Mayor Keith Campbell - Economic Development Portfolio Report - 18 April 2018

North Burnett Regional Council Economic Development 

Council’s Senior Economic Development Officer, Craig Tunley, met with North Burnett Regional Council’s Economic Development Manager, Melanie Lavelle-Maloney in Proston to discuss current projects, tourism, strategic planning and cross border synergies.  The meeting was the first since both started their Council roles in 2017 and will pave the way for further cross-border collaboration.

Initial discussion focussed on economic development planning and tourism marketing.  Further meetings between the Economic Development sections are planned, with the next meeting to be held in late April in Eidsvold, providing opportunity to review the recent renovations at the RM Williams Centre. 

Brisbane Marketing Future Food Bootcamp

Council representatives Craig Tunley and Julie Foley attended Brisbane Marketing’s Future Food Bootcamp with Josh Gadischke, Proteco on 23 March.  The Future Food initiative is an industry development extension of the well-established Regional Flavours Festival held at South Bank annually.  With strong representation at Regional Flavours, the Future Food program is of particular interest to Council as a means of generating continued growth in the local food industry.

It is expected that further activity under the Future Food banner will be implemented in the lead up to Regional Flavours, with potential for more South Burnett businesses to be exposed to the program and its benefits for the region’s food industry.

VIC Statistical Review

A review of Visitor Information Centre Statistics has been completed ready for presentation for Council.  The review was initiated from comments raised at South Burnett Unpacked 2 (Bunya Mountains) and looked at Visitor Numbers, Visitor Comments and Visitor Origins through the period 2008-17.  Analysis of budget for the period 2013-17 enabled determination of a cost per visitor figure as well.  The average cost per visitor across the five (5) VICs has increased less than 25%. The South Burnett VIC Network recorded over 576,000 visitors in the past ten years.  Visitor Origin data suggests that there is opportunity to target markets immediately surrounding South Burnett, as these markets have a lower market share than in 2008, while the interstate market has increased share of visitors over the same period.