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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-23 Daily Xml
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Motions

World Tourism Day

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay) (12:23): I move:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges that 27 September 2020 is World Tourism Day;

(b) acknowledges the importance of tourism for the culture and economy of South Australia; and

(c) condemns the Marshall Liberal Government's cuts to tourism, which will have negative consequences for the visitor economy.

Tourism is important to South Australia because it allows people to experience our state at a much deeper level. Whether it is a local exploring their own backyard or someone visiting from a business or for a leisure event or an international or interstate arrival, tourism promotes our state to the world. It is a major driver of jobs, business creation and investment. As we approach World Tourism Day this Sunday, I rise in support of this very important industry. We, on this side of the chamber, believed in its potential. We attracted new direct flights to key markets.

We invested in marketing and promotion and backed our local events. That is why it was such a shock and disappointment that this government was so quick to make cuts to this sector. Prior to the bushfires and COVID-19, this government cut $23 million from the tourism budget. The return on investment for this portfolio is patently obvious. The role of government in this sector is quite simple: tell people that we are here. Tell them about South Australia. Let them know about us and make it easier for them to get here: do not just know about us but get here as easily as possible.

These cuts represent more than simple monetary implications. They represent a very real and tangible outcome for the future direction of the industry. Tourism operators rely on strong promotional campaigns to drive demand. They rely on infrastructure investments, development of local events and access routes via air, sea and land. What they do not rely on is the very sad and very depressing 'old mate' campaign.

Around the world and around the nation, we are seeing very proactive responses from governments responding to this economic crisis. Now is the time for governments to step into the breach and deliver real economic leadership. It is about providing some form of credible economic stability in a very volatile environment. While the recent border opening announcements are welcome, we should not be led into a state of complacency that the visitor economy does not need any more support. Let's talk about support. Let's talk about the South Australian government response because I have had many tourism operators reach out to me as the shadow minister for tourism questioning the strategy of this government to provide extremely selective support to certain aspects of this visitor economy.

Let's remind ourselves about the diversity of the visitor economy. It covers businesses, from travel agents to tour operators, accommodation providers, hotels, B&Bs and cute little glamping outfits. It is very wide—airlines, ferries, buses, coaches, restaurants, cafes and nature experiences, and the list goes on.

The pain that is being felt by these businesses and their workers is real. I have had many a grim conversation with people who put their blood, sweat and tears into building up their business, putting the family home on the line, and were at a point where they were doing really well. Overnight, it all ended, particularly for those people who built up a quality product, a quality service, often in our regional areas for our international market. They worked incredibly hard to make sure that what we were offering was going to maximise that visitor experience, and people were willing to pay for that quality.

I have talked to many providers, whether they take people up to the Barossa, whether they experience the beauty of Port Lincoln and the surrounds, or whether they take them up to Ceduna for the whale watching. Their businesses stopped overnight. We should be backing them up as much as we can, but instead this government throws obstacles and makes excuses to wash their hands of providing support.

To the hospitality workers of the Adelaide Venue Management Corporation: the Marshall Liberal government failed to ensure that you were supported through JobKeeper and failed to provide an alternative support. To the micro and small businesses of the industry (we are talking about 90 per cent of employing tourism businesses that are small and micro): the Marshall Liberal government thinks you can afford tens of thousands of dollars to access their Tourism Industry Development Fund scheme.

To the small accommodation providers and other tourism operators: the Marshall Liberal government thinks you should not be eligible for their tourism voucher scheme. To the regions: the Marshall Liberal government has said, 'You're not equal to the CBD and North Adelaide. Your accommodation providers can get half the tourism voucher of Adelaide and CBD'. What an insult!

We go around talking about the visitor economy, we build it up, we know people spend 42 per cent in the regions—people love the regions—and South Australians have embraced it, but what does it say to our regions when we say that that voucher is half of what you can get if you stay in a hotel in the Adelaide CBD? I do not know what they are thinking. Why is this government picking winners, why is it picking favourites, when it comes to supporting small family businesses?

When I look at the global response to COVID, the United Nations has looked at what different governments have done. Many reacted in the same way: national lockdowns and travel restrictions—that was their reaction. They prioritised the health of the people of their nation. But then they looked at how they can respond. They looked at fiscal policy, they looked at jobs policy and they looked at how they were going to restart tourism as well.

In Australia, we saw the freezing of bank loans for six months, a series of waivers and deferrals, charges and fees, tax concessions and a moratorium on the termination of leases. I have had many conversations with people who have said that these decisions enabled them to hibernate in the belief that they may well be able to survive this pandemic. We can look proudly at the ability of the focus on jobs—JobKeeper, JobSeeker—which enabled the cash flow to continue into businesses. We know in South Australia that 94 per cent of the tourism industry is on JobKeeper. Every conversation I have tells me that without JobKeeper it would have all ended back in April, so I recognise that.

What I also recognise is that JobKeeper was focused on the connection to the workplace to continue. Particularly when I have spoken to regional tourism operators, they are worried about losing skilled employees. Employees have almost became family to them, and they have invested in them; they have developed the business with them, have the corporate knowledge and are trusted to deliver the high services that are required, so that has assisted here.

But I also look around the world and across the nation to see what else people have done. I have looked as far afield as Estonia, which started to test one of the world's first digital immunity passports, created by a team of founders of global tech startups. The digital immunity passport collects testing data and enables people to share their immunity status with a third party. This is the type of innovation we need to hear. We do not need to hear about restricted vouchers or funding programs that hardly anyone can afford because they do not have nearly $50,000 lying around and have used up all their cash flow just trying to survive.

We know that tourism vouchers have been issued by many governments. We know that they have been implemented in Italy, Iceland, Lithuania, and the Republic of Korea. Of course, we only need to point to the north to see here that the Northern Territory and the south of Tasmania went out with holistic tourism vouchers—generous tourism vouchers—because they understood how important this industry is to us.

Tourism is a labour-intensive industry. More than 40,000 South Australians are employed within the visitor economy; more than 18,000 businesses are involved. This is crucial for South Australia. The NT gets it. They put up a $200 voucher. The opposition, being constructive in this time of a pandemic, said to the Marshall Liberal government, 'Let's do what the NT are doing.' That was in June. So we have had June, July, August, and here we are in late September and we come out with a restricted tourism voucher that says to the regions, 'You're not as important as Adelaide.' It says to operators of attractions and experiences, 'We're just focusing on accommodation, and we are only focusing on the big end of town that has more than 10 rooms.' It is just not good enough.

What we need to do is stimulate demand. Often people are just surviving. Many times the conversation with me has been, 'Zoe, I am really not sure if we are going to get out of this. Two of my staff, three of my staff, have gone off and got other jobs and they have said to me that it is because there is not enough certainly in this sector.' Not good enough. Once they leave the sector, how hard is it going to be to get them back? We should be fighting for this industry. We should be fighting for those small businesses and microbusinesses that have laid everything on the table to develop this industry, to develop their business. While JobKeeper has gone a long way, it is simply not enough.

We need to stimulate the demand. We need to create incentive for intrastate and interstate travel to South Australia. The Tourism Industry Development Fund, while welcomed, as I said, misses the mark for small and micro tourism operators because it is a 30:70 per cent investment—not fifty-fifty. So the government will put in 30 per cent, but the operator has to find 70 per cent. I spoke to someone yesterday who said, 'I have done seven tours in five months. There is no cash flow.' How on earth do you think these businesses can find a lazy $40,000?

We say to this Marshall Liberal government: take the opportunity to extend that fund. Be realistic about who needs support and do that now, and look to other areas for ideas. This week, the NT Summer Sale campaign went out. It is a $5 million campaign and it is going to offer consumers a discount of up to a maximum of $1,000. We condemn the cuts.

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (12:38): I move to amend the motion as follows:

Delete paragraphs (b) and (c) and insert:

(b) recognises the value of tourism to the South Australian economy and its cultural and community importance;

(c) acknowledges the importance of the sector as a large employer of 40,000 South Australians in all regions of the state; and

(d) recognises the investment by the South Australian government into tourism, which is more than ever before reaffirming South Australia's commitment to our tourism industry, which is a key driver for the state's economic recovery.

It does give me great pleasure to rise and speak to the motion, which marks World Tourism Day on 27 September, in only a couple of days' time, to celebrate the value of tourism to our economy and to our cultural and community fabric. The tourism industry, as has been said, is characterised by a large proportion of small businesses and employs 40,000 South Australians. The tourism industry in South Australia was performing well pre COVID, with record all-time economic value of $8.1 billion in December 2019.

Critically, South Australia was the first state in Australia to open up to intrastate tourism, which drove recovery through South Australians travelling to our regions and supporting our tourism sector. Knowing how much of our tourism dollar gets spent interstate and overseas by South Australians, the opportunity to redirect that spending inside South Australia has been a great boon, especially to our regional economies.

The South Australian government continues to support the sector through expenditure that is at a record high, and we do take a whole-of-government approach to the tourism sector. During COVID-19, the government has introduced targeted stimulus measures to improve business capability, support business resilience and drive consumer demand from South Australians with pent-up interest in travel. The opening of borders now to Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia, Tasmania, ACT and, as of now, New South Wales will also drive visitation from interstate travellers and grow visitor economy economic benefit.

Funding has been allocated to the South Australian Tourism Commission to the COVID-19 tourism industry support program. That $5.7 million is comprised of a small tourism business grant fund of $5 million, a regional events grant fund of $200,000, a digital training program of $200,000, a regional funding support program of $110,000 and a resilience and rebound project worth $200,000. This is a whole-of-government, whole-of-sector approach that helps put money into helping to grow and maintain this most important sector.

We are also investing in a new voucher program to prompt demand from South Australians to take up accommodation in city, metro and regional properties that are suffering as a result of low numbers of interstate and international visitors. The reason this program is important is that there are some sectors of our tourism economy that are doing really well. From an anecdotal perspective, we know that some accommodation providers in the Riverland are booked out. There are some parts of the West Coast, Mr Deputy Speaker, in your electorate, that are having, they say, their best year in a large number of years.

So we know that there are specific issues in specific areas, and none more so than the hotel accommodation market in the CBD of Adelaide. We know that the hotel market in Adelaide relies on interstate and overseas visitors who are not here. We also know that because of changed work habits there are many small businesses, food and hospitality businesses that would normally thrive around international and interstate visitors coming and spending money, that have been doing it tough because of lower visitation numbers into the CBD not only by those travellers but also by South Australians working from home or choosing to go and socialise in and around their suburban homes.

It is why this program has been targeted with a $100 voucher for CBD hotels and a $50 voucher for regional hotels. The idea here is to spend some of taxpayers' money to prompt South Australians to get out and about in our regions. We know the system, using the ATDW database, is a great way to encourage people, to give them an incentive, to get out into our regional areas.

I do not think they need that much encouragement. In fact, the feedback I have had has been that this is just a fantastic boost to encourage people to get out and about. Whether it is to go to shuck a few oysters on the West Coast, whether it is to go up the river into the Riverland or whether it is to come to the beautiful Barossa Valley, we know that this voucher scheme is going to deliver dividends not only for those accommodation providers but also for flow-on effects to all those businesses that rely on those tourism visitors.

I come from an electorate that relies heavily on the tourism sector. There are 800 people in the Barossa who are directly employed in the tourism industry, with a further 400 indirect jobs being created in the Barossa. Around $235 million a year is contributed, as part of the Barossa economy, by the tourism industry. Alongside our wine and food industries, it is the major employer in our region.

Tourism has been up and down. The Barossa does rely on overseas and interstate visitation, some of those high-end, high-value visitors. We are on the cusp of being a daytrip from Adelaide. In fact, that is the subject of a campaign that the Barossa has successfully run to help make that link and that daytrip a lot more possible.

Earlier this year, I was really proud to open the Northern Connector to the Barossa and northern areas to help make that part of our state just that much more accessible. Tourism Barossa, a fantastic local association, got on board on the back of that road opening to launch their 'Barossa. Just got closer' campaign, a campaign that has been successful in encouraging more people to come back, have a new look at the Barossa Valley and realise that it is closer and more accessible than it was before.

Before the election, I was speaking to a large number of operators in the southern areas of the Barossa, around Lyndoch and Williamstown, about the fact that the opening of the Northern Expressway and the sealing of Gomersal Road has helped to reorient the way people travel to the Barossa, essentially bypassing the southern areas and coming in via Tanunda or Nuriootpa. That has been to the detriment of some of those areas in the southern Barossa.

An election commitment that we took to the last election was to seal Lyndoch Road, a seven-kilometre stretch between Gomersal Road, down to just on the outskirts of Lyndoch, to help create a sealed connection to encourage people to come and visit the southern Barossa. That again has seen some significant benefit. We do know, though, that we need to help improve signage, especially in that southern Barossa region to encourage more people to go and see the length and breadth of what the Barossa has to provide.

I also note the opening of the Barossa Adventure Station in my own backyard of Angaston and note what a fantastic family attraction it has become. From dawn until dusk every day there are families there. In fact, I think the member for Wright came and visited only a few weeks ago. It has attracted people from Adelaide who want to come up and potentially visit a few businesses and a few wineries, and also want something to do with the kids. This adventure station provides hours of entertainment for young ones, including my two, and helps people to stay and spend money in Angaston. Those local businesses have reported to me the positive benefits of that.

I have also been extremely proud of how our local tourism operators have adapted during this difficult COVID-19 pandemic. I want to pay tribute to them and their resilience in adapting their business models to help improve the way they do things so that they can keep their businesses going and keep entertaining visitors who come to our region.

In the last couple of months and last few weeks there has been some strong anecdotal evidence of people coming and spending money in the Barossa. It is a bit patchy and that is to be expected, depending on how businesses have orientated themselves. Those more exposed to international visitors are doing it a bit tougher, whereas those oriented more to domestic visitors are seeing the benefits of the government's investment, as well as the willingness of South Australians to come and visit the beautiful Barossa Valley.

With that, I commend the amended motion to the house. I do note that there is always more that needs to be done and more that we are doing to help improve our tourism sector. Once this pandemic is behind us, I look forward to more Australians and more citizens of this globe coming to visit South Australia and the Barossa Valley and enjoying the best of what we have to offer.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Frome) (12:48): I rise to support the original motion by the member for Ramsay. I would like to acknowledge that 27 September is World Tourism Day and note the importance of tourism, especially to regional South Australia. A lot of people do not understand the importance of tourism to local communities and specifically for accommodation locations and other associated activities. Our regions, especially the Southern Flinders Ranges, offer great contrast in biodiversity, not only with food and wine but also with the ever-changing environment in the Southern Flinders Ranges and the ranges in particular.

Tourism operators have been severely impacted by the effects of the restrictions of COVID-19, but with the relaxing of travel, to a degree, we must also remain very vigilant of any dangers of the disease re-emerging and necessitating further restrictions. The member for Schubert indicated just a minute ago that all the borders, with the exception of Victoria, are now open, so we need to be very positive about what we do and how we promote ourselves.

In looking at locations, such as the Clare Valley, where the communities rely heavily on tourists coming to experience their assets, I have noticed the innovative ways that the operators there have responded to the recent restrictions. They have vastly diversified how they operate and have improved some of their facilities to a great degree. I had the privilege of attending the official reopening of the Watervale Hotel on Sunday. Not only has this facility now captured the history of the hotel itself and the surrounding activities but it is also of a standard that exceeds some facilities in Adelaide and also interstate.

Tourists are attracted to stop in any location based on the standard of a facility and, very importantly, it is also based on the friendly service of the staff and management at those locations and their ability to understand and promote other activities in the region. In other words, we really cannot just focus on what we have in one certain location; we need to push those people on to the next location so they can spend their money further out.

Three councils, the Northern Areas Council, the District Council of Mount Remarkable and the Port Pirie Regional Council, are working collaboratively together to promote a mountain bike loop by partnering together to get the best results and outcomes there. This will also complement the Riesling Trail and the Lavender Federation Trail around the Clare Valley, and also the Heysen Trail through the Southern Flinders Ranges. That will create an opportunity for people who want to go cycling or touring there. This creates a different attraction, where people wanting to have a cycling experience can traverse what will be a world-class trail, which will cover the Mount Remarkable National Park, areas of the Wirrabara Range, Telowie Gorge and also Spaniards Gully Conservation Park.

Whilst people may experience this activity, the challenge is for the surrounding locations—especially local councils—to be able to attract those visitors to stay in other communities away from these trails and spend time and money in the businesses in each of those communities. After all, this is new money coming in, and we need to capture that new money coming in. If we do not do that, then our existing retail and accommodation facilities will not be able to succeed in the long run.

To be able to attract these people to stay in these locations, councils need to ensure that their entrances, their signage, their attitude and other activities are of the highest standard. In my travels, I see certain locations that do not meet the criteria, and that is a real issue. There is nothing worse than coming into a community to see a very unattractive entrance, not well maintained, to see dilapidated signage and very poorly presented business facilities. I know times are hard, but if we are going to sell ourselves we need to promote ourselves in the best manner.

It is like selling your home: what do you do when you want to sell your home? You spruce it up. You maintain the garden and spruce it up, you paint the exterior, you paint the interior. You need to put a very good image out there to convince those people coming in to actually buy the house. No matter what the inside looks like, if the outside is not attractive then they will not go inside to look further.

I always state that the first impression starts with the attitude of the person coming in, and it is the location. If you are enthused and in a good mood and inclined to actually spend money, then you will contribute to those businesses. Just as important is the lasting impression of people leaving those locations. If they have had a good experience, they will feel motivated and very contented and will promote a very positive message to their friends further out. But even if they have had a motivated experience in that location, what they see on their way out will be the last impression of their holiday, and that is what people express—that last image is what they will promote.

The member for Schubert has indicated there are some hotel accommodation vouchers going out. When governments put budgets out there for funding allocations, it is statewide. One thing I am concerned about is that regional locations always have to compete with the larger facilities and more affluent operators in the metropolitan area. The member for Schubert has indicated that there are hotel vouchers for $100 for the CBD of Adelaide but $50 vouchers for hotels in country areas.

Governments of the day should be equal in the distribution and opportunities for any funding. If it is going to be $100 for the CBD hotels, I cannot see why it should not be $100 to encourage people to get out into the regions. If you have to go to the regions from the city, then there is the extra cost of fuel—and that is another issue that the member for Florey has been highlighting—the cost of travel and the roads, etc. If there is going to be some funding, have separate funding for regional opportunities and operators. As I said, any budgets that are bid on by statewide operators put regional people at a disadvantage because they do not have the same opportunities or the same resources to compete.

Certainly, in supporting the member for Ramsay's motion, regional South Australia in particular has a great opportunity. We need to be more proactive in our regions. We need to promote ourselves far better. We are certainly welcoming people. We need to get that funding out there. JobKeeper and Jobseeker are helping regional communities, but that will come to an end. We have a great challenges out there. We need to face these together and make certain we get everything right and promote people out there. If we do not do that, then these people will go under.

We know already from the media just recently that there have been some regional tourism operators who just do not have enough activity, so they cannot keep their staff. And once those staff move on, all that knowledge and expertise is gone. We need to be able to maintain that and ensure our youth, our regional people, have the best opportunities to maintain their employment opportunities.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (12:57): I rise to support the amended motion, and I do that with a little bit of qualification. After listening to the shadow spokesperson for tourism, I am gobsmacked that she is portraying the regions of South Australia, the tourism businesses of South Australia, as still on their knees. We have seen significant forward movement with regional tourism operators right around regional South Australia. This government is putting in good measures and good practice to support them.

When we compare the support for accommodation in Adelaide, we understand that accommodation is much more expensive in Adelaide than it is in the regions, and for very good reason. We go to the regions because we are looking for either a nature-based experience or to experience some of the great opportunities that the regions of South Australia offer.

In my electorate, the great electorate of Chaffey, tourism operators are saying they have had, in July, their best month ever in operations, and that really is a testament to their commitment to not only giving people a great experience but it is also showing a trend, through COVID, that people are travelling in South Australia to get that nature-based experience. In the Riverland, we have it all, whether it is adventure, nature-based holidaying, camping or experiencing the river. It is a $177 million Riverland economy and it represents about 8 per cent of regional visitation.

I pay tribute to Destination Riverland for the great work they are doing. They have just put out their 2030 strategy, their goals, including marketing and visitor service, experience, supply and development, collaboration, industry capabilities, leisure and business events, and promoting the value of tourism. I commend all the tourism operators in South Australia.

I want to pay tribute to Andrew 'Cosi' Costello and South Aussie With Cosi. He is doing a great job promoting regional South Australia. He is doing a great job promoting tourism in South Australia. It is about supporting businesses that are doing an outstanding job through the trying times of COVID as well as giving people that regional country eco experience, the nature-based experience.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: It sounded like an advertisement for the Riverland, member for Chaffey.

Mr WHETSTONE: It was. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.

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