Federal Government and TTF single out the NSW Government for blame in domestic tourism decline disaster

The Sydney Morning Herald this morning says that a leaked report they obtained has found the domestic tourism industry was in long-term stagnation with the Federal Government saying it was “a wake-up call for the New South Wales Government”.

The Federal Government’s Minister for Small Business and Tourism, Fran Bailey, said the tourism decline had been fuelled by the State Government’s decision to slash its tourism budget, adding, “New South Wales spends less today on tourism promotion than it did five years ago.”

The report obtained by the Herald, concluded that the industry had remained “relatively flat” for 20 years.

The Tourism and Transport Forum also singled out New South Wales for blame yesterday, arguing that a $1 billion loss in domestic expenditure between 2000 and 2005 was a direct result of the cuts to funding for Tourism NSW, from $54.1 million in 2002-03 to $46.1 million in 2006-07.

Outgoing New South Wales Minister for Tourism, Sandra Nori, said changes in household spending and high petrol prices, had affected holidaying habits, but The Mole can report that industry leaders, particularly in regional New South Wales are calling for Nori to resign prior to the election to allow a new Minister to address this disastrous situation for the New South Wales tourism industry.

The Mole has followed this scenario develop with interest, including since the interview held with Minster Bailey on 19 June at ATE, where she described the New South Wales Government as “unbelievably arrogant at a Government level, because they think that they do not have to do anything, because they have Sydney and its icons and that does the job for them”.   

Minsiter Bailey added, “I have been everywhere in NSW and all the regional tourism organisations in New South Wales are giving the same message, they are simply not getting the dollars and support from the NSW Government to market their regions effectively”.

The interview with Minister Bailey can be viewed at: http://www.travelmole.com/stories/109297.php?news_cat=&pagename=searchresult

The opportunity to respond was provided to John O’Neill, Director and General Manager of the New South Wales’ Government’s tourism agency Tourism New South Wales, with Mr O’Neill saying in TravelMole on 11 July that the New South Wales Government and the other state governments spend a larger percentage of their budgets on their state tourism organisations than the Federal Government spends on Tourism Australia as a proportion of its budget.

Not providing any specific figures to support the New South Wales Government’s tourism funding position, he also said that if anyone had any questions about allocation of funds to tourism in New South Wales and the New South Wales Budget, they can get the information directly from the New South Wales Treasury Budget Papers at www.treasury.nsw.gov.au/bp06-07/bpapers.htm

Regarding questions raised on the New South Wales tourism industry’s support of Tourism New South Wales and comments made by Mr O’Neill that any drop in marketing funds spent by Tourism News South Wales would be as a result of an anticipated decline in partner funding, he said, “We don’t anticipate a decline in support, but we have anticipated a drop in income, because co-operative funding supports advertising and if funds are not raised there is less reach and frequency for partnered advertising”.

Unfortunately, in the interview Mr O’Neill did not provided indications of any increased New South Wales Government funding to rescue the New South Wales tourism industry from this disastrous tourism business scenario.

The interview with Mr O’Neill can be viewed at:

http://www.travelmole.com/stories/109656.php?news_cat=&pagename=searchresult

Report by The Mole