Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, the Hon Dan Tehan, has today released a proposed strategy for the visitor economy, THRIVE 2030 (The Re-Imagined Visitor Economy). Austrade is seeking stakeholder views on the draft with submissions closing 23rd December 2021.

The strategy will be the national long-term plan to rebuild and return the visitor economy to long-term sustainable growth. It includes actions for governments and industry.
 
“We are pleased to see the release of the anticipated Reimagining the Visitor Economy Report and consultation being sought from industry on the long-term strategy, but very concerned with the timing of this release said Coralie Bell, Chair at Australian Regional Tourism.
 
“This draft strategy should have been released two years ago, and to release it and restrict industry submissions to the four-weeks leading up to Christmas isn’t good enough. Tourism operators that have been crippled over the past two years are now heading into the summer season and focussed on getting doors open while navigating staff shortages during what is the most critical time to the industry”.
 
“If the government want genuine conversations and partnerships on developing the most important piece of work to enable tourism recovery and growth into the future, they really need to better understand the needs of the people that they represent”.
 
“We couldn’t be more disappointed with the mess created by this government in supporting the tourism industry back on its feet. It’s about time they got out of their bubble and into the regions to understand the difficulties being experienced in regional Australia right now” She said.
 
Coralie says “Industry calls on the Government to extend the consultation period well into the New Year to allow time for feedback from those that it most matters”.
 
Australian Regional Tourism urges all regions to get involved in providing feedback on the strategy to ensure regional Australia is fairly represented within the strategy.