We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples and the Traditional Custodians of Ngunnawal Country, the land on which we meet today. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and also recognise any other people or families with connection to the ACT and Region.
Chris Steel MLA, Minister for Transport, Planning and Skills & Training
Mr. Steel spoke on the tourism developments in the city and transport issues impacting tourism and events.
Last year, the ACT welcomed 5.8 million visitors with a total visitor expenditure of 3.8 billion, the highest ever visitor expenditure in a year.
It’s predicted that international travel to the ACT will exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2025, with the Chief Minister having some very exciting discussions around the future of international airlines coming to the ACT beyond current levels.
We want visitors to think about our city and region as a great place to live, study, work and invest and to support our reputation as a progressive, inclusive and welcoming place to all.
Currently major challenges include a shortage of workers, not just a shortage of skills, but in people to do said jobs.
Skills Action Plan
A new Skills Industry Action Plan has been sent out as a draft and Mr Steel is keen to receive feedback before finalisation. This plan will be focused on a few items, such as high quality, responsive vocational education and training, improved equity access and participation and increasing the qualified workforce.
While the Apprenticeship Model is seeing a shortage in certain tourism areas such as the brewing/wine industry, Mr Steel is keen to hear other tourism needs.
Light rail update
The design of the light rail is currently being consulted with the community and stakeholders. This is a sensitive area as the plan is for the light rail to pass through the Parliamentary Triangle. With concerns on businesses, community and the environmental impact, they are keeping in touch for further developments.
The introduction of a new ticketing system, My Way Plus is being developed, allowing visitors to use their credit, debit or smart watch to access public transport services. The purchase of a MyWay card will also be more accessible through a wider variety of vendors.
Question – Is there any consideration of compensation for restaurants and other businesses, particularly in the Melbourne building who are being impacted by the light rail constructions?
Each major project in Canberra establishes a Business Partnership Plan to make it really clear what the government can do to support local businesses that have been disrupted. While financial compensation is not part of this, there are certainly other things that they can assist with, such as signage.
John Hart OAM, Executive Chair Australian Chamber for Tourism
Mr Hart spoke about the current and future issues impacting the tourism sector.
Mr Hart discussed the four areas of tourism which have seen substantial growth; Hospitality Turnovers, International Visitation, Domestic Tourism and Outbound Travel.
Across all graphs, there is incredible growth in, especially the terms of Australia’s outbound travel.
International and Domestic travel are demanding more and better attractions and it’s important that we are delivering a quality tourism experience to both.
With Entries and Exits within accommodation and food services, ACT has the same number of businesses today as we did Pre-Pandemic. While the exit rate of these businesses has remained the same, about 15% each, roughly two thirds of those businesses did not exist four years ago. We are seeing a very different industry than what was present pre-pandemic.
Australia is currently ranking 5th out of 180 tourism economies within the Tourism Development Index. While this standing is better than the previous three years, Australia is sliding in the ranks of Price Competitiveness (112th), Ground and Air Infrastructure (53rd) and Sustainability and Environment Care (30th).
The Australian Chamber for Tourism is focusing on four priorities: Be Bold, Fix the Traveller Journey, map a Path for a Sustainable Future and Build Workforce Capacity.
Be Bold
In terms of Be Bold, the Australian Government has set a target for $280 billion in tourism spending by 2030 through the THRIVE Tourism Strategy, with $240 million set to be invested into tourism marketing through Tourism Australia.
Traveller Journey
The Australia Chamber for Tourism have released their strategy for fixing the traveler journey. Some issues addressed includes improving the visitor experience, updating the passport issuing system, replacing the incoming passenger card, improving the smart gates and other ways people move through our ports.
Path to a sustainable future
A sustainability plan is set to be released later this year including the naming of our sustainability champions. Currently, their biggest priority is sustainable aviation fuel, as most of Australia’s emissions are a result of aviation fuel.
Workforce capacity
Australia currently has 200,000 people less than 12 months ago working within Tourism and Hospitality. As this encompasses the 62% of new business that were not present four years ago, we also need to improve the capacity of operators and new starters.
We are spending $150m on marketing, telling the world how good we are, but we have no one on the ground to deliver.
In order to build the workforce, we need to not only create more training and apprenticeship pathways, we need to ensure that these pathways work and that the training is delivered. This also includes improving the migration solution.
Ten years ago, there were 7,000 people with diplomas and advanced diplomas in tourism and hospitality across Australia. This year, there are only 360 people graduating in those degrees.
Question – Is the Federal Government listening to you and the recommendations you are making?
Yes, in some fronts, but no in others. While the discussions surrounding workforce seem to be falling flat, strategic content, such as the traveler’s journey is being listened to.
Question – Regarding the first graph on Hospitality Turnover, does this take into account the increase in cost of living?
No, but every time Australia has been hit with a financial crisis, we have never seen a dip in expenditure on travel or eating out.
Ross Triffitt, Executive Branch Manager Events ACT
Mr Triffitt spoke about Floriade 2024 and other upcoming events in the Nation's Capital.
Floriade attracts over 400,000 attendees, with the last five events attracting over 2.2 million attendees. While there has been steady growth in attendance each year, there has been a decline in international visitors.
While Floriade had a lower attendance in 2022 and 2023 of around 427,000 and 433,000 visitors, it is still the eighth highest recorded attendance.
For economic impact, while there was a slight decline in 2022 and 2023 due to the pandemic, there was still a $197.6 million contribution to the visitor economy.
The attendee demographic changes between local and interstate visitors, with most local attendees falling in to the 35 to 44 age bracket and interstate visitors being 65+.
Floriade 2024 has been scheduled for Saturday 14 September to Sunday 13 October. The theme for this year’s event being ‘Art in Bloom’.
There are around 240 hours of programs organised for this year’s event, the largest single programmed event in Australia. These programs include horticulture displays, stage, roving & street entertainment, celebrity appearances, feature installations and other experiences.
Food, beverage and market stalls will also be available across the event. Visitors will have the choice from over 20 food vendors, such as Agostinis and Bianco and a number of beverage vendors including Bentspoke Brewing, Underground Spirits and the CDWIA. There will also be over 50 shops and stalls for attendees to visit.
Tour groups, free shuttles and a ticket ferry service will be available to the public wishing to attend Floriade this year.
For accessibility, Floriade has increased the number of accessible parking spaces as well as the free shuttle bus dropping patrons off directly at the front entrance of the event. Other amenities include Mobility scooter hire, parents room, accessible bathrooms and a sensory hour every weekday from 9:30am to 10:30am.
Floriade support promotion through multiple channels to ensure multiple touchpoints, particularly for it’s interstate audience. The paid campaign includes home TV, radio, video display and social media. Sunrise will also be in attendance on the opening day for a live cross, which has a reach of around 3.2 million viewers.
Floriade will also promote local businesses through partnership. Businesses that offer a product, service or program and experience that enhance the Floriade experience will have their business promoted on Floriade’s Stay and Play page on their website. This is a free program for those wishing to be involved.
NightFest will also return this year from Thursday 3 October to Sunday 6 October. There will be a light up installation from Indigenous Artist Warwick Keen as well as an LED flower display.
Mr Triffitt briefly touched on the events set for Spring and Summer, some of which included the Canberra Nara Candle Festival and the National Multicultural Festival.
Dr David Marshall, Chair of the Leaders Forum highlighted;
- Congratulations to Visit Canberra's successful Destination Canberra Conference.
- An update on The Wallaroo Solar Farm will be provided soon.
- Nominations for the Canberra Region Tourism Awards close tonight, Friday 2 August.
Next forum Thursday 5 September 2024.
Speakers will include ACT Minister and Tourism Minister Andrew Barr, Chair of Canberra Arts Biennial Noel Hobbs and General Manager of Saphire Coast Tourism Rhys Treloar.
Photo by Melanie Dretvic on Unsplash.