Cultural tourism paints better picture of recovery

Theatre director Kate Champion is a special kind of cultural tourist, having spent the past week at Bundanon, the historic property given to the nation by Arthur Boyd.

’It will be a destination and a reason to come here’: Theatre director Kate Champion at artist Arthur Boyd’s former studio at Bundanon in NSW. Picture: Ryan Osland

Theatre director Kate Champion is a special kind of cultural tourist, having spent the past week on a creative retreat at Bundanon, the historic property near Nowra, NSW, that was given to the nation by Arthur Boyd.

Bundanon and neighbouring Riversdale are home to Boyd’s former­ studio and to modern arts and education facilities, set on beautiful grounds near the Shoalhaven River that just escaped the worst of last summer’s bushfires.

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It’s Australia’s version of Monet’s famous house and garden­ at Giverny, near Paris, or the artists colony around Santa Fe, New Mexico, places of unique cultural heritage and interest.

Bundanon is building, with state and federal government support­, a new visitor centre and gallery in which to house its collection of paintings by Boyd and other artists, and it’s all geared to bring cultural tourists to the area when complete late next year.

Champion said the natural beauty of Bundanon, Boyd’s legac­y, and the ongoing investment in facilities there make it a special place to visit. “It will be a destination and a reason to come here,” she said. “The house, the studio — you can feel like you’re walking back in time.”

Regional art galleries and sculpture parks around the nation increasingly are being recognised as drivers of cultural tourism and key to the post-COVID recovery.

Before the lockdown, cultural tourism was a fast-growing segment­ of Australia’s $146bn tourism­ industry. Domestic arts tourists are high-yield customers, according to an Australia Council report, spending $1068 per five-night trip on average, compared with $685 for other tourists, who stay 3.5 nights.

The report notes strong and growing interest among domestic tourists for Indigenous art and culture, leading them to visit the Northern Territory, especially Uluru.

Investment in new cultural faciliti­es is happening around the nation, and often is geared towards attracting cultural tourists.

At the Gold Coast, the HOTA Gallery is due to open in April and will house the city’s art collection.

It is part of council plans to position­ the sun-and-surf strip as a cultural destination, and gallery director Tracy Cooper-Lavery said it is expected to attract at least 100,000 people a year.

“We are ambitious, in that it will be a key driver in bringing visit­ors who are looking for something more than what the Gold Coast is generally known for,” Ms Cooper-Lavery said.

“Not everyone wants theme parks and shopping outlets.”

The pandemic has shown how closely interdependent are region­al arts centres and local tourism and hospitality.

The Bendigo Art Gallery is one of Australia’s finest regional galleries­ and major ticketed shows there, such as last year’s Tudors to Windsors exhibition of royal portraits­, can bring $5m to the local economy.

But the second lockdown in Victoria has dramatically affected attendance, as most out-of-town visitors come from Melbourne.

The pandemic has changed the profile of visitors at the Tweed Regio­nal Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre at Murwillumbah too. The gallery has noticed an increase in visitors from southern NSW, now stopped in their tracks at the Queensland border.