Canberra Region Tourism Leaders Forum FRIday 3 FEBRUARY 2023

Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher the Minister for Finance

• Thank you for the opportunity to speak, and thank you all of you for the roles you play in supporting our city
• Canberra has so much to offer from it's beautiful bush to it's attractions and festivals, such as Summernats
• Covid decreased tourism and, now things are rebounding and Canberra is showing strength and resilience
• Visitor expenditure has improved by 50%
• Data shows us interstate visitors come for our impressive National institutions
• Two of our art exhibitions alone generated $33 million in revenue in 2022
• Shakespeare to Winehouse largest attended event attracting 20,000 visitors
• Australians travel a long way to see art, we can’t take these kinds of visitors for granted
• Canberra is the custodian of the most important institutions in our country
• These need to be maintained, the Albanese government is committed to this
• We are in the middle of budget discussions, we are working through what is needed in detail
• For example we are tired of tarps on the library roof, tiles broken, it needs care
• I understand the our capital needs funding for these kinds of projects
• The budget is under enormous pressure, ERC manages this pressure
• Ultimately our institutions are the gateway to attracting visitors
• National Culture Policy, ‘Revive’ launched on 30 January, and we are so lucky to have one! And I want to acknowledge Tony Burke and all who participated to make this 5 year plan to revive the arts, support our arts culture and heritage, and keep these important cultural things central to our future.
• It will support First Nations art and culture
• And underfunded sectors of music and writing
• Artists will be recognised as workers, and provided rights for pay and gender equality for pay
• The policy includes plans for sharing the national collection, telling of First Nations history and stories, working with First Nations people, and we made an early budget decision to allocate $200 million dollars to support this
• The policy looks at more ways to collaborate between government and communities
• When I’m asked, 'What’s in it for Canberra?', I urge people to think about all the investments across the board
• Rebuilding of the public service is a big one and good for Canberra, it means more jobs for Canberrans
• Department of Finance is funding a precinct in Barton, as a venue for community and to support government workers. This is a significant investment by the Commonwealth
• The other big development project is the upgrade to the AIS arena. We want an opportunity to attract events, we are working with ACT government to get the arena open as soon as possible
• And of course, I want to touch on skills, skills is the hot topic at the moment, to find skilled workers and keep them is really difficult. We are dealing with a visa backlog, the number was at one million visas waiting to be processed, that has been cut right back and people are coming in to fill skills gaps now which is wonderful
• There is a program to give 200,000 free Tafe places, a lot of these are designated for hospitality and tourism jobs
• And there is more. So there is a lot of work to be done, it's been a long 7 months since taking on my role, and working through the backlog of problems we inherited and going forward

Question - 'What about the efficiency dividend?'

• I wait for the stones to be thrown at me, we had them in the ACT gov, it’s good to be constantly looking at what you do and how you do it. It was raised without a lot of thought, ramped up to meet budget costings, but it’s not at a level that can be achieved without cutting back services and what you do. The efficacy dividend was like the straw that broke the camels back. What we want to do now is what a sustainable funding looks like, working with good information to get that done in the May budget. I don’t want to preempt the work of the ARC.

Question - 'How do we convince the federal gov we need their support for a new centre?'

• Since we met last year I’ve had chats to Andrew Barr, it’s on the list but there is a list of priorities to work on. It would be a multi-million dollar project. When I look at the need across the country, it’s a contest for where the resources can go. We have to keep it on the table and keep doing the work.

Question - 'Do you ever get frustrated?'

All the time

Question - 'Would you return to ACT politics?'

I enjoyed my time, but there is an end of life on these kind of jobs. It’s a huge learning curve and huge privilege to be in my new role. I can bring the knowledge of being a Canberran to the ARC, and have the insight of being someone from Canberra not just someone who flies in flies out. There's a bit of pressure that comes with that, but it’s a good opportunity for this town which I look to leverage.

Sam Palmer General Manager of Austrade's Visitor Economy and Client Programs Division

• Hi everyone I'm looking forward to talking about opportunities for the Canberra region. I'm also excited for my first speech of 2023!
• I'd like to also add the Acknowledgement to Country before I speak in saying that all tourism is Indigenous tourism, as it all occurs in our great land, and I want to keep that in mind.
• Austrade supports exported growth, it's an advocate for tourism across work in broader policy and development - housing, employment, foreign investors
• Tourism is our largest export after coal, oil and gas
• Thrive 2023, is a gov enabled industry lead strategy. And T2030 is the ACT government tourism strategy
• Thrive's vision is all about collaborating, modernising and diversifying
• Thrive's big target is $230 billion by 2030

• So what are some challenges for tourism operators?
• Higher business travel reliance, meaning a shorter length of stay on average
• A market for school age visitors
• Advantages
• Less impacted by seasonality, strong interest In arts and culture, more clearly defined market source
• Opportunities for growth
• If you can add one more night to the stay it will add 40% more spend overall

• Australians spend the most in the world on travel, and we spend most of it overseas. Encourage Australians to travel domestically.
• Make it easier for people to book domestic holidays

• The number of Chinese visitors is huge
• NZ, China, UK solid large number of visitors

• When people come to Australia they are spending a lot more now
• Well done to the ACT government on their work in this area
• Diversification - international markets. We want to maintain and build our share in existing markets
• We also want to identify new and emerging markets
• There is good potential in Asian-Indo markets
• There is also a huge market to grow in accessible tourism

• Also sustainable and nature based tourism which is a favourite for the young travellers
• Sustainability creates cost savings in business practices

Resources available on sustainable tourism:

Ecotourism Australia Certification and Scorecard programs

Business.gov.au Environmental Impact guide which includes info about grants and support programs

Intrepid Travel - 10 step guide to decarbonise your travel business

• I'd like to mention and congratulate that Capital Brewing Co, a local Canberra business, is the first brewery in Australia to become carbon neutral!

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Contact the Austrade team VisitorEconomy@austrade.gov.au

Question, 'With Thrive, is that going to be reviewed and renewed?'

• Yes - it has three phases, we have only worked on the first phase so far, the document will be updated on a regular bases, we understand tourism and travel is changing, and it needs to align to your needs.