The Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson AM MP has welcomed the opening of the World's longest golf course along the Eyre Highway from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to Ceduna in South Australia, which shows what can be achieved when tourism operators work collectively on product development and marketing.
Nullarbor Links World's Longest Golf Course is an 18-hole, 72 par golf course spanning 1,365 kilometres with one hole in each participating town or roadhouse along the route.
The project was launched today by Julie Mizen of AusIndustry, representing the Minister.
The project received over $330,000 under the Australian Tourism Development Program, signalling the Government's determination to encourage Australian tourism industry operators to work together to develop new product.
"Projects like this show how creative and entrepreneurial Australia's tourism industry can be," the Minister said.
"I congratulate the Eyre Highway Operators Association for working together and with government, local councils, small businesses and others, to get this project off the ground. It is leadership, vision and collaboration like this that will set the Australian tourism industry in good stead well into the future."
The Nullarbor Links World's Longest Golf Course allows players to navigate the course at their own pace, receiving a stamp on their scorecard for each hole played. It is anticipated that the course will take around four days to complete.
Minister Ferguson applauded the project's creativity and the fact it encourages tourists to disperse their spend through the entire region. By encouraging such revenue flow, many regional communities will benefit.
On 15 April 2009, Minister Ferguson announced TQUAL Grants will replace the Australian Tourism Development Program and that up to $8.5 million will be made available for the new program.