Lake Macquarie Business Limited and Lake Macquarie Tourism Association have amalgamated to provide greater services, support and a louder voice for businesses operating in Lake Macquarie’s tourism and visitor sector.

For Lake Macquarie Business Limited (which formed through the merger of several Lake Macquarie Chambers of Commerce earlier in the year), the amalgamation is validation that business leaders in Lake Macquarie see the benefit of a Lake-wide and unified approach to representing and supporting business from all industry sectors.

“The amalgamation was an opportunity to update the approach to supporting this vital part of the Lake Macquarie economy. We were very aware that this needed to happen and were right behind it from the outset,” Robert Kemmis, Lake Macquarie Tourism Association President, said.

Benjamin Connell, Lake Macquarie Business President, said that from start-up, Lake Macquarie Business knew that tourism and the visitor economy is the fastest growing market in NSW.

“We needed this to be on our radar as we pursue our vision of making Lake Macquarie a greater place to live, work, visit and do business a reality,” Benjamin said.

“In light of the recent changes in NSW Tourism’s Regional Strategy, our main focuses will be working with the Lake Macquarie City Council to ensure that business, community and the area can capitalise on the new funding available to develop regional tourism.”

Lake Macquarie Business will be working closely with the NSW Business Chamber Tourism Industry team to ensure those businesses who join will access the free support and market insights which will help them operate their businesses as part of their membership.

The Lake Macquarie Tourism and Visitor Economy team, which has now increased with LMTA reps, will start preparing their final strategy to be launched at an event in October.