EDITORIAL
Premier and Minister for Tourism and Hospitality Jeremy Rockliff
Our Tasmanian hospitality and tourism sector helps sustain our regional communities.
Our Government is not only backing the tourism and hospitality industry, we are stepping in through our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future. It was an honour to recently join Kim, Bruce and Kurt Robinson at the Cove to launch the $50 million Regional Tourism Development Loan Scheme.
It enables Tasmanians to thrive, earn an income and invest back into their own community.
The sector injects more than $3.5 billion in visitor spending into the Tasmanian economy.
Applications are now open for loans of between $100,000 and $3 million to support projects.
Our Government will always be in the corner of the hospitality and tourism industry.
We will also deliver a $500,000 Regional Hospitality Revival Fund, which will provide grants of up to $2,500 to support hospitality businesses in regional Tasmania to attract visitors to the regions. Tasmania’s tourism and hospitality sector is a jobs powerhouse, with one in eight Tasmanians employed in the industry. We know demand for workers will continue to grow, which is why we are investing in training the next generation of tourism and hospitality through a $1.3 million commitment to VXT. In early August we launched VXT’s new hotel school which is providing job-ready training for the sector. Through this investment, we are helping grow the workforce our visitor economy needs.
We know the industry is in a challenging period, and this was reaffirmed with the recently released Hotel Occupancy Report for June. Whilst we know Tasmania is an appealing travel destination, the absence of a full-scale Dark Mofo event this year has impacted winter tourism. That’s why the Government is making targeted investments to help drive visitation, including through 57 events, and marketing campaigns from April to September. It is projected that these events will bring more than 70,000 visitors to Tasmania with over 400,000 bed nights. Tasmania had a positive summer in terms of visitation spend, but it is vital that we do everything we can to continue to drive visitation over the cooler months, supporting Tasmanian businesses across the state. Our Government has made its largest investment in a winter marketing initiative with more than 500 distinctive activities on offer from tourism businesses and event organisers during the Off Season campaign. The campaign had a strong focus on boosting visitation to the regions, as well as supporting jobs and businesses during the traditionally quieter period. This year we also launched the Odd Jobs campaign which generated a global reach of 1.3 billion – an incredible result for Tasmania. While holiday messages are often centred around sunny destinations, Odd Jobs shifted the conversation on what a unique winter break can look like in Tasmania.
We want to ensure that vibrant regional events and the broader industry are given every opportunity to thrive.
For more information about the Regional Tourism Development Loan Scheme visit: www.business.tas.gov.au
15 Tasmanian Hospitality Review Aug/Sep Edition
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