Business strategies and research

We are working on a comprehensive and aspirational strategy with multiple sub action plans focusing on the visitor economy, business and industry, the events sector and night time economy.

This expands the work of the draft Business, Industry and Visitor Economy Strategy and the draft Events Strategy. It will draw upon the extensive engagement of these projects as well as the strengths and outstanding actions of the following projects:

• a review of our Economic Development Strategy – Enterprising Byron 2025(PDF, 2MB)
• outstanding actions of the Enterprising Byron 2025 Action Plan(PDF, 132KB)
• the 2021 Draft Sustainable Visitation Strategy(PDF, 2MB), which was not finalised due to COVID-19
• the 2020 Tourism Resilience Discussion Paper(PDF, 63KB)

See the project’s Your Say page for more information.

To support business, Byron Shire Council also prepares land use growth management strategies as below. These strategies guide Council’s decision-making and key actions to manage future growth of in our Shire.

• Business and Industrial Lands Strategy for retail, commercial and industrial land.
• Rural Land Use Strategy for agriculture and other rural activities.
• Residential Strategy for urban housing land and delivery.

We provide access to a range of tools including data from the latest Census.  This information may be of interest to community groups, businesses and investors.  

Byron Shire 

View the Byron Shire Economics Profile

Northern Rivers Region

View the Northern Rivers Region Economics Profile

View the Northern Rivers Region Community Profile

The Byron Shire Tourism Monitor is an independent report using official tourism data prepared each quarter for Byron Shire Council. 

Byron Shire Tourism Monitor year ending December 2024(PDF, 523KB)

The Byron Shire Economic Health Check Report is a comprehensive analysis of the local economy.

It covers:

• current economic position
• recent trends
• drivers of recent change
• strategic sectors
• a localised strength, opportunity, weaknesses, and threat (SWOT) analysis.

It is useful for assessing the current state of play in our local economy and a crucial step in the development of a business industry and visitor economy strategy.  

Download the Byron Shire Economic Health Check Report by .id (informed decisions)(PDF, 2MB)

Survey for Flood impacted businesses 2022

To better understand the implications of recent flood events on businesses and various industry sectors in Byron Shire, Council conducted a survey from Thursday 7 April to Wednesday 4 May 2022.

Download the survey for flood impacted businesses key findings report(PDF, 902KB)

Business Impacts, Resilience and Continuity Survey 2020

To better understand the implications of COVID-19 on businesses and various industry sectors in Byron Shire, Council conducted a fortnightly survey from May - July 2020.

Download the Business Impacts, Resilience and Continuity Survey 2020 key findings report(PDF, 195KB)

Business Survey 2017 to 2018

We conducted research in 2017 to understand the current and future needs of our local businesses. More than 1000 businesses participated in the online survey between September and December 2017.

Download the Business Survey 2017 to 2018 report(PDF, 4MB)