Tourism Industry

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay) (15:45): On the weekend, we had the announcement by the government of the fourth round of the Great State vouchers. Of course, the opposition has been very supportive of the vouchers, and we all know that we were calling for them from June last year. But what remains concerning is the inconsistency with these Great State vouchers and the fact that they do not support all parts of our tourism and visitor economy. Round 1, round 2 and now round 4 are specifically for accommodation providers, and only round 3 was for tourism attractions and operators. Why are you not supporting all of the industry?

We know that this industry—although it has had some rebounds particularly domestically—still requires assistance. This was easily seen in a recent quarterly survey that we have measuring the industry where 34 per cent said they still have reduced staff or operations; 22 per cent said there was a risk of redundancies post the end of JobKeeper; 44 per cent said they are seeing a weaker business outlook; and 46 per cent said they have a lack of forward bookings and there remained uncertainty in regard to border closures and that that makes people reluctant to put their bookings into their system.

The reality is that tourism is an incredible employer here in South Australia, but we have been impacted massively by COVID. At its peak, tourism put $8.1 billion into the state economy. We have now seen a reduction of $3.4 billion. The expectation is that it will probably get to half of that and nthat we will see it come down to $4 billion. The reality is that thousands upon thousands of jobs have been lost in tourism and hospitality. Most significantly, those who work as casuals, and predominantly women who work in tourism and hospitality, have lost their jobs.

There is so much more work to be done. This industry needs our focus and it needs our support. Airport arrivals were down 53.8 per cent, a significant player in our tourism industry. It was so disappointing that there was no assistance in the recent federal budget. We know that so many parts of this economy and so many parts of this sector are being hurt. It is not just me standing up here saying it. Let me quote from the Tourism and Transport Forum:

We will see more job losses, and we will see many, many business failures out of this and when the borders do finally open [up], in the absence of any additional ongoing support, we'll be lucky to have a tourism industry to welcome international tourists back into the country.

I will also quote from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry:

It is important to note that parts of the sector unable to pivot to domestic tourism still require support until the impact of international visitation starts trickling back in.

For a local flavour, a comment from Taste the Barossa:

These voucher schemes need to be called out for what they are! They are a distraction for the general public while the issues remain [that there are]…segments of the industry doing extremely well, without the vouchers, and segments doing it tough with the vouchers.

We need to make sure that these vouchers are supporting everyone. We have consistently called out to increase the value of the vouchers to $200, to allow them to be used on any day and to include boutique accommodation. Most importantly, each and every voucher should be about the whole industry: attractions, operators, accommodation and travel agents. Why we pick and choose is incredibly confusing.

In WA, they have just announced their Stay, Play and Save $200 voucher—a bit of innovation. You book the accommodation on arrival and a mystery voucher to an experience or an attraction in Perth is provided. That is what we should be looking for, not time-restrictive, narrow vouchers. Support this industry. It needs your help.