you up to date with important information that may be relevant to your businesses such as Grants and Courses as well as the latest happenings from The Tourism Unit and things available for you to be involved in.

 

Free Digital Skills Accelorator Program for Businesses in NSW Visitor Economy

 

Destination NSW has partnered with digital consultancy Tourism Tribe to offer the free program to accommodation providers, tour companies and visitor attractions to help transform their online marketing.

 

In addition to a customised digital health check report, successful applicants will also receive two, one-hour consultation sessions with a digital advisor and access to a course library to help improve their knowledge and digital skills.

 

The Digital Skills Accelerator for Tourism program will be open to 150 tourism businesses in NSW.

 

To review eligibility criteria and apply, visit: www.tourismtribe.com/programs/dnsw2022/

 

Learn more about Destination NSW’s NSW First Program here:

 

https://www.destinationnsw.com.au/tourism/business-development-resources/nsw-first-workshops-program

30 April, 2022

Tourism Happenings – April 2022

 

By CHRISTIANE COCUM

Manager of Tourism and Economic Development

 

First and foremost, we hope you all had an amazing Easter and got to enjoy some of the numerous activities that occurred across our Shire and of course, lots of chocolate! If you were lucky you may have even got a pic with the Easter Bunny at Light up Crookwell or Easter In The Park!

 

Small Business Expo

 

Towards the end of March I visited the Upper Lachlan Small Business Association (ULSBA) small business expo, which was a great success.

 

It was lovely to meet and chat to the array of small businesses represented there.

 

Showcasing the Shire

 

We then headed around the Shire filming with Destination Southern NSW who had secured funding through the Bushfire Local Recovery Economy Fund to film a Visit NSW Tourism Campaign for three impacted Council’s, Upper Lachlan, Goulburn Mulwaree & Queanbeyan Pallerang.

 

Upper Lachlan was featured in three of the five trails that were filmed & designed to take people on planned road trips across our region.

 

It was great to see some local Upper Lachlan Shire residents including our young family and young couple involved and score a paid acting gig for the day! It was a fun and special experience, promoting the Upper Lachlan Shire and great for everyone to be a part of.

 

As part of the filming, numerous small businesses and natural assets along the trails were featured, showcasing our Shire in this incredible footage. Thank you to those businesses who took part.

 

The footage and images will be featured on Visit NSW as part of a specialised trails advertising campaign and given to Council for promotion of our region.

 

Community events

 

Our Council-run free events were a huge success and it was an absolute delight to see children and adults alike embrace the Easter Festivities and just have a whole heap of fun!!!!!

 

These events happen because of a community of people who pull together to deliver something great for our community.

 

My team and I want to thank the small businesses in the main street who allowed access to their roof awnings to enable the lighting to be installed. An extra special thank you to the Post Office and Elders who allowed internal access to enable the patterned lighting to be installed.

 

My thanks to everyone at Council across all Departments and Deputy Mayor McDonald for your help in the lead up and on the day and to Mayor Kensit, Cr Reynolds, Cr N McDonald, Louise Gibbs & Jane Wray for your help in delivering this wonderful event for our community. It was a great team effort!

 

The hugest of thank yous to Rose Marin from Southern Tablelands Arts for providing the outdoor movie screen and the badge making and zine making activities which were full up before we officially opened. Rose put in a stellar effort and pressed over 200 badges for some very excited kids.

 

We are intending to build on Easter In The Shire for next year, so please get in touch if you are offering an event or experience that can be included in the marketing for next year.

 

Council run, Light up Crookwell and Easter In The Park were both huge successes and the feedback we have received from the community, business community and visitors has been overwhelming to say the least.

 

We would also like to encourage anyone who took photos or videos of the Easter events to forward them to info@visitupperlachlan.com.au we will be putting together a display of the photos for visitors and the community to enjoy. We would also love to hear any feedback you may have.

 

Finally, I want to thank my team of Vivienne Flanagan and Jean O’Neill and would like to welcome Sara Page to the Tourism Team.

 

Sara has taken up the role of Digital Media & Visitor Experience Officer as of last week. She will be responsible for the day to day operation of The Visitor Information Centre as well as our Social media content going forward. So please take a moment to welcome her.

 

Networking events

 

In other news we will be hosting the first of our networking events at The Visitor Information Centre next month on Tuesday 10th May between 5.30pm and 6.30pm at The Visitor Information Centre.

 

This is open to all businesses, operators, community groups & organisations across the Shire. Our first one will be an informal meet and greet.

 

Drinks and nibbles will be provided and we sincerely hope you can join us please send us an email to info@visitpperlachlan.com.au to let us know if you will be attending.

 

RELATED: Crookwell’s Easter fetsivities judged a great success

 

25 April, 2022

Crookwell’s Easter festivities judged a great success

 

Easter in the Shire proved to be a resounding success with Council receiving an overwhelming response to its free Council run events “Light up Crookwell” and “Easter in the Park”.

 

Tourism Manager, Christiane Cocum said it was an absolute joy to see the way the community and visitors wholeheartedly embraced what had been put together.

 

“The joy on people’s faces including the delightful squeals from kids who not only got to have cuddles and dance with the Easter Bunny in the lights and at Easter in the Park but also interact with a range of roving performers was immeasurable,” she said.

 

“It was all just so much fun. Everywhere you looked people of all ages were smiling, laughing and enjoying themselves.”

 

Council secured a NSW Government Festival of Place Grant for “Light up Crookwell” and to work with the revered lighting team from Luminous Entertainment who enabled us to see Crookwell’s beautiful main street in a whole new light, spectacularly lit up.

 

Deputy Mayor, Mandy McDonald also came up with the fabulous idea to run a guided tour of the historical buildings under lights which was well attended on both nights.

 

Another highlight was our very entertaining Easter Bunny who took photos with Businesses and the community. He was a little mischievous and certainly loved to boogie.

 

Hundreds of people streamed through the gates of Crookwell Memorial Oval for Easter in the Park for a fabulous afternoon of fun and frivolity.

 

“It dawned on me about two thirds of the way through the event that I had not seen any kids on their devices, they were all just enjoying the entertainment and activities,” Ms Cocum said.

 

“Adults and kids joined in and it was such a fun filled afternoon of live music, arts and activities provided by Southern Tablelands Arts, Roving performers and a fire show.”

 

The egg and spoon and bunny hop races were well enjoyed with people of all ages participating and cheering on from the sidelines.

 

Mayor Pam Kensit was only just pipped at the post in the adult’s egg and spoon race while Deputy Mayor and MC for the afternoon, Mandy McDonald, was nearly bowled over whilst leading kids to the Easter egg hunt.

 

Ms Cocum said she had been overwhelmed by everyone who had personally come up to her and her team to thank them, emailed, messaged or commented on social media.

 

“We can’t wait to do it again next year and are in the process of applying for several grants to make it bigger and better,” she said.