Hon. N.F. Moore asks about the allocation of a $5 million increase to WA's tourism budget. Hon. Ken Travers responds, outlining the impact of recent events and the intended focus on intrastate tourism, while also calling for federal government support.

AnsweredQoN 569Legislative Council
Asked
20 September 2001
Portfolio
Tourism

QuestionView source ↗

I refer to the Premier’s announcement of a $5 million increase to the State’s tourism, marketing and promotion budget and ask how and where it is intended that this money will be spent? Hon KEN TRAVERS

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the member for some notice of this question. The member would be aware that the current environment is extremely fluid, both as a result of the terrorist activities in the United States and the demise of Ansett Australia last week.  The tourism industry, which includes an estimated 5 000 Western Australian businesses and up to 80 000 workers, has suffered severe financial losses as a result of the closure.  In addition, the impact of the US attacks on international travel is just beginning to be felt.  For those reasons the Government has agreed that an allocation of funds of up to $5 million will be made available to the Western Australian Tourism Commission to support the tourism industry through this crisis by providing additional marketing and promotional support.  The Western Australian Tourism Commission is in discussions today with industry to determine the direction of these new campaigns. Intrastate tourism traditionally accounts for about 80 per cent of Western Australia’s visitors.  An increased focus on encouraging Western Australians to holiday at home will therefore be an inevitable and major component of the strategy.  A greater focus on marketing in the interstate markets will obviously be held over until our capacity on the east-west trunk routes increases.  Similarly, as the international crisis unfolds, the Western Australian Tourism Commission will investigate and respond to international opportunities. The State Government announced its strong commitment today to assist the Western Australian Tourism Commission.  However, the WATC and the WA tourism industry now need to know whether the federal Government will also show similar support of the tourism industry in Australia.  It would greatly assist in the planning of the spending of this funding if we were convinced that the federal Government had a similar commitment to assist the Western Australian tourism industry.
Hon KEN TRAVERS replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. The member would be aware that the current environment is extremely fluid, both as a result of the terrorist activities in the United States and the demise of Ansett Australia last week.  The tourism industry, which includes an estimated 5 000 Western Australian businesses and up to 80 000 workers, has suffered severe financial losses as a result of the closure.  In addition, the impact of the US attacks on international travel is just beginning to be felt.  For those reasons the Government has agreed that an allocation of funds of up to $5 million will be made available to the Western Australian Tourism Commission to support the tourism industry through this crisis by providing additional marketing and promotional support.  The Western Australian Tourism Commission is in discussions today with industry to determine the direction of these new campaigns. Intrastate tourism traditionally accounts for about 80 per cent of Western Australia’s visitors.  An increased focus on encouraging Western Australians to holiday at home will therefore be an inevitable and major component of the strategy.  A greater focus on marketing in the interstate markets will obviously be held over until our capacity on the east-west trunk routes increases.  Similarly, as the international crisis unfolds, the Western Australian Tourism Commission will investigate and respond to international opportunities. The State Government announced its strong commitment today to assist the Western Australian Tourism Commission.  However, the WATC and the WA tourism industry now need to know whether the federal Government will also show similar support of the tourism industry in Australia.  It would greatly assist in the planning of the spending of this funding if we were convinced that the federal Government had a similar commitment to assist the Western Australian tourism industry.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. The member would be aware that the current environment is extremely fluid, both as a result of the terrorist activities in the United States and the demise of Ansett Australia last week.  The tourism industry, which includes an estimated 5 000 Western Australian businesses and up to 80 000 workers, has suffered severe financial losses as a result of the closure.  In addition, the impact of the US attacks on international travel is just beginning to be felt.  For those reasons the Government has agreed that an allocation of funds of up to $5 million will be made available to the Western Australian Tourism Commission to support the tourism industry through this crisis by providing additional marketing and promotional support.  The Western Australian Tourism Commission is in discussions today with industry to determine the direction of these new campaigns. Intrastate tourism traditionally accounts for about 80 per cent of Western Australia’s visitors.  An increased focus on encouraging Western Australians to holiday at home will therefore be an inevitable and major component of the strategy.  A greater focus on marketing in the interstate markets will obviously be held over until our capacity on the east-west trunk routes increases.  Similarly, as the international crisis unfolds, the Western Australian Tourism Commission will investigate and respond to international opportunities. The State Government announced its strong commitment today to assist the Western Australian Tourism Commission.  However, the WATC and the WA tourism industry now need to know whether the federal Government will also show similar support of the tourism industry in Australia.  It would greatly assist in the planning of the spending of this funding if we were convinced that the federal Government had a similar commitment to assist the Western Australian tourism industry.
The member would be aware that the current environment is extremely fluid, both as a result of the terrorist activities in the United States and the demise of Ansett Australia last week.  The tourism industry, which includes an estimated 5 000 Western Australian businesses and up to 80 000 workers, has suffered severe financial losses as a result of the closure.  In addition, the impact of the US attacks on international travel is just beginning to be felt.  For those reasons the Government has agreed that an allocation of funds of up to $5 million will be made available to the Western Australian Tourism Commission to support the tourism industry through this crisis by providing additional marketing and promotional support.  The Western Australian Tourism Commission is in discussions today with industry to determine the direction of these new campaigns. Intrastate tourism traditionally accounts for about 80 per cent of Western Australia’s visitors.  An increased focus on encouraging Western Australians to holiday at home will therefore be an inevitable and major component of the strategy.  A greater focus on marketing in the interstate markets will obviously be held over until our capacity on the east-west trunk routes increases.  Similarly, as the international crisis unfolds, the Western Australian Tourism Commission will investigate and respond to international opportunities. The State Government announced its strong commitment today to assist the Western Australian Tourism Commission.  However, the WATC and the WA tourism industry now need to know whether the federal Government will also show similar support of the tourism industry in Australia.  It would greatly assist in the planning of the spending of this funding if we were convinced that the federal Government had a similar commitment to assist the Western Australian tourism industry.
Intrastate tourism traditionally accounts for about 80 per cent of Western Australia’s visitors.  An increased focus on encouraging Western Australians to holiday at home will therefore be an inevitable and major component of the strategy.  A greater focus on marketing in the interstate markets will obviously be held over until our capacity on the east-west trunk routes increases.  Similarly, as the international crisis unfolds, the Western Australian Tourism Commission will investigate and respond to international opportunities. The State Government announced its strong commitment today to assist the Western Australian Tourism Commission.  However, the WATC and the WA tourism industry now need to know whether the federal Government will also show similar support of the tourism industry in Australia.  It would greatly assist in the planning of the spending of this funding if we were convinced that the federal Government had a similar commitment to assist the Western Australian tourism industry.
The State Government announced its strong commitment today to assist the Western Australian Tourism Commission.  However, the WATC and the WA tourism industry now need to know whether the federal Government will also show similar support of the tourism industry in Australia.  It would greatly assist in the planning of the spending of this funding if we were convinced that the federal Government had a similar commitment to assist the Western Australian tourism industry.

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