BATHURST Regional Council appears to have found a winning formula to support its strategy to boost the city’s visitor economy.
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The National Motor Racing Museum held a Father's Day event for the first time this year and the figures revealed in a report to council are very telling.
Cultural and community services director Alan Cattermole said in the report that a total of 415 people attended the museum during the event, 307 which were visitors to the city.
This generated $4098 of total income and is a marked improvement on the same day in 2015, where there were just 53 visitors and $1091 of income.
At Wednesday night’s meeting, councillors indicated they were keen to see Father’s Day celebrations return to the museum in 2017.
Councillor Michael Coote, who attended the event with his sons, on Thursday said he heard a lot of feedback from people on the day, much of it from those who had never been to the museum before.
He said the event was targeted at people from the 2795 postcode, but seeing people come from outside Bathurst was a good result.
“We always have a lot of tourists go around the Mount and when you see a big crowd of people, you go over to see what’s happening,” he said.
“I think it was great to have so many people from out of town.”
Cr Coote would like to see council hold the event again next year and improve upon the attractions, which included free admission to the museum for fathers, a sausage sizzle and coffee and morning tea from the Al Dente food van.
“You put it on once and you hope it can get bigger and grow,” he said.
“Hopefully we can make it even bigger next year.”
Councillor Greg Westman said that with takings up by a considerable amount and dads generally being car enthusiasts, it would make sense to bring the event back in the future.
“The National Motor Racing Museum is a fantastic facility with great displays and it was great to see such great patronage [for the event],” he said.
Hopefully we can make it even bigger next year.
- Councillor Michael Coote