The tourism industry has called for "a bit more ambition" and longer-term funding commitments from the ACT government, following a $7.3 million budget commitment to spruik Canberra interstate and abroad.
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The government announced the funding to further market Canberra as a business and holiday destination across Australia, and in Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand ahead of the start of international flights in September.
The ACT government also announced $1.5 million to continue to grow Enlighten and Canberra Day celebrations, and promised $50,000 for a soon-to-be-announced "major show" to be staged in Canberra.
A further $410,000 will be provided to help upgrade security at the Canberra Theatre Centre.
The budget announcement, made on Tuesday, seeks to grow the tourism sector by capitalising on the start of direct international flights to Wellington and Singapore on September 21.
Tourism industry peak body, the Tourism and Transport Forum, described the budget commitment as "welcome news", and paid tribute to Chief Minister Andrew Barr's strong advocacy for Canberra tourism, particularly the securing of Singapore Airlines international flights and efforts to attract more Chinese visitors as part of Australia China Business Week.
But the Forum's chief executive officer Margy Osmond said industry would like to see more ambition from the ACT government, namely by doubling the tourism budget and providing longer-term funding certainty.
"There is plenty of opportunity for the ACT Government to build on this additional commitment and set itself the target of putting the ACT on par with other states and territories," she said.
"In comparison Australia's other territory, the NT, allocated $29 million to destination marketing in its 2016-17 budget released on Tuesday – that's significantly more than the ACT's $21.4 million."
"Even Tasmania, the smallest of all the states, allocates $25.9 million to its destination marketing."
Also on the industry's wishlist ahead of next month's budget is more work to capitalise on the commencement of international flights and light rail, funding for a walking trail between the Botanic Gardens and the National Arboretum, and improvements to ACTION to strengthen public transport.
The ACT experienced impressive growth in tourism numbers last year, recording the largest number of domestic and international visitors to the city.
There were significant increases in the number of visitations, visitor nights, and expenditure compared to 2014, and the ACT beat the national average in each measurement.
The government has set itself a target to grow the value of the "visitor economy" to $2.5 billion by 2020.
Tuesday's budget commitment will extend the One Good Thing After Another marketing campaign, launched earlier this year, which seeks to showcase the diverse range of experiences available in the ACT.
The money will also be used to work more closely with Tourism Australia and airlines on cross-promotional marketing.
Security upgrades to Canberra Theatre are expected to help it host bigger and better shows, and Arts Minister Chris Bourke said the new money would take the government's total funding for the theatre to $9.5 million.
"The theatre is a wonderful part of the Canberra community, and it's now helping to drive visitors to Canberra by hosting world class performances," Dr Bourke said.
The funding was welcomed by the opposition.
But Shadow Tourism Minister Brendan Smyth said the territory's tourism potential had not yet been unlocked by the government.
"We welcome the funding announced today as tourism has enormous potential for the ACT that hasn't been fully realised by this government," Mr Smyth said.
