Our Shire’s Inclusive Tourism Strategy wins Excellence Awards

Published on 27 May 2022

Bellingen Shire Council’s Inclusive Tourism Strategy has been awarded winner at the 2022 NSW Local Government Excellence Awards, after having been chosen as a finalist in the category Organisational Diversity and Inclusion.

The award winners were announced this week at an event in Sydney which celebrated the sector, not only recognising the achievements from the NSW Local Government Excellence Awards, but also recognising milestones of its members both as emerging talent and most respected industry leaders.

Council’s Inclusive Tourism Strategy was developed in consultation with our local businesses and broader community to realise the aspirations of our community to be connected to each other and beyond. To truly develop opportunities and strategies that include everyone.

The Strategy recognises that our Shire is a tourist destination and follows a Universal Design approach, a framework for the design of places, things, information, communication and policy to be usable by the widest range of people operating in the widest range of situations without special or separate design.

“Council’s Inclusive Tourism Strategy embeds the principles of ‘design for all’ into everything we do. It is about creating places and spaces accessible to all, creating choice and installing confidence for people to participate in new and existing experiences,” said Council’s Acting Manager, Economic & Business Development.

Through the development of the Strategy, Council has developed a strong partnership with Inclusive Tourism Pty Ltd and continue to work together in the ongoing rollout of the recommendations and action plan all of which aligns to Council’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan.

Bellingen Council, by being the first council in NSW to have an adopted Inclusive Tourism Strategy, is leading the way in the local government sector. It is championing the need for the incorporation of Universal Design principles in everything we do for the benefit of everyone in our community.