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Ladies and gentlemen,
I'm pleased to address the NTA's post-budget forum here at Parliament House.
Last night the Treasurer delivered a budget that moves from supporting the economy through the global financial crisis to bringing us back to surplus three years earlier than expected.
Last year, while advanced economies contracted by over three per cent, Australia grew 1.4 per cent.
Without stimulus, our economy would have gone backwards 0.7 per cent last year - our strategy worked as acknowledged by Restaurant and Catering who estimated more than $80 million from the stimulus package went directly to that sector.
Our strategy also meant that while global tourism arrivals declined four per cent, arrivals to Australia remained steady at 5.6 million visitors last year.
This is an outstanding result and we're continuing to perform much better than expected.
The most recent tourism figures are positive.
International visitor numbers were up 8.1 per cent during March quarter 2010, compared to March quarter last year.
For the 2010 calendar year to date, arrivals from all of Australia's top 10 inbound markets are higher than for the same period in 2009.
A particularly pleasing result is the growth in arrivals from Japan, up nearly 3 per cent on last year.
Although these numbers are good, our challenge is always to convert the dream of coming to Australia into a reality.
That's why in last night's budget the Treasurer announced $9.5 million in new money from the Australian Government for the tourism industry.
Firstly, $5.5 million has been provided for a new national tourism accreditation program to lift standards across the board and promote operators who display a national quality mark.
As NTA members you know only too well how valuable this is.
We are pleased to support this homegrown initiative which has been a long time in the making - in fact the industry has been asking for it since 1997 - and we intend to deliver it in partnership with you.
Secondly, $4 million has been provided to extend the Approved Destination Status Scheme, ensuring Australia continues to reap the benefits of the Chinese market which is currently worth $2.8 billion to Australia and is forecast to increase at an average annual rate of 10.2 per cent to $5.5 billion in 2017.
I might also say that, contrary to claims by some parts of the industry today, we have effectively maintained Tourism Australia funding across the forward estimates.
What has not been recognised by some parts of the industry is that the Government brought forward to 2009-10 $9 million from Tourism Australia's 2010-11 budget in response to industry requests to deal with the Global Financial Crisis.
The early availability of $9 million for Tourism Australia this year generated an additional $11.5 million in private sector funding for tourism marketing during the industry's darkest hour.
As a result of the Government's decisive action to support this important industry, Tourism Australia has had more - not less - capacity to sell Australia to the world.
It is also important to remember that the industry asked for the transfer of Tourism Research Australia into my department to improve research and information to support industry growth, so Tourism Australia is no longer paying for this function.
But the benefits of the budget for your industry extend beyond tourism-specific measures.
As the peak body representing the 93 per cent of tourism businesses in the small and medium category, we have delivered a range of much broader benefits for your members.
Firstly, all small businesses - not just companies - will benefit from the immediate writeoff of assets valued at up to $5,000.
That means businesses can take advantage of this deal to upgrade IT and point of sale equipment to modernise their online marketing and distribution, or their book-keeping and financial management systems.
It means the immediate writeoff of assets like refrigerators, beds, items of furniture - this is potentially an enormous boost for small businesses wanting to refurbish their premises.
A third of small businesses will benefit from the reduction in the company tax rate from 30 to 28 per cent - and some may be encouraged to incorporate to take advantage of the reduction.
The lower company tax rate is expected to deliver an annual indicative saving of $94 million to the accommodation and food services sectors alone.
The budget includes skills and infrastructure measures that will benefit the tourism industry:
- $661 million more for for skills based training and incentives to employ an apprentice or trainee;
- $996 million for rail upgrades in areas that will benefit tourism as well as the wider economy; $111 million more to assist regions with community infrastructure to support major events, festivals and community leisure activities;
- $12 million over two years for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park; and
- $14.5 million more to develop cycling infrastructure including mountain bike trails.
Long-Term Strategy
Let me now turn to the strong progress being made against the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy.
At the Tourism Ministers' Council on 30th April we signed off on 41 practical actions to progress the Strategy.
Ministers committed $2.2 million to implement a number of measures over the next 18 months including:
- Seeking inclusion of highly skilled, highly trained chefs on the skilled occupations migration list;
- Improving labour mobility through national uniformity of "responsible service of alcohol" qualifications;
- Removing barriers to investment by seeking the inclusion of tourism in the Commonwealth Enterprise Connect Program;
- Improving destination management planning, particularly through pilot projects and identifying and addressing gaps in research and dissemination of information;
- Building stronger links with tourism transport planning through restructuring the National Tourism and Aviation Advisory Committee; and
- Enhancing indigenous employment through identifying tourism program gaps and scoping out opportunities for inclusion of tourism in existing programs across governments.
Of all the actions covered in Strategy, the one I want to focus on this evening is skills, labour and employment.
Skills and Labour
Tourism employs almost half a million Australians.
That is why today I am announcing more than $133,000 in funding to the National Tourism Alliance from the TQUAL Grants program to support the attraction and retention of skilled staff.
The funding will be used to develop and market a tourism careers program called 'Discover Tourism'.
TQUAL Grants funding will be used to develop the 'Discover Tourism' website and CD ROM, which will then be marketed and distributed by NTA and the tourism industry.
The project is an innovative response to the challenge of recruiting and retaining staff and is modelled on the success of the 'Discover Hospitality' site established by Restaurant and Catering and the AHA, and supported by the private sector.
'Discover Tourism' will combine careers advice and training options in one place.
It will assist users with information on finding or changing jobs and developing or furthering a career in tourism, for example, acquiring new skills, training or qualifications.
This project is one of 70 TQUAL Grants projects announced across Australia, worth almost $8.3 million - many of them are providing a valuable leg up to small tourism businesses.
Broader support for tourism
Aside from the measures announced in last night's budget, the Australian Government has a comprehensive policy to strengthen the long-term resilience of the tourism industry.
We are working hard to bring international airlines to more regional airports in Australia.
As part of the economic stimulus, just over $1 billion was provided for community-based projects, many of them capable of attracting new visitors.
The $500 million stimulus package for small business also helped the 93 per cent of tourism businesses in that category.
And when it comes to marketing, Australian governments combined invested more than $500 million in promoting Australian tourism both domestically and internationally last year - with 'No Leave No Life' tempting hard-working Australians to see more of their own great country.
Tourism Australia and the State and Territory tourism organisations have 55 offices in 15 countries around the world - all working hard to lift our visitor numbers.
Conclusion
Ladies and Gentlemen, the tourism industry is seeing unprecedented support from Government.
In addition to our ongoing domestic and international marketing commitment, we're seeing a focus on long-term resilience and support across Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments for investment, infrastructure, labour mobility and a focus on indigenous employment.
This should be a strong reminder of how much economic growth relies on tourism.
The Australian Government's practical measures will help to refine Australia's tourism industry, so we can compete even more aggressively in the global tourism market place.
Our focus remains on the long game and bringing the budget into surplus three years ahead of schedule.
Thank you for all your hard work to date and I look forward to continuing our work to build an even stronger, more productive and competitive industry.
Thank you.