Overzet Appointed As New Tourism Manager

IMAGE: New Cowra Tourism Corporation Manager Kurt Overzet, who has been made permanent in the position.

Former Acting Cowra Tourism Corporation Manager Kurt Overzet has been appointed to the position permanently, officially starting in the role of Manager two weeks ago.

Mr Overzet had been acting in the position since the departure of former Manager Glenn Daley five months ago, and has been working with CTC since starting as its Events & Marketing Officer in October 2017.

Although he had already gained much experience in the role whilst acting in it, he said he was now looking forward to “steering the ship” officially and being more directly involved in CTC’s decision making.

“My focus will be on driving visitors to Cowra and through that helping local businesses and community groups,” he said.

“I also plan to introduce ‘inclusive tourism’, which involves promoting the cultural heritage and diversity of Cowra, its Wiradjuri culture, as well as ensuring our events are disability friendly.”

“Our war history is very well known, but most people don’t realise that there were prisoners of other nationalities apart from Japanese in our POW, so I’d like to see those stories promoted too.” One of the first items Mr Overzet has worked on since becoming the Manager is the introduction of Book Easy - a centralised accommodation and tour booking platform that allows CTC to make bookings for tourists on behalf of other operators in Cowra, such as motels.

Mr Overzet said the sign up to Book Easy had been great so far, and that any other mote or tour operator in Cowra interested in doing so needed to contact CTC to get registered.

He said he had also been working on the Cowra Destination Management plan, which will see CTC align with Destination NSW and Destination Central West, which he said he hoped would attract more tourist attention to Cowra. He said the management plan would also look at how to gather improved data for CTC around what tourists are doing when they’re in Cowra.

“We’re looking at using GPS technology such as what Orange 360 are using to greatly improve our data collecting abil-ity for tourism in Cowra,” he said.

“We want to know when people are here, where they are going and what they are doing, and this will help us set future goals and strategies,” he said.