It was great to hear from one of our own members Katheryn Mackenzie who gave an update on tourism in Bendigo.
You may be surprised to hear that Tourism brings in $550 million dollars a year.
The Tourism unit in the City of Greater Bendigo looks after all the destination marketing for the region including the Gallery and Theatres and work closely with major events to ensure consistent brand and reach.
It must be working pretty well as we've had some excellent events. performances and exhibitions in the city over the last few years and have become the envy of many other regions. Perhaps no better example of the profile the city now has is the fact that over 50,000 people have already visited the Ulumbarra Theatre and there are over 180 future bookings, including our Rotary conference of course.
Katheryn also ran a couple of Video's showcasing the city in online activity, including the Ned Kelly campaign, was he a Hero or Villian ? I'll let you decide.
It was also interesting to note that there are around 100 volunteers working to support the Visitors through the Visitor Information Centre, providing information to visitors, running various tours and welcoming people at various locations and special evets throughout the year. The Visitor Information Centre welcomed 118000 through the door and provides information, a booking service and some local unique merchandise. If you haven't been down to the centre for some time its well worth a look.
The Visitor Centre can also be your booking agent for events you may have coming up in Bendigo such as Family reunions or special celebrations, they can handle accommodation bookings at no hassle or cost to you.
As promised todays Sergeant was a little different, thanks to the seven "guest" sergeants, I promised surprises at meetings throughout the year so watch this space.
Our meetings will now include a membership minute from Doug and the team to bring everyone up to date with plans and keep us focused on membership growth, its an important part of the future of the club and we all have to be involved in growing membership in some way. If you have any thoughts or ideas speak to Doug, Conor, Paul K or Amy.
Next weeks meeting is club forum and we look forward to updates from directors your thoughts and input.
Don't forget Bendigo Rotary 90th Birthday on Saturday 22nd August, everyone welcome and would be great to be well represented. Rsvp is the 8th, see last weeks bulleting for all the details.
Paul
