Cooking school and creatives join City of Newcastle turn local experiences into a tourism drawcard

newy.com.au – A Tighes Hill cooking school is among five local businesses taking part in a City of Newcastle mentoring program designed to create new tourism experiences and tap into the city’s $1.5 billion annual visitor market.

The initiative aims to broaden the range of bookable activities on offer in Newcastle and encourage more visitors from outside the region to stay longer, following a year in which almost five million people visited the city but most stayed only for a day or a single night.

Yellow Door Kitchen is one of five operators selected for City of Newcastle’s Product Mentoring Development Program, which supports local businesses to develop and promote tourism products to a wider market. The cohort includes businesses offering brewery tours, history walks, First Nations cultural experiences and Civic Theatre backstage tours.

City of Newcastle Executive Manager Media Engagement Economy and Corporate Affairs Nick Kaiser said the program was about building capacity in the local visitor economy as demand for experiences grows.

“This program is aimed at enhancing Newcastle’s growing reputation as a compelling destination within the Australian leisure travel market,” Mr Kaiser said. “Almost five million people visited our city in 2024 but the majority of those visitors only came on a day trip or stayed overnight.”

Mr Kaiser said the expansion of Newcastle Airport’s international routes made it important that Newcastle had more “tourist-ready” experiences available for both domestic and international travellers.

“The unique activities will provide a deeper connection to life in Newcastle beyond the usual sightseeing opportunities, giving tourists even more reasons to stay in our city while providing a boost to the local economy,” he said.

Participants in the Product Mentoring Development Program attend two half-day workshops and receive one-on-one mentoring from previous alumni including Nova Cruises, artist Mitch Revs and Foghorn Brewery. Businesses also receive six months of ongoing support to help refine and market their experience.

Yellow Door Kitchen, which offers hands-on classes and cooking demonstrations in Tighes Hill, is already drawing customers from Newcastle and Sydney but is looking to grow its reach through the program.

“City of Newcastle’s Product Development Mentoring Program is perfectly designed to help us find ways to reach a wider audience,” owner Janet Newton said. “We have so much to offer with hands-on classes for people of all ages and cooking abilities, as well as cooking demonstrations involving food from all over the world.”

Newton said she was keen to learn from other operators who had already built successful tourism products through earlier rounds of the program. “I’m excited to be part of this year’s program and look forward to learning from other industry professionals,” she said.

This is the third round of the Product Development Mentoring Program, with City of Newcastle stating that 23 local businesses have so far been supported to develop and expand tourism offerings through previous intakes.

Mr Kaiser said the mentoring initiative was one of a series of projects being delivered under City of Newcastle’s Destination Management Plan, which focuses on growing and supporting the visitor economy.

“The tourism sector plays a vital role in Newcastle’s economy, having experienced significant growth during the past 10 years,” he said. “We’re committed to leading a collaborative whole of industry approach toward shaping Newcastle as a premier destination.”

He said the Product Development Mentoring Program was helping build local industry capacity, while a separate marketing partnership with global travel platform Tripadvisor was promoting Newcastle’s bookable attractions to new audiences. City of Newcastle said the Tripadvisor campaign, which has been running since mid-September, had already generated more than 80,000 visits to its “Seek New in Newcastle” webpage.

Local businesses taking part in the latest round of the mentoring program will continue to receive tailored advice and support over the next six months as they refine their products, with City of Newcastle aiming to have more of their experiences ready for booking by future visitors.