According to the latest National and International Visitor Statistics, year ending September 2018, 1.7 million tourists visited the New England North West (up 2 per cent), stayed 5.5 million nights (up 4.5 per cent) and spent more than $700 million during their stay (up 11.3 per cent).

“We’re seeing exceptional tourism growth in our region each year and these record results are truly a feather in our cap,” Mr Marshall said.

“A healthy visitor economy is vital for our local economies, instilling business confidence, encouraging investment and generating jobs.”

“I want to ensure our community continues to thrive and that means continuing to encourage more people to visit our beautiful region – putting more heads on beds, diners in our restaurants, shoppers in our boutiques and visitors on our tours.”

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Mr Marshall said NSW was miles ahead of the rest of the country as the number one destination choice for international and domestic travellers.

“Internationally, NSW received 4.3 million visitors who stayed 95.5 million nights and spent $10.6 billion,” he said.

“Domestically, we welcomed 33.6 million overnight visitors who stayed 105.1 million nights and for the first time ever, these visitors spent more than $20 billion.”

“These results are the highest on record and show the work the NSW Government is doing in delivering results for the tourism industry which directly employs more than 171,000 people in our State.”

“The NSW Government has set the State’s first regional tourism target of $25 billion in visitor expenditure in rural and regional NSW by 2030, so that every corner of NSW gets its fair share of the record tourist dollars.”