Byron to co-host regional tourism symposium and award

BYRON Shire will co-host the 2025 North Coast Tourism Symposium and Regional Tourism Awards on July 31 alongside Destination North Coast NSW.

The event brings together tourism leaders and businesses from 14 local government areas across the North Coast, including MidCoast, Port Macquarie-Hastings, Tweed and Lord Howe Island.

The venue is expected to be announced soon.

Nominations for the North Coast Regional Tourism Awards are open until April 11, with submissions due by May 9.

Byron Shire mayor Sarah Ndiaye said the event was a chance to showcase the creativity, nature and resilience of the region.

“Byron Shire is a place where diverse ideas and experiences come together, and now, more than ever, we have the chance to reflect on and celebrate how far we’ve come and the vision for what we would like our visitor economy to look like in the future,” she said.

Supported by Destination NSW, the awards program features 18 categories aligned with the state and national tourism awards and includes resources such as webinars and expert guidance.

The council’s business and industry project lead, Nicole Silburn, encouraged more Byron-based operators to apply.

“We’d love these awards to reflect the true diversity of our tourism businesses, and particularly this year, we’d love to see applications from our ecotourism, cultural tourism and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Tourism Experiences coming through,” she said.

Accommodation providers, accessible tourism operators, new businesses, distilleries and breweries are also encouraged to enter.