Thank you to the Tourism Industry Council and the National Capital Attractions Association for the invitation to speak today and for your commitment to this inaugural Canberra and Region Tourism Symposium Inspire, Create and Lead.
This symposium is all about partnerships – and how those partnerships can support an industry that pumps $1.5 billion into our economy and employs over 13,000 in Canberra and the region.
I would like to begin this afternoon with a quick look back at the 2010 year for tourism in Canberra. The snapshot of our results are as follows:
Domestic Tourism
- Over two million domestic overnight visitors in 2010.
- Our best result since Sydney Olympics.
- Domestic overnight visitor expenditure more than $1billion, up $303million
- Domestic visitor nights totalled 5.57million - up 20 per cent.
- strong increases in visitation from its two key domestic markets in Sydney and regional NSW - while the number of visitors from Victoria was also on the rise.
International Tourism
- 155,000 international visitors.
- They spent $284 million here - up $52 million.
- International visitor nights totalled over 3 million - up 7.5 per cent.
These are great results – and ones of which the industry can be very proud - especially on the back of the GFC. They are due, in no small part, to the success of a number of key campaigns and events:
Masterpieces from Paris exhibition - The NGA’s evaluation revealed the exhibition contributed $94 million to the ACT economy and attracted over 476,000 visitors. It is considered to be the biggest block-buster ever staged in the National Capital.
Floriade and Floriade NightFest had their best year ever. Floriade 2010 attracted record levels of attendees with just under 472,000 (includes multiple visits) passing through the gates - up from 362,684 last year. Fifty four per cent were from interstate or overseas. All this injected about $27 million into the ACT economy - up from $22.7 million last year.
Over the past 2 years ‘Wrapt in Winter’ has helped drive tourism activity during the quieter winter months. Last year the Wrapt in Winter.com.au received 55,315 visits, 44,675 absolute unique visitors and 68,049 page views. These were converted into thousands of new bookings. From the industry perspective respondents to a partner survey said the campaign had a positive impact on their business and represented value for their money. I’m looking forward to this year’s campaign with even more industry partnerships.
So we have a strong base on which to grow the industry in the future.
So what of the Future?
I would like to spend some time outlining some of the key areas of focus for Government and update you on what is already planned and being actively developed.
Loxton Review of Events and Festivals
In January 2010 the Chief Minister’s Department commissioned a review into ACT Government festivals and events. The key objectives of the review were to:
- explore a unified vision for events and festivals in Canberra;
- clarify the strategic intent and role of the ACT Government in funding and delivery of events and festivals;
- consider the potential of focussing some of the events funding into developing a significant national attractor event program;
- canvas the pros and cons associated with attracting big commercial events as opposed to, or associated with, focusing on growing Canberra specific events and developing what is unique about Canberra;
- advise on the most effective and efficient organisational arrangements for delivering the ACT Government’s events and festivals strategy; and
- enhance the level of collaboration in scheduling, planning and delivering events and festivals.
Hawke Review
You may also be aware that Dr Allan Hawke was recently commissioned to review the structure and operations of the ACT Public Service.
The Hawke Review has taken place in parallel with the Review of Events and Festivals.
It is important that we align the Events and Festivals Review recommendations with the recommendations of the Hawke Review, especially regarding government coordination of service delivery and structure that will improve resilience, innovation and efficiency within the ACT Government.
I have prepared budget submissions to support the Government’s position on the Events and Festivals Review and these are now part of the current budget deliberations.
While the Government is still considering these matters, I am not in a position at this time to go on public record to state our final position on each recommendation.
However, I can say that Tourism will be moving to new Directorate of Economic Development. Major events will also be moving into that Directorate. We embrace the vision for four distinct seasons of events and campaigns.
Once the cabinet processes and our budget deliberations are complete, I look forward to working with Industry on the full set of actions we will take in response to the reviews.
There is a lot in the tourism and events pipeline and I would like to take this opportunity to outline some of this to you today.
Let me turn first to sport. We have recently secured a number of major events and entered into some long-term commitments that will have a positive impact on the Tourism industry.
Australian Women’s Golf Tournament in 2013
We are delighted to have locked in the Australian Women’s Golf Tournament at the start of our centenary year. It will be played at Royal Canberra and there is little doubt this high-profile event will bring in a good many visitors to the city and boost our profile over the four days of the event both nationally and internationally.
Asian Cup football finals in 2015
The ACT, together with New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland have been successful in our bid to host the huge Asian Cup football finals in 2015. This 23-day tournament is one of the world’s largest football events and we anticipate that Canberra will host six matches and a quarter final in what is a major sporting coup for the nation and our city.
AFL 2012- onwards
In recent years the ACT Government has provided the backing for top-class AFL to be played in Canberra. While we would of course love to have our own AFL side based here in Canberra, the ACT Government has done the next best thing by securing a long-term relationship with the new Giants franchise.
From 2012, the Giants will play four matches a year at Manuka Oval, and as part of the package will help develop our best young players and promote Canberra wherever the team plays across Australia over the next decade. There is a significant tourism component to the long-term arrangement with the Giants and I would encourage industry to consider partnering opportunities.
Cricket
We are also confident of securing more quality cricket matches at Manuka Oval and those negotiations with Cricket Australia and Cricket NSW are nearing conclusion. I will have more to announce in the near future.
Stromlo Forest Park
The Park now attracts well over 200,000 visitors every year, making it a runaway success as a sporting and recreation venue. While it is already established as a significant sporting and tourism attraction, the Park remains a work in progress.
We have opened new equestrian trails and look forward to the Australian National University building a space science museum at Observatory site in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institute.This project will fit in perfectly with our future plans for Stromlo Forest Park which include low-cost accommodation, retail and event spaces, improved equine and mountain bike tracks and a gondola which would take visitors to the proposed museum.
Business Events
The success of business tourism in the ACT in recent years has been little short of staggering. That success is in part evident in the achievement of the National Convention Centre Canberra. In 2010 the NCC achieved a new record for revenue generation, turning over $9 million, up from $8 million in 2009. Over the course of 2010, the venue welcomed more than 100,000 visitors toa total of 277 conferences and events, representing an injection of approximately $43.4 million into the local economy.
The Canberra Convention Bureau (CCB) has been key in driving ongoing growth in the business tourism. The ACT Government is pleased to support this area of industry with more than $1 million annually to the Canberra Convention Bureau. We look forward to enhancing this support in future Budgets.
National Attractions
The ACT Government will continue to work with the National Attractions to attract tourists – especially in our centenary year. We value the strength of existing partnerships and look forward to developing them further through events like Enlighten.
We are also looking to strengthen our tourism and event offerings during the summer and winter seasons and would welcome new ideas and initiatives from National Attractions for these times of the year.
Education Tourism
Education tourism to the city continues to grow strongly. The National Capital Educational Tourism Project has worked diligently to Increase the number of students that visit the National Capital which has in turn increased the economic impact of the schools market. We recognize that future growth of this sector requires new investment and are working hard to facilitate that – a point I will return to later.
Cultural Attractions and Events
Every survey conducted shows that Canberrans in general are more engaged in art and culture than any other Australian city. The ACT Government recognises this and have invested accordingly. We have delivered a world-class glassworks in the former Kingston power house, attracting plaudits both from interstate and overseas.
The Glassworks attracted more than 62,000 visitors in its first year in operation...and those numbers increased to just shy of 70,000 in 2009-10. At present work is being undertaken with a view to creating a stronger cultural precinct at Kingston with the glassworks as the centrepiece.
A master planning exercise for the area, involving broad consultation is well advanced, and I am expecting to receive a final report in the next two to three months.
We are also consulting on the future of the old and now mothballed Canberra Brickworks and the land around it. With community consultation ongoing, this isn’t the time to speculate on the future of this precinct, other than to say that the master plan as it currently stands does provide a great opportunity, to save the brickworks AND convert the derelict site into a truly world-class cultural and tourist attraction.
Tidbinbilla
The ACT Government has invested heavily in Tidbinbilla Nature Park. The Sanctuary is proving very popular. In just 12 months, visitor numbers jumped from 88,000 in 2008-09 to more than 180,000 in 2009-10. In 2010, Tidbinbilla won the Canberra and Region Tourism Award for Ecotourism and received a commendation award in the Parks Forum for Excellence in Park Management.
National Arboretum
The Arboretum is potentially the best new attraction built in Canberra in decades. In terms of scale, it is certainly the biggest. Considering the negativity in some quarters when the arboretum plans were first unveiled, what is now taking shape on that site is something quite spectacular....and something that will only get better with age.
The National Arboretum, is an attraction not just for this generation – but for generations to come.
In just two years to mark Canberra’s centenary 100 forests will be planted. What we will have at that time will be a recreational, educational, scientific and tourist asset unparalleled in the Southern Hemisphere. We now have 65 of those 100 forests in the ground. We have 18 forests scheduled for planting in this calendar year and the remainder will be planted in 2012.
Some of the civil works completed to date include:
- the construction of the Events Terrace;
- an upgrade of the internal road network;
- completion of the viewing platform, seating and the pedestrian pathway at Dairy Farmer’s Hill.
- installation of two prominent sculptures - Wide Brown Land and Eagle and Nest;
- completion of a stunning picnic and barbecue area, pedestrian facilities and a viewing platform at the Himalayan Cedar Forest; and
- completion of earthworks for the Central Valley ceremonial gardens.
Work will start shortly on the visitors centre which is being generously supported by leading Canberra businessman, Mr Bob Winnel and the Village Building Company. Mr Winnel has also generously committed to support an annual operatic performance in the arboretum.
Wine Industry
Our Canberra and region wine industry continues to make a massive contribution to tourism. James Halliday’s 2011 Australian Wine Companion includes 10 wineries from the Canberra District which received five-star ratings – a significant achievement for our wine region. This comes on top of 19 Canberra District wines making the list of James Halliday’s Top 100 NSW wines for 2010.
The district, which includes about 140 vineyards and 35 wineries, was equalled only by the Hunter Valley district, which also secured 19 places on the list. This is indicative of the growth of the Canberra and district wine industry. It’s an industry that has focused on quality – with the results plain in these listings by James Halliday.
It’s an industry that continues to draw visitors to the region and also spreads the word of our excellent wine industry through sales around the country and around the world.
Floriade
2010 was a record year. I am happy to announce the theme for Floriade 2011: A Feast for the Senses. This year’s event promises to provide an array of flavours, fun and surprises set amongst a million blooms at Commonwealth Park from 17 September to 16 October 2011.
Enlighten
We’ve had tremendous success in the first year. One correspondent – who attended last Friday night, and hadn’t previously considered himself a Chris Isaak fan loved the show.
He said that “Beyond the concert, the whole Enlighten concept is a great idea, it was really well organised, the concert venue was superb and the institutional buildings looked brilliant.
Overall, Enlighten does a great job of offering something a little different, and perhaps unexpected, from the staid image of Canberra as a city and as a destination for visitors.”
Australian Capital Tourism got this from the Bus Depot Markets: “We would like to thank you for all the effort in bringing a successful event to Canberra during the Canberra Day celebrations.
“Not only was the event extremely interesting, but we noticed a significant increase in visitation at the Old Bus Depot Markets over the last two weekends. Well done indeed!”
It was also pleasing to get great feedback from the Skyfire organizers on how the events worked together.
Aligning with the National Long Term Tourism Strategy
The ACT Government is also a strong supporter of the development of the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy. It will deliver strategic and coordinated leadership to drive the Tourism Agenda. It will also facilitate investment and further regulatory reform.
A critical element in the strategy is addressing labor and skills shortages. In this light - recently the ACT Tertiary Education Taskforce Report Learning Capital was released. It’s 12 recommendations are good news for tourism.
Recommendation 1 is that ACT Tertiary education providers form a fully integrated system. Recommendation 4 seeks closer links between employers and education providers - Recommendation 6 seeks closer integration between UC and CIT and Recommendation 8 looks for Canberra to be promoted as Australia’s learning capital – which will help further grow our already huge educational tourism market.
The Government is considering its response to the report and I hope to have some more to say about this in the context of the forthcoming ACT Budget.
New Infrastructure/ New Investment
While the ACT Government can clearly have some influence on the number and quality of our attractions and events, when it comes to the accommodation sector, this has to be largely driven by the market.
This was borne out just last year when the Government offered one of the best sites for a new high quality hotel in the city opposite the Sydney Building for sale. Market forces at the time delivered a disappointing result. We hope to put the site back to the market in the next 12 months.
That said, I think it is important to recognise that in the past couple of years the ACT has seen four substantial, high quality properties come on stream, all offering first class accommodation for tourists.
They are:
- the five star Hotel Realm at Barton,
- the five star Diamant Hotel in city west,
- the four and a half star ‘Aria’ at Dickson and
- the Abode hotel in Gungahlin.
So the picture in the recent past on tourism accommodation is a very positive indeed. What is most pleasing is that there is considerable work underway which will bring many hundreds of additional rooms on line in the next two years.
Much of our focus at present is on supporting the provision of new lower-end and affordable three star accommodation. To that end, I was pleased to see the sale of a block in Watson late last year. This site will provide up to 400 beds for students and sporting groups.
We are currently scoping a similar 3 star option for the Stromlo Forest Park precinct.
The Lyneham Sports Precinct master plan has also identified a site suitable for low-cost accommodation. A change to the Territory Plan to permit this is proposed to release this site next financial year.
And at EPIC an excellent site with the potential to establish a 4-5 star camping and accommodation facility is being developed.
At Bruce, the Doma Group is developing a mixed use site which will include a hotel, motel, a guest house or tourist resort.
I understand that the National Zoo and Aquarium are progressing plans for the construction of new tourist accommodation, including 50 hotel-style rooms and a lodge.
Also in the pipeline are plans from the Kamberra Winery on Northbourne Avenue for a $15 million development comprising a hotel, restaurant, and mini-brewery.
The Forest Park Riding School has just opened discussions on the potential for new tourist accommodation.
Hotel Realm will be extended to create the Burbury Hotel.
In Tuggeranong a new Abode property is proposed with up to 100 rooms and they are also working on new, smaller scale tourist facility at O’Connor.
It’s also great to see so many of our tourist accommodation operators investing in the refurbishment and upgrade of existing facilities. These have included the Novotel, Rydges Lakeside and Crowne Plaza hotels in the city, Rydges Eaglehawk, the Brassey Hotel at Barton, Olims Hotel in Ainslie and the Canberra Rex on Northbourne Avenue.
Symposium highlights
I’m pleased to see such a strong focus on social media and Generation Y on the agenda today. It is also pleasing to see the launch of the new industry website Tourism Connect.
Like all industries tourism is increasingly run by and targeted at Gen X, and Gen Y, who communicate in a different way. That’s why embracing web technology is so important. They are much more likely to post a blog, participate in an online forum or use the booming social media networks like facebook, twitter or MySpace to express their views.
On a per capital basis Australia has one of the highest uptakes of social media in the world. Out of our population of 21 million, 14 million Australians are internet users. The most popular social media sites in Australia are: Facebook, Blogger and Twitter. Facebook has 9.2 million Australian users which is almost 66% of our internet population. Blogger (a publishing tool by Google) has 3.3 million users in Australia, while there are around 2.5m Australian Twitter users.
According to a recent survey by the Australian Psychological Society, Facebook and other online social networking sites are now "ingrained" and for many people their friendships depend on them. A majority of respondents to the survey said the sites gave them more regular contact with friends and family, while 79 per cent said it fostered closer ties with those living far away. About a quarter said they went out more and had more face-to-face contact as a result online social networking.
All this tells us that the net is the expanding frontier for keeping in touch – for learning – for researching travel – and for making bookings.
Conclusion
Today’s symposium is a great step in cementing these partnerships for the long-term benefit of the industry. I again congratulate TIC and the NCAA for arranging it – and I look forward to seeing the ideas and partnerships generated today supporting ACT and regional tourism.
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