Lake Macquarie council plans to deliver at least 20 signature events with a spend of more than $600,000 a year as part of a new plan open for feedback.
Councillors voted on April 22 to exhibit the draft Lake Macquarie Events and Festivals Strategic Action Plan 2024-2028, which aims to expand events in the city.
The draft plan replaces the inaugural strategy and action plan 2019-2024, which concentrated on establishing a targeted annual event program.
In that time, the number of events with licences issued grew each year from 84 in 2019-20 to 406 in 2022-23. The corresponding attendance at those events increased from 223,102 to 344,367.
Lake Macquarie mayor Kay Fraser said the new plan sought to embrace infrastructure opportunities at Cedar Mill, Hunter Sports Centre, Trinity Resort and Black Rock Motor Park.
"Our ever-expanding annual calendar of events, combined with our support for numerous community, sporting and entertainment gatherings, has grown Lake Mac's reputation as a hub for memorable experiences and adventures," she said.
"This plan outlines how we can expand on our successful 2022-2023 events program, which delivered about $28 million in economic benefits with 345,000 people attending 406 key events."
Liberal councillor Jason Pauling said while $28 million was "a big number", but it was a "very, very minor part" of the city's economic activity in the context of a $25 billion economy.
He also pointed out that the report said 86.4 per cent of event attendees were local and 5.1 per cent stayed overnight.
"The reason I highlight these numbers, I think there is still a fair margin of opportunity for improvement in how this is handled and how the city presents itself as a tourism overnight visitor economy," Cr Pauling said.
Council's manager arts, culture and tourism Jacqui Hemsley said the new proposal was about building on the previous plan, which was "starting from scratch in many ways".
Labor councillor Brian Adamthwaite said the city could do with more accommodation to house people visiting for events, and encouraged people to provide feedback on how the events plan could be improved.
The plan includes an aim to bid for more 'foot loose' events likely to attract larger out-of-region visitation, stimulate the night-time economy and reduce waste to landfill from events with a goal of zero waste by 2028.
The community is invited to view the plan and provide feedback during the 28-day public exhibition period.
