'Real Canberra' campaign to help tourism sector recover from $1.3bn hit

Extra funding for the "More Than" campaign will be included in next month's ACT budget, Chief Minister Andrew Barr will announce on Wednesday.

The funding will make the initiative, which launched in September, the largest domestic tourism marketing campaign in the ACT's history, Mr Barr said.

Mr Barr will also announce $1.5 million in the budget for a new COVID-safe tourism investment program, through which the ACT government will provide matched funding to businesses to develop products and infrastructure to support the sector's recovery and create jobs.

The tourism sector was among the industries which suffered most in 2020, with the combination of the summer fires and coronavirus pandemic wiping out $1.13 billion in overnight visitor spending in the year to September.

The local tourism was contributing $2.5 billion to the ACT economy and employing 18,500 people at its peak in 2019, before the fires and pandemic struck.

Mr Barr said its goal was to grow the ACT's overnight visitor expenditure to $3.5 billion by 2030.

With Australia's borders unlikely to reopen to international travelers this year, the ACT government is focusing its tourism marketing on interstate travellers - which account for 90 per cent of overall visitors.

VisitCanberra's 'More Than' campaign features short videos which describe the ACT as "more than meets the eye".

Featuring footage of National Museum of Australia, Lake Burley Griffin and Fyshwick's Capital Brewing Co, the videos invites potential visitors to "get to know the real Canberra" and "find more than you came for".

Mr Barr said the extra funding for the campaign would help strengthen its reach into its largest markets of Sydney, regional NSW, south-east Queensland, Melbourne and regional Victoria.