Bathurst Council and Project Elevate looking to boost tourism

A group of local business owners have joined forces with a common goal, to take Bathurst tourism to the next level.

And meetings between the group - Project Elevate - and Bathurst mayor Jess Jennings are underway, with ambassador Matt Moran keen to help unlock the region's tourism potential.

The acclaimed chef bought The Rockley Pub in 2021 and is invested in doing his bit to help the Bathurst area boom.

"I think Bathurst has always been renowned for the Bathurst 1000, which is fantastic, but it should be only one element of what Bathurst can give," Mr Moran said.

"Architecturally it's got beautiful old buildings, it's a Macquarie town so it's got a beautiful history, it's got an amazing river that runs straight through the middle of it, and it was one of the founding inland cities in the country.

"I just think we've never seen Bathurst's true potential but hopefully we will."

Project Elevate member Hamish Keith was instrumental in getting the group together.

The owner of luxury accommodation businesses Wilga Station and The Wool Store, Mr Keith said Bathurst has some amazing offerings and he hopes by privatising the region's tourism marketing and PR the group will be able to help take Bathurst to the next level.

Mr Keith found the total tourist expenditure for 2022 in Orange was 51 percent more than in Bathurst, with Orange totalling $578,000,000 compared to $383,000,000 in Bathurst, according to Destination NSW.

Mr Keith said the data shows that Bathurst needs to close the gap fast.

And with Orange's tourism sector outsourced to Orange360, Mr Keith said by following suit and creating Project Elevate there's no reason Bathurst can't match surrounding regions like Orange and Mudgee in the tourism department.

"What we're doing is not reinventing the wheel here at all, we're just doing catch-up," he said.

"We do have the offerings here but Bathurst has never targeted medium to high-end audiences before.

"We'll be sending surveys out to over 100 retail, tourism and hospitality businesses. Retail is going to be a huge player in this, retail has never been part of Bathurst tourism before so we're adding a whole new sector to it."

While the plan is to take the helm of the tourism ship, Mr Keith said Project Elevate will not be taking over from the Bathurst Visitors Information Centre, rather working in conjunction with the service and council.

Bathurst mayor Jess Jennings said he fully supports the notion, and while there's still a lot of information to work out, he expects having a private tourism body run by people whose livelihoods largely depend on local tourism will be a great thing for the community.

"I've had a strong interest in reforming our tourism sector since before I got on council," Cr Jennings said.

"So what I see is we have a tourism industry that is doing well, but I think could do a lot better and has potential to really kick on to another level.

"To do that, council has to have a serious look at its role and potentially reduce the role it plays in tourism, because its a local government first and foremost, it's not a tourism body."

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