Page 4589 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 31 October 2018

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facilities will be available. That just might keep them there for an extra day or an extra night, supporting local businesses and supporting the local economy.

This initiative is well thought-out and well supported by this organisation and the RV community as a whole, as well as many towns and cities across Australia. The CMCA provides benefits to towns that sign up and do the heavy lifting on the initiative, but its success does depend on the willingness of governments to get on board. I am informed that there has been an indication by the Labor-Greens government to the CMCA that they either have embarked upon or are considering an internal study on the requirements to expand RV tourism. However, to their dissatisfaction, there has been little progress.

In my view there is nothing to lose in at least investigating the possibilities of developing a tourism strategy and capturing a part of the market that has currently been wanting. Again, the CMCA have done all the hard work and are best placed to work with the ACT on developing our share of the RV tourism market. This offer is on the table for the government. All they need to do is give it a go.

I urge members of the Assembly today to support my motion, to ensure that the ACT is well equipped to capture a portion of the tourism market that currently we are missing out on.

MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Minister for Planning and Land Management, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister assisting the Chief Minister on Advanced Technology and Space Industries) (4.58): I thank Mr Wall for this motion and his interest in tourism across the ACT. I have circulated an amendment which updates the motion and gives it some currency with the work being done by the government, and I move that amendment now:

Omit all text after “That this Assembly”, substitute:

“(1) notes:

(a) recreational vehicle (RV) tourism provides significant benefits to the economy;

(b) the road tourism market is valued at approximately $19 billion; and

(2) notes VisitCanberra:

(a) focuses its marketing efforts on targeting segments of the market that provide the greatest economic return to the ACT economy;

(b) pursues marketing strategies that deliver broad appeal and the most efficient use of resources when executing campaigns;

(c) provides a framework, through the 2020 Tourism Strategy, to inform activities to grow the value of overnight visitor expenditure to $2.5 billion by 2020;

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