Volunteers wanted to guide visitors

Newcastle City Council is calling for volunteers to share their love of Newcastle with growing numbers of visitors and tourists as part of a program to train accredited guides to promote the city.

Around 120 volunteers will be recruited and trained to help showcase the city and its tourism and hospitality businesses.

The NEW Crew initiative has been established with assistance from Training Services NSW and is being delivered in partnership with TAFE NSW, which will provide free accredited training to the volunteers.

"We’re looking for people to join our NEW Crew volunteer team and become specialist visitor guides," Council's Interim CEO, Jeremy Bath, said.

"We invite community-minded and outgoing volunteers to promote Newcastle as a leading tourism destination at events and key visitor information hubs throughout the city.

"We are seeing more and more major events choose Newcastle as a host city. From Socceroos, Matildas and Wallabies to Supermoto and Supercars, we've proven to be gracious hosts and we want to build on this reputation by having guides on hand.

"The program offers a chance to meet new people, attend networking events, learn more about our city, visit tourism venues and share local knowledge to ensure visitors have a memorable experience in our beautiful city."

Recent research confirmed Newcastle as a stand-alone destination and is well positioned for further tourism growth amid major revitalisation projects, a new cruise terminal and the potential of welcoming international flights.

Tourism Research Australia revealed total visitor nights grew 9.7 per cent last year to 2.6 million a year as new bars, eateries and experiences make the city more appealing to holidaymakers, conference delegates and visiting friends and relatives.

Overnight business visits shot up 10.3 per cent over the same period, while overnight city stays during visits to friends and relatives increased 7.3 per cent.

As international overnight visits grew by more than 10 per cent to 90,605, domestic overnight visits also climbed over 10 per cent to 1.1 million a year.

Anyone interested in becoming a NEW Crew volunteer City Guide, please email Newcastle City Council's destination marketing team at newcrew@ncc.nsw.gov.au