Today I official opened the first completed section of an exciting new mountain bike trail on the North West Coast.
The Warrawee section of the Wild Mersey Mountain Bike Trails is opening just in time for the busy summer period, catering for mountain bikers of all ages.
Once completed, the Wild Mersey Mountain Bike Trails will consist of over 100 kilometres of International Standard Mountain Biking Association standard trails weaving through striking landscapes between the towns of Sheffield, Railton and Latrobe.
Tasmania is fast developing a reputation as a premier destination for cycling and mountain bike riding, with around 38,000 visitors getting on a bike during their visit to our beautiful State.
Wild Mersey will only add to Tasmania’s reputation as a cycling mecca, with Blue Derby and Mount Wellington already drawing tens of thousands of visitors to our state.
We have already seen the benefits cycling tourism can bring, especially to regional areas of the State, attracting more visitors who spend more time exploring regional areas.
The Wild Mersey Mountain Bike Trails project is a partnership between the Kentish and Latrobe Councils, and has received grant funding from the Tasmanian and Australian Governments.
The Hodgman Majority Liberal Government is providing $1.2 million to the $4.1 million project, through our Tasmanian Cycle Tourism Fund.
Our targets for tourism include:
- Grow our tourism industry to 1.5 million visitors per year by 2020
- 50,000 tourism-related jobs by 2022
- A 50% increase in the average per visitor spend by 2022
- 70% of all visitors to stay overnight in regional areas during their trip to Tasmania by 2022
See all our targets at: https://www.tas.liberal.org.au/sites/default/files/BuildingYourFuture.pdf
