Tourism will stay strong
ON WEDNESDAY the Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania held its ninth annual business lunch. In previous years the event has attracted highprofile speakers such as Alan Joyce, Brett Godfrey and David Walsh.
They have been held in packed conference rooms, bursting with ideas and enthusiasm as the Tasmanian tourism industry enjoyed the spoils of unprecedented growth.
This year was a year like no other — for all the worst reasons.
Premier Peter Gutwein was the keynote speaker at the event. Also the Tourism Minister, he’s acutely aware that each time he decides to delay the opening of the Tasmanian borders he tightens the noose around the necks of those tourism businesses which are either in hibernation or trying to limp through with support from locals holidaying at home.
The coronavirus crisis has decimated Tasmania’s most important industry. Tourism directly and indirectly contributes more than 11 per cent of GSP and makes up 17 per cent of total Tasmanian employment.
Mr Gutwein simply can’t give an iron-clad guarantee as to when our state will reopen.
He rightly pointed out that having 160 people in a room together was a luxury many parts of the mainland cannot enjoy. And in the scheme of things
THIS CRISIS WILL PASS AND WHEN IT DOES, TASMANIA WILL STILL HAVE ITS NATURAL ADVANTAGE, ITS PRISTINE REPUTATION
we are fortunate to enjoy freedoms and have no community spread of coronavirus and only one active case in the state. Mr Gutwein also knows that a hard lockdown — like that being experienced by Victorians — would be much worse for the Tasmanian economy than the current border closure.
You need only look at the New Zealand cluster to see how quickly eradication can be undone.
The Premier also pointed out that in recent years interstate travellers had spent $2bn in Tasmania, yet Tasmanians had spent $1.6bn out of state — so the potential upside for business from locals is nothing to be sneezed at.
Given the lack of certainty and the current state of the tourism industry, it’s quite remarkable so many turned up to this year’s event and TICT deserves credit for planning for the future and bringing the industry players together.
In closing on the day, TICT deputy chairman Kathryn McCann delivered a heartfelt but rousing speech to the crowd at the Hotel Grand Chancellor.
“Today we sit here at lunch and we are sombre,” she said. “Many of us are broken. We are tired and we are uncertain. Some of us are angry and some are confused. Some of us are philosophical. Some are desperate. Yet we are here.
“And the reason we are here is that the Tasmanian tourism industry, in my experience, always shows up.”
The most important message that Ms McCann delivered to the people in that room was a reminder that there would be better times ahead. This crisis will pass and when it does, Tasmania will still have its natural advantage, its pristine reputation, and it will likely be a more sought-after place than before for tourists looking to escape their very different worlds.