Blue Mountains Tourism (BMT) will create more than 1000 local jobs and re-introduce the destination to the world through a $2.609 million bushfire recovery grant.
The grant was announced last week under round two of Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Funding, a press release said.
Jointly funded by the Federal and State governments, the program supports social and economic recovery in regional communities most affected by the 2019-20 bushfires.
Blue Mountains Tourism, as the leading tourism authority in the region, will administer and manage the Blue Mountains Visitor Economy Revitalisation Project, a two-year destination management program that will reinstate the Blue Mountains as a key tourist destination in NSW and Australia.
It will involve destination branding, marketing, website development, major events, industry communications and a business resilience program.
BMT will deliver the project in partnership with Blue Mountains City Council, which will deliver the industry development and branding component.
The Blue Mountains was one of the hardest hit regions in the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires with a loss of 2500 jobs and $341 million to the local economy, not including environmental and social impacts.
The fires were followed by the Covid-19 pandemic which further decimated the tourism industry which, even now, is struggling to recover from a lack of consumer confidence, border closures and lockdowns.
Blue Mountains Tourism president Jason Cronshaw said tourism, as the second largest employer in the region with more than 3000 jobs (16 per cent), was critical to the Mountains economy.
With the project set to deliver a new consumer brand for the Blue Mountains (lead by the council), the visitbluemountains.com.au website upgrade, a new CovidSafe destination event, as well as a 24-month rolling marketing campaign, the Blue Mountains will be well placed to compete with other destinations nationally and internationally once borders re-open.