The COVID-19 pandemic has hit Dubbo's economy hard, but the city has fared better than most, says mayor Ben Shields.
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Cr Shields has established an economic recovery taskforce to help boost the city in the coming months. It contains representatives from the tourism, education, business and real estate sectors.
The group has already had two meetings.
"The first couple of meetings is more about working out where we sit, getting the facts and figures before us," Cr Shields said.
"The harder work starts happening from here. We will start working our solutions on how to boost our numbers, whether that be visitors to Dubbo or whether that be keeping shops open, to getting real estate sales progressing, to even keeping students in Dubbo."
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But despite about 10 per cent of the workforce in the Dubbo local government area having been impacted by the pandemic, Cr Shields said the city wasn't in a terrible position.
"I would much rather be in Dubbo's position with this coming recession that most other ares in Australia," Cr Shields said.
"It's interesting to note that we've got very few international visitors coming to Dubbo, as opposed to places like Sydney and the Gold Coast. That means we're not going to have a downturn of international travellers because they effectively don't exist.
"However, with a lot of Australian travellers not able to go overseas, they're going to look to domestic destinations to go to. That could actually be a bit of an opportunity for us. That's something we're certainly working on."
Council is also looking into hosting big events such as an NRL match or a music festival like Great Southern Nights.
"I don't want anyone feeling down and out and miserable, that's not how we're going to get out of this, we've got to take this downturn with enthusiasm and come up with solutions and find the opportunities in this crisis," Cr Shields said.
The members of the economic recovery taskforce are: Cr Shields, Michael McMahon, Natasha Comber and Josie Howard from Dubbo Regional Council with community representatives Matt Wright, Ben Thompson, Kerry Anne Nichols, Jessica Gough, Lucy White, Megan Dixon, Steve Hinks, Adam Wells and James McKechnie.