The Australian Tourism & Transport Forum produced the profile which found the direct number of people employed in tourism related industries in the Great Lakes providing services to both visitors and non-visitors was well above the state average.

In 2004/05 tourism provided 9243 direct jobs along the Mid North Coast, which equates to 7.4 per cent of total employment, which is well above the state average of 5.7 per cent.

For the Great Lakes, from a total employment figure of 11,270 for 2004/05, tourism accounted for 930 direct jobs, which is 8.2 per cent of total employment.

In comparison to the rest of the Mid North Coast's figure of 7.4 per cent the Great Lakes is above average and second only to Coffs Harbour.

Great Lakes Council mayor John Chadban said tourism is a major economic driver of investment and development for the region and council is working hard to maximise the opportunities presented.

"While the figure of 8.2 per cent is down on 10.1 per cent for 1997/1998 it is still very encouraging to see the strength of our local tourism industry being well above the state average and one of highest along the Mid North Coast," Cr Chadban said.

"This clearly shows how important tourism is to our region, community and economy.

"Overall this feedback augurs well for the Great Lakes. While tourism activity is down, the region remains one of the high performers for the state."

Across NSW tourism delivers $23.3 billion into the economy and directly provides 185,892 jobs or 5.7 per cent of total employment, however Great Lakes Tourism's manager of tourism and marketing, Richard Old said the figure is only the tip of the iceberg.

"What is interesting to note from these figures is that they only measure direct tourism employment," Mr Old said.

"When you take into account all the service industries that rely on tourism activity you would find that these figures would be much higher."