LONG-serving Geelong tourism boss Roger Grant was given a rousing send-off by colleagues and friends at an event in Grovedale last week.<\/p>\n
Mr Grant, the outgoing executive director of Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine (TGGB), was the guest of honour at TGGB\u2019s latest member forum, held at the Narana Aboriginal Culture Centre on June 18.<\/p>\n
Mr Grant has been at the forefront of Geelong\u2019s transition over the past 25 years from a tourism subregion of the Great Ocean Road into a recognisable stand-alone destination.<\/p>\n
In 1993, there were less than 240,000 overnight visitors to the Barwon region, which took in Geelong, the Bellarine, Surf Coast and part of the Otways. The first scheduled passenger flights out of Avalon Airport were also still two years away.<\/p>\n
The region\u2019s visitor economy now supports more than 11,200 jobs in the region, with 5.8 million visitors annually.<\/p>\n
TGGB board chair John Stevens and incoming TGGB executive director Brett Ince paid tribute to Mr Grant.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour performance has been absolutely fantastic, you\u2019ve left big shoes to fill,\u201d Mr Stevens said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not only the numbers that you\u2019ve taken leadership of and helped to grow, I think even more importantly within those numbers is that you\u2019ve taken tourism from something that people didn\u2019t know about to being a really legitimate and important part of what our region is about these days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Grant said there had been \u201ca lot of highlights along the way, and a lot of frustrations, too\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be an exciting future, I\u2019m really confident about where Geelong\u2019s going, I\u2019m really confident the team will continue to do fantastic things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONG-serving Geelong tourism boss Roger Grant was given a rousing send-off by colleagues and friends at an event in Grovedale last week. Mr Grant, the outgoing executive director of Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine (TGGB), was the guest of honour at TGGB\u2019s latest member forum, held at the Narana Aboriginal Culture Centre on June […]<\/p>\n