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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4444 ..

MR KAINE: Yes, I am aware of those figures. I must say that I was quite pleased with those figures because they run contrary to the doom and gloom picture that has been painted by Mr Corbell about the tourism industry in Canberra and give the lie to all of the things that he has been saying recently about how the tourism industry is in the doldrums. What those figures did was reveal a most encouraging and positive set of numbers for people engaged in the accommodation sector of the tourism industry in Canberra. At first glance, there was one figure that disappointed me a bit because there seemed to be a slight downward dip; but, when I examined that, it actually was the figure that had to do with room occupancy rates. It had decreased slightly, but that was because the total number of guestrooms available in the ACT had, in fact, increased by 140 as a result of the opening of a new hotel towards the end of last year and the reclassification of two establishments into the hotels, motels and guesthouses category where they were not previously recorded. So, even that figure which, at first glance, showed a negative is, in fact, a positive.

All the other indicators for hotels, motels and guesthouses during the September quarter of this year showed an improvement over the same period last year. Specifically, the figures show that the number of persons employed in the industry increased by 31; the number of room nights occupied increased by 1.6 per cent; the total number of guest nights increased by no less than 10.8 per cent; bed occupancy rates increased by 2 per cent; guest arrivals, which is probably the best indicator - people coming in through the front door - increased by 4.7 per cent; the average length of stay increased from 1.8 to 1.9 days. That is a very small increase, on the face of it; but even a one point change in that statistic is significant. Of course, overall takings for the period increased by nearly $850,000, which is about a 4.7 per cent increase. Those figures, I think, are excellent results and have been acknowledged as such by the Australian Hotels Association. The people that are in the business understand the figures and understand that they were good figures for Canberra.

Other figures that I think were interesting were the attendances at this year's Floriade. There was a 31 per cent increase in the number of visitors from outside the ACT. In fact, a very large percentage of those people came here specifically for Floriade. So, that is still a good drawcard.

Mr Corbell: Are you going to rule out an entry fee?

MR KAINE: Here we go; the knockers again. They hate good news; they absolutely hate good news. Anything that is bad news, they jump on and cannot get to the media quickly enough; but they do not want to hear about a bit of good news. They are just a bunch of knockers, Mr Speaker.

Mr Corbell: An entry fee? What are you going to do about that?

MR SPEAKER: I was not aware that the question had been asked from that side of the house; therefore, it is an interjection.

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