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NSW to be promoted as surfing haven

New South Wales (NSW) in Australia is to promote itself as the country's number one state for surfing.

Speaking at an Australian Tourism Export Council conference, Carmel Beattie of Tourism New South Wales said the state should be targeting more international visitors and backpackers.

She said it was important to attract the backpacker audience - which brought some $983 million (£463 million) to NSW last year - beyond famous locations such as Sydney and Bondi Beach, the Australian Associated Press reports.

Ms Beattie claimed the region had a unique selling point in the form of its beaches and said that surfing in New South Wales could become as famous as snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef.

"From the surf point of view we actually have got it because we have got surf beaches right up and down the coast," she said.

"I mean, Queensland I love…but they have so much of their coast actually sheltered by the reef that they can win the reef state but they don't have nearly as [many] surfing beaches as us, therefore we see that that's the great opportunity for us."

Ms Beattie said that the "beach lifestyle" needs to be promoted as much as the destination itself, with surf shops, accommodation and restaurants all linked to the promotion of NSW as a haven for beach tourists.

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