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.
Andrew Barr MLA, Chief Minister and Minister for Tourism
The Chief Minister reflected on the past year and the focus for tourism and hospitality in 2024.
- Data shows the ACT tourism recovery has been very strong domestically, effectively back to pre-covid levels.
- There is still room for further growth in the domestic market and internationally.
- The market for visitors from India is now bigger than pre-covid and is on a growth pathway.
- India and China remain the principal focus markets for 2024, together with continued engagement with Singapore and New Zealand.
The ACT economy has grown by 41% in the last decade, the fastest of all states and territories. The tourism and hospitality sector has been at the forefront of that long term growth.
With more job vacancies in the ACT than unemployed, we are particularly focused on working with universities to attract and retain students so that some of the skills gaps in our economy, particularly in tourism and hospitality, can be closed through a targeted Skilled Migration Program.
Our 2024 focus also includes:
- continuing our transport agenda to make it easier and cheaper for people to visit Canberra
- infrastructure to support the rapid transition towards electric vehicles
- CBD infrastructure projects including more hotel accommodation, new hospitality venues and more commercial and retail activity
- new and different precincts in key tourism zones like the National Triangle, Kingston arts precinct and Braddon
- further announcements about land releases for destination hotels.
The Tourism Product Development Fund is now open for applications, closing 12 February 2024. The fund has previously supported important and interesting investments and we look forward to a wide range of applications to support further product development for the sector.
Question: What is the next step in reviving the night-time economy?
Chief Minister: The new territory plan came into effect last week, with a series of changes for identified entertainment zones or precincts within the CBD.
We're finalising some of the detail but the intent is to lift the allowable noise limits in those areas that will put in place very strict requirements on any new residential development that abut the precinct to have a better noise attenuation.
The objective is now clear and the final pieces of that regulatory framework will be finalised shortly. Timeframes for licencing are being shortened as part of that reform.
Question: What are the key successes of your overseas delegations this year?
Chief Minister: Our international engagement is multi-faceted. Tourism is an important part along with the biggest single export earner for the territory which is higher education.
What we seek to do on those international missions is to open doors and provide opportunity for Canberra based exporters to access those markets, and seek inbound investment into our economy.
Examples of that are many and varied in the tourism sector, including a number of significant hotel acquisitions and investment interest in some of the new precincts that we are putting to the market.
John Hart, Executive Chair Australian Chamber - Tourism
Mr Hart provided an informative overview of tourism trends and outlined the priorities for the Australian Chamber.
- We are now at 84% of pre-covid levels from an international perspective looking month on month.
- We're back up to about 60% of visitation from China.
- Spend is growing faster than visitation, which means we've got our effort right focusing on high value travellers. In 2023, spend will exceed pre-covid levels.
- We have moved from talking about recovery, to talking about growth. There are now 1.4 million people in the tourism and hospitality workforce driven by a 36% growth in Hospitality Services above pre-covid levels.
- There is a shortage of over 200,000 people in our workforce because we're growing at such a huge rate. We've come up with a workforce strategy with recommendations of how to achieve workforce growth, including a system that allows people to move through training much more seamlessly through micro credentialing.
- There is a lot of confusion around data right now because we have changed the way we report data. One of our absolute priorities throughout next year is to get the data story right so we know what we're counting and can rely on comparability of data.
- We have formed a sustainability Advisory Committee with a priority to look at the net zero journey and what that looks like across the industry. We are developing a process to map the journey cost and come up with a target for Australian tourism to reach net zero.
- We are identifying leaders in every one of the 52 regions to drive the sustainability plan and net zero journey at the regional level which will feed up to the national level.
- Know that our traveler systems are not as good as the rest of the world and this is a priority area to improve.
- In last 6 months we have mapped the passenger journey, then identified government intervention points. We are prioritising the important points to then advocate for change as necessary - these include making the visa process as easy as possible for inbound visitors, reforming the GST Refund scheme and the incoming passenger declaration.
The four clear priorities:
- Reassembling the data story so we can tell a consistent narrative around how we describe tourism.
- Building our workforce for growth.
- The sustainability journey to net zero.
- Future traveler services.
Matt Anderson PSM Director Australian War Memorial
Mr Anderson provided an update on the redevelopment of the Australian War Memorial.
- There's three major parts of this project - the front of the building, the Bean building and the redevelopment of Anzac Hall.
- After the redevelopment of the parade ground and the front of the building, the iconic silhouette of the Australian War Memorial will be maintained. However it will make it accessible for all visitors.
- The Bean Building and Research Centre is being redeveloped on the right of the building.
- The new Anzac Hall is going to provide 4000 square metres of gallery space featuring a range of exhibits including G For George which will be returned to the hall. It will also include the Peacekeeping gallery to tell the story of the Australians who have been deployed on peacekeeping missions every single day since 1947.
- The scale of the work and the challenge is huge - we've excavated the equivalent of 50 Olympic swimming pools of dirt whilst remaining open to the public.
- A lot of work is being done at night and early morning to keep the Memorial open for visitors, to preserve the dignity of those visits and maintain the many commemorative activities.
- The Memorial is a heritage listed building with many challenges that brings in redevelopment.
- Heating and cooling for the Memorial will provided by the largest closed loop geothermal system in the southern hemisphere. Together with rainwater harvesting and solar panels this will put us very close to achieving net zero.
- The Australian War Memorial recently was awarded Trip Advisors 'Best of the Best award' which is very important to us and remarkable given this is in middle of major redevelopment. This is in addition to Time Magazine rating the Memorial number nine in the top 10 free things to do in the world.
When you consider these awards came in the midst of the redevelopment, it's a remarkable testimony to the staff of the Australian War Memorial.
Survey results - Forum Chair David Marshall gave an overview of a recent survey of forum members which asked what the ACT Government should prioritise for investment. The top three responses were:
- Further resourcing Visit Canberra for national and international marketing
- Fast tracking key infrastructure projects
- Stronger support for ACT events
Tourism Leaders Forum Members recent activities - it's been a busy month and here's how Forum leaders have represented the industry:
- Briefed ACT Liberal Party and the ACT Greens Party Rooms on tourism matters
- City Services urged to remove graffiti, roadside rubbish and replace faded signs
- Participated in the ACT Government’s Business Consultative Forum
- Attended CBR Business Chamber roundtable with Shane Rattenbury
- Discussion with ACT Policing on criminal activities impacting tourism operators
- Attended UC’s ‘Centre for a Better Canberra’ and the 2023 Aitkin Lecture
- Attended the Canberra Region Tourism Awards
- Contributed to the new Tidbinbilla Visitor Centre planning
- Lobbied ACT Directorates to protect attractions from potential summer fires
- Met with ACT Under Treasurer to discuss 2024-2025 ACT Budget
- Submitted to the Future of the AIS Federal Inquiry
- Meetings with Senator Pocock and other Federal Members of Parliament
- Attended functions at MoAD, NAA, Questacon, NPG and NGA
- Met with the National Capital Authority
Forum dates for 2024 - put them in your calendar!
- Thursday 1 February
- Friday 1 March
- Wednesday 3 April
- Thursday 2 May
- Tuesday 4 June