From world-class motor racing, to one of the best regional art galleries in Australia, gliding, ballooning, botanical gardens, silo art, infamous Ned Kelly sites, the biggest wetland restoration project in the Southern Hemisphere and much more.
It’s also the regional street art capital of Australia.
With so many reasons for tourists to visit the Rose City and its surrounding towns, Benalla Rural City Council has released its Destination Management Plan 2025-2029 to form a cohesive strategy to ensure those tourist dollars flow into the local economy.
On Thursday, July 17, council held an event at the Visitor Information Centre, to officially launch the plan.
Mayor Bernie Hearn said she was pleased the plan had finally come to fruition.
“It’s a blueprint for tourism in our region for the next five years,” Cr Hearn said.
“And it’s more than just tourism strategies, it’s about building a thriving, resilient and connected community.
“It’s about creating a place where people want to live and work, invest, visit and spend their time.
“Tourism is more than just attracting visitors to our area.
“It’s connecting people to our culture, nature and creativity, and welcoming them to share their stories.
“We celebrate art and history, landscapes, people, sporting events and sporting activities
“We need to get that out into the wider communities of Australia to understand what we’re like, so they’ll come and visit us.”
Cr Hearn said the plan outlined a clear strategic path for the next five years.
“It sets priorities to grow visitor numbers, increase value for each visitor, build a capacity for our local tourism industries and highlight our strengths in everything that we do,” she said.
“It focuses on building a memorable visitor experience developed through genuine collaboration, community, businesses, organisations and tourism experts.”
Cr Hearn said the LGA’s branding, ‘See the Art in Everything’, was the perfect slogan.
“It suits Benalla and I think it’s a great thing that we’ve come up with,” she said.
“(Visitors) can admire our mural and our street art, taste our local food and produce, watch motor sports at Winton, watch the gliding at the airport, see our beautiful gardens and art gallery, and walk our streets and see our history.”
Deputy Mayor Justin King said Benalla had so much to offer.
“We want to attract more people to Benalla,” he said.
“We want to get them here, we want to get them to our events, to our facilities, to our markets, to everything that we’ve got to offer.”
The Benalla Rural City Destination Management Plan 2025-2029 is available to download from benalla.vic.gov.au
10°C