100 Years of Tourism New South Wales

History of Tourism New South Wales

An Intelligent Start

In May 1905, at the instigation of the then Premier of New South Wales, Sir Joseph Carruthers, a new government body was established to undertake activities aimed at promoting tourism and immigration to the state. It was given the rather curious title of the New South Wales Intelligence Department.

Its first tasks were to establish a Government Tourist Bureau and to set up an Information Section to carry out advertising activities and collect information and statistics about the State. In its first year of operation the Intelligence Department had a promotion and advertising budget of £3080, five shillings and seven pence.

Within two years the department was in full swing - operating with seven staff from the historic Challis House in Martin Place, Sydney. It had also undergone a name change and from 1908 was known as the NSW Immigration and Tourist Bureau. In those early days tourism was closely linked with immigration and the Bureau's roles included helping to populate the State through its promotions and encouraging Australian residents to visit Sydney and regional areas.

Early Promotions

The Bureau was keen to promote New South Wales as a pastoral idyll using picturesque landscapes of dairy farms and country properties. The Sydney office answered visitor inquiries, arranged itineraries and organised personally conducted tours, the first to the Northern Rivers region in 1906. It coordinated a series of familiarisation visits to introduce new visitors - notably those from Victoria and South Australia - to the many beauty spots within the State. One such tour included accommodation in a leading Sydney hotel; sightseeing which took in the city's main attractions and side trips to the Hawkesbury River, Newport, Kurnell, the National Park, Bulli Pass and the Blue Mountains. All this for the princely sum of £10, ten shillings.

The results of the program were pleasing according to this journal entry:

"Experience has shown that these visitors are so impressed that they become tourist missionaries, and in consequence of their friendly advocacy the interstate traffic has grown considerably."

Expansion

With the growing popularity of snow sports the Bureau seized the opportunity to play a more entrepreneurial role when it opened the Hotel Kosciusko in the Snowy Mountains in 1907.

The aim was to make it the premier holiday and health resort in Australia and attract visitors from across the country as well as travellers from as far away as New Zealand, England, America and India. Less than two years later it had extended the hotel to include, among other facilities - a ballroom.

At the end of the decade the Bureau was marketing its resort and the attractions of the State through a comprehensive array of publications including holiday guides, hotel and boarding house tourist directories, postcards and maps. It was also answering inquiries from overseas tourists who were now arriving on ocean steamers, particularly from the United States.

By 1914 the Bureau had significantly expanded its operations by setting up tourist offices in regional towns including Bathurst, Braidwood and Wollongong. It had also consolidated its hotel success in the Snowy Mountains by taking over management of Jenolan Caves House in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney.

As World War I disrupted travel patterns, the Bureau concentrated its efforts on the local market. It continued to produce information collateral, devise itineraries, arrange guided tours and manage its small portfolio of hotels. By 1918, despite the wartime uncertainties on the home front, tourism traffic within the State had actually grown.

Between the Wars

In 1919 the Department was split and the Immigration portfolio transferred to the Ministry for Labour and Industry, while the Tourist Bureau moved under the wing of the Chief Secretary. The Premier's Department controlled state advertising and the cost of literature, publicity and salaries was paid by an annual Parliamentary appropriation from Consolidated Revenue.

In the 1920's the Bureau marketing activity moved into a new league when it contracted Albert A. Snowden of the New York Snowden Advertising Agency, to run a publicity campaign in America. One of the aims was to encourage people to visit and immigrate to New South Wales.

The Bureau also stepped up its commercial operations, becoming the principal ticket agent for the railways and the coastal steamship companies and selling its own sightseeing trips and packaged tours. During this period its operational status changed from that of a government department to a State Industrial Undertaking. However, this was relatively short lived and on June 30, 1936 the Bureau again became a sub-department of the Chief Secretary's Department.

Less than two years later - on January 1, 1938 and following a Cabinet direction - it was taken over by the Department of Railways and came under the "immediate supervision" of the Secretary for Railways.

The Post War Period

After World War II all Australian States were keen to get on with the business of attracting tourists.

A Commonwealth-State Tourist Officers' Conference was held in Canberra on March 1, 1946 and resolved, "That all Federal and State Departments should be enlisted to co-operate actively in forwarding the interests of the tourism industry".

Later that year the NSW Government again combined Immigration with Tourism and the NSW Ministry of Tourist Activities and Immigration was formed.

In 1954 the Commonwealth Government allocated 20,000 pounds for the promotion of Australia to overseas markets.

Tourism was staring to flourish with the introduction of longer holidays and shorter working hours. The Bureau was operating its own day trips and longer packaged tours, as well as selling tours for commercial operators. Sales and promotion offices were established in other states and development of tourism facilities was encouraged through grants to local government authorities or by matching funds for projects such as tourist roads and caravan parks.

On the Move

In 1962, the immigration and tourism portfolios were again separated.

During the 1960s and 1970s the organisation's main business was providing tourists with information, and booking travel arrangements- chiefly train travel and hotel accommodation in the state. The Bureau also had the monopoly on the lucrative Government travel bookings.

In 1967, the National Parks and Wildlife Service came into being and took over management of Hotel Kosciuszko, along with the Jenolan, Wombeyan and Abercrombie Cave resorts.

The following year the name of the agency was once again changed to the Department of Tourism and coincided with it taking a more active development role. It provided subsidies to encourage the establishment of local tourist associations, information centres and the production of tourist brochures.

The Modern Era

When the Sydney Opera House opened in 1973, the city took its place on the world stage. The harbour, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House became icons of a nation.

In the mid-1970s tourism offices were set up in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide and the Bureau's role in tourism infrastructure development was formalised when the Tourist Industry Development Act was proclaimed in 1976. Its aim was to provide financial assistance to develop 'unique' tourist projects in New South Wales.

In early 1977, the Department entered another new phase. It significantly extended its promotional activities. The guidelines of the Tourist Industry Development Act were also broadened to assist regional promotions and the building of low-cost accommodation.

Following a departmental restructure in 1979, the Adelaide Travel Centre was closed and replaced with a travel services manager while tourist representatives were appointed in London, Auckland and Los Angeles.

In 1980, the guidelines of the Tourist Industry Development Act were further extended to provide assistance to those promoting New South Wales abroad. Plans were in hand to appoint a tourism representative in Tokyo and the Bureau's first London office was opened.

In April 1982, the Department of Leisure, Sport and Tourism was formed and new policies relating to the development, marketing and promotion of tourism were implemented.

A New Commission

In May 1984, the Bill to establish the Tourism Commission of New South Wales was introduced in Parliament, and the following year - on February 1, 1985 - the new Commission came into being.

During this time tourism growth accelerated, boosted by growth in both domestic and international tourism, introduction of new air services and the hosting of major events such as the Australian Bicentennial Celebrations in 1988. Sydney's January 26 celebrations, which included a visit by the Prince and Princess of Wales, drew international acclaim.

Images of the majestic old sailing vessels - the Tall Ships - on the harbour surrounded by a huge flotilla of small boats and yachts, together with the massive fireworks display launched from the Sydney Harbour Bridge, were beamed around the world. The opening of Darling Harbour created a major new leisure precinct and state-of-the-art convention and exhibition centre for the city. Tourism had started to become very big business.

Change was inevitable and on June 9, 1994, the new name 'Tourism New South Wales' was adopted, together with a new logo. The revamped organisation became a more aggressive marketer of New South Wales' holidays. This period also saw the launch of major television advertising campaigns and significant investment in international marketing.

Let the Games Begin

After Sydney won the rights to host the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, in 1993 Tourism New South Wales was caught up in the massive whole of government effort that delivered the "Games of the New Millennium "- "the best Games ever."

In the lead up to the Games, the world's media started to focus on Sydney. Tourism New South Wales in conjunction with the Australian Tourist Commission, hosted thousands of journalists and film crews - each seeking to uncover new angles on the city's history, lifestyle, economy, business environment and tourism experiences. There was a strong focus on extending this media interest into regional areas. Work was also undertaken to leverage commercial opportunities developed in conjunction with sponsors such as VISA and to develop new tourist information programs.

The New Century

In 2003 as the new century clicked into gear and tourism started to recover from the impact of the 9/11 terrorism attacks, Tourism NSW joined the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation. Tourism New South Wales remains a statutory organisation focusing on the business of promoting New South Wales.

Later that same year Sydney successfully hosted the Rugby World Cup, the third largest sporting event in the world, with 20 countries competing for the title. The event received international media attention with an estimated television audience of four billion. During the event there was a 30% increase in visitors to Sydney from the United Kingdom.

Sydney's first stand alone brand campaign - "There's no place in the world like Sydney" - was launched by Tourism New South Wales in May 2004. Not long after the prestigious Conde Nast Traveller Readers' Choice Awards ranked Sydney number one city in the world for a record ninth time. The accolade is a credit to the welcoming people of Sydney and the marketing of the city internationally by the tourism industry and NSW Government.

With Sydney clearly on the global tourism stage, Tourism New South Wales stepped up its promotion of regional NSW. In a ground breaking move, the agency launched its first ever regional advertising campaign featuring five television ads which promoted the NSW North Coast, NSW South Coast, NSW Outback, NSW High Country and Heart of Country NSW.

Tourism New South Wales will mark its 100th birthday with a program of celebrations aimed at highlighting the State's extraordinary achievement in building an industry that now employs more than 250,000 people and contributes $23 billion to the economy.

July 1, 1905 was the date from which the state's first tourism agency was funded and operations commenced. In that year 5,200 international tourists visited NSW. Now we welcome over 25 domestic and international million visitors to the State.

New South Wales can take immense pride in its tourism heritage which has delivered a century of outstanding achievements... and it's now time to look to our future.

Harold Best, Secretary and Director
Frank Gaven, Secretary and Director
Rod Murdoch, Director
Don Beresford, Director
Ken Brown, Director
Paul Crombie, General Manager
Tony Thirlwell, Chief Executive and General Manager
Bill Healey, Director-General and General Manager
Robert Adby, Director-General and General Manager
John O'Neill, Executive Director and General Manager back to top