The long-time traveller may be born and bred in the Central West, but he is not afraid to get out there and see the sites, and now he wants you to.

In mid May he started his new role as the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre manager and so far he’s loving it.

However, Mr Cove’s career with Bathurst Regional Council actually started 18 months ago when he first took on the role of environmental officer.

“It was all about compliance, illegal dumping, noise pollution and environmental programs,” he said.

After 12 months in this role he moved on to business development officer for three months before he saw the perfect job.

“Then the job I really want was advertised, so I applied for it,” he said.

“I am genuinely interested in helping people come to Bathurst as opposed to anywhere else in the world.

“I’m really, really excited to be doing what I’m doing and doing this role is exciting me.”

His venture into the tourism industry is not a new thing, and he has previously worked as the Jenolan Caves operations manager and was on the board of Eco Tourism Australia. He is also currently the International Show Cave Association vice president.

However, these days he will admit travel is a very different “social phenomena”.

“People say they are busy and they have very little discretionary time,” Mr Cove said.

“People have never had more choices presented to them than they have now, so tourism has to be smarter.”

Mr Cove said where the family once would “pack into the car” to go away for a driving holiday, things have changed, with families having more commitments.

Also, he said, the way people research their upcoming holidays had changed greatly thanks to technology.

“They’ve Googled it [their destination] to death,” Mr Cove said.

“Visitor expectation of the experience they want has never been higher. You can’t just meet expectations anymore, you have to exceed them.”

Mr Cove said that travellers these days want to “be a part of the experience”.

“It’s a wealth of experiences and it’s experiences we’re after,” he said. “Cultural heritage is huge on people’s bucket lists these days.”

And, of course, Mr Cove loves to travel himself – whether it is in regional NSW or a far-flung overseas destination.

“I love to travel, I love new experiences so I travel wherever the wind blows me,” he said.

Among his favourite places to travel is the South Island of New Zealand and also the south of Spain.

Speaking about recent terror attacks in London, Manchester and Europe, Mr Cove said they “change people’s perspectives, it changes people’s habits”.

“It saddens me deeply that some of these cities will lose their vibrancy because of a few lunatics,” he said.

Mr Cove said for many people being safe while travelling was vital, and this was why some are choosing to take their holidays in Australia rather than overseas.

“Somewhere like Bathurst is a place that people are gravitating towards,” he said.

“Safety and security is terribly important and we have it in spades.”

Mr Cove said Bathurst was an extraordinary place to promote, and he aims to surprise visitors with sites and experiences that they never knew existed.

“To surprise and confront someone and have them write back [to us to say] that the experience was unforgettable,” he said.

Mr Cove encouraged the community to come along to Bathurst Visitor Information Centre to find out something new about the city’s sites.