Page 3066 - Week 09 - Thursday, 21 September 2006
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In closing, returning to the theme of Floriade, it is our premier tourist event and the flagship event for Canberra. It is extremely successful in attracting visitors to the ACT and has got off to a flying start this year, but it is just one of the wonderful events in our tourism calendar that are supported by the ACT government and I encourage all members to experience it.
MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (4.21): In rising to speak on this matter of public importance, I would like to speak both on the importance of Floriade, which in itself is significant, and on the wider importance of tourism to the Australian Capital Territory. I attended the media launch of Floriade in July that Mr Smyth made mention of and the opening last Friday. I have certainly been looking forward to this event and enjoyed having a very brief opportunity to be at the opening by the minister. I hope to return with my family on another day.
One has only to look at the figures provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics about last year’s event to understand the material importance of Floriade in attracting visitors to the territory, notwithstanding the issue about those numbers which has been raised. Thousands of Canberra residents attend and enjoy Floriade every year, but ABS data indicates that 53 per cent of the people that visited Floriade last year were from interstate or overseas. It is estimated that these visitors spent $20.6 million in the ACT and a significant proportion of that was spent on accommodation, about $9.66 million or 47 per cent, and meals and drinks, at $4.235 million or 21 per cent.
I might say that in this area of tourism there are always the obvious beneficiaries, such as in accommodation and direct hospitality, but I find that often in the debate about the impact of tourism the amount that is spent in retail stores is overlooked. It is interesting that the former managing director of the Canberra Times, Tom O’Meara, said, “We take an acute interest in tourism because it impacts on our circulation. If the hotels are full, we sell more papers.” That is just one segment of expenditure by visitors. Certainly, the big retail outlets are beneficiaries, but are often not as visible in the tourism discussions.
In any event, this is a significant amount of money that directly benefits the people of Canberra. Money spent in Canberra businesses benefits not only the owners of those businesses but also the people employed in them, including a large number of young people and casual workers. This is true of the tourism industry in general and I feel that it is worth spelling out quite clearly that a thriving tourism industry benefits everyone in Canberra, including the government’s bottom line.
I would like to raise and speak to a couple of points in relation to tourism generally. The first one I want to mention is something which I think would be of interest to an economic rationalist minister—even if he was not, I doubt there is a lot he could do about it; I suppose it is more of a lament than a call for action or a result—that is, the question of affordability of travel to Canberra. Anybody who has had cause to seek to fly anywhere from Canberra recently would know that airfares are becoming prohibitively expensive. It is clear that there is a lack of competition between airlines and, as a result, there are few, if any, cheap fares available.
If airfares do not come down, visitors from other parts of Australia or international visitors relying on flights for their travel will find it increasingly difficult to afford to
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