Downturn to linger

Summer before events recover

ECONOMIC benefits from the region’s events are likely not to be felt until summer as the sector continues to battle staging events in 2021 due to COVID-19.

Tourism Greater Geelong and Bellarine executive director Brett Ince said the effects of coronavirus were “not yet over” for many event businesses.

In his submission to a recent parliamentary inquiry into the impact of the pandemic on tourism and events, Mr Ince said the pandemic had caused significant doubt for organisers to “take a risk and stage their events in 2021”.

“Once most events are back up and running, the funds will start to flow through the supply chain again, but as many events are on an annual rotation, that may be not until next summer,” he said.

An estimated $40m economic benefit has been lost from the region due to events being cancelled between March 2020 and March 2021.

Mr Ince said the February snap lockdown in Victoria was a “devastating reminder” to the industry that “no amount of COVID-safe planning” could ensure events would proceed as planned.

“Until the community is fully vaccinated, the cloud of potential COVID outbreaks and snap lockdowns weighs heavily on event organisers, given there is no insurance or financial protection available to them,” he said.

Mr Ince said an event cancellation resulted in an almost full loss of any anticipated income from ticketing or sponsorship — a “catastrophic” outcome for small businesses and volunteer organisers.

“And while larger, professional event organisers may have a buffer to absorb this happening once, they certainly can’t sustain it happening twice,” he said.

Measures such as financial underwriting for the events sector and supporting strategies to give organisers the confidence to plan and deliver events again were needed, Mr Ince said.

Pre-COVID, 7551 people were directly employed within the Greater Geelong tourism industry.

Following the fallout from the pandemic, it is estimated around 3000-4500 jobs will have been lost due to falls in visitor economy spending by the end of 2023 — equating to around 70 per cent of the overall direct tourism workforce in Geelong.

Despite this, Mr Ince said he was confident the industry was robust enough to “come back stronger than ever”, but conceded it would not “happen by accident”.

Events are also a significant economic driver and reason for visits to the Great Ocean Road.

In the past 15 months, the region has seen a significant number of events cancelled, including the Rip Curl Pro and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism general manager Liz Price said events had continued to be “significantly reduced or abandoned” due to uncertainty and inability to reframe them in a COVIDcompliant manner.