Tourism Ministers Meeting

WILL HODGMAN: Firstly, welcome Steven. Thank you very much for bringing your first tourism minister's meeting to Tasmania; I think it's a wonderful way to start as a new minister. It was a fantastic meeting today where we were able to, not only work together as a Commonwealth, but also to showcase Tasmania to every tourism minister. It's the first time this has happened since 1995 in our state so it's significant, it's timely, it's probably not before time because Tasmania is the premier tourism state of the country. We're very proud of what we're doing, but we need to maintain momentum. That's why we've announced new policies and new initiatives such as our visitor engagement strategy which is all about enhancing the experience of visitors when they get to our state. We've got a whole of government strategic approach to building our visitor economy because it's one of the state's largest employers, it promotes what our state is so good about: our people, our produce, our place is very special. More people are coming to Tasmania than ever before, but we need to continue to enhance the experience. That's why we're releasing our visitor engagement strategy which is all about ensuring that people, when they come here, have a personalised, authentic, and enjoyable stay, and when they leave here they become great ambassadors for our state. I might just leave it at that. You probably have questions for me and to ask Minister Ciobo to add some more.

STEVEN CIOBO: Well, thank you, Premier, and can I thank you for hosting today's meeting. It's always a highly fought-for contest to host a tourism ministers meeting. It's tremendous to have your support and to be so warmly welcomed here in Tasmania. It really is a credit to your government who've got the vision to keep making sure that Tasmania builds on the success it's had with respect to tourism. Your engagement strategy certainly looking like a very positive sense for the future. I'm very pleased that we had a very good meeting. I'm just going to touch upon some of the highlights. There was a real, strong spirit of cooperation in the meeting. We see all sides of the political aisle are working together to advance Australia's tourism industry, recognising that Australia's tourism industry is an absolutely crucial super, sector for the [inaudible] future. We also see it as being crucial to driving economic growth and to driving employment across the Australian economy. I know that that's a major factor here in Tasmania, as I believe it is across regional economies and metropolitan economies across Australia. Two key outcomes from today's meeting. Next year is the Year of China-Australian Tourism and I'm very pleased that ministers and officials around the table endorsed a strategy to work cooperatively together; put Australia's best foot forward in the China market throu gh a tourism delegation to China next year to build on the momentum that Prime Minister Turnbull and President Xi Jinping were able to create when they agreed to next year, 2017, being the Year of China-Australian Tourism. Another key outcome from the meeting was the agreement from ministers and officials present that we'd look at developing a good pipeline of investment-ready tourism projects in regional centres. We know that there's investment into metropolitan areas, we want to make sure that we continue to see tourism investment in high quality, investment ready, shovel ready, projects that are going to create employment, drive economic growth in regional centres. The dispersal story around tourism spending is great. Australians have a lot to showcase and we want international visitors to get into the regions as well and not just be confined to being in the major metropolitan markets. So two really good concrete outcomes; a strong sense of goodwill among all governments working cooperatively and constructively together to further Australia's tourism industry.

JOURNALIST: In terms of funding for those regional ...

WILL HODGMAN: Sorry, can we just pause for two seconds and [inaudible] ABC.

JOURNALIST: Oh okay.

JOURNALIST: Are they ones that are already in progress now that you contribute funding for?

STEVEN CIOBO: What we agreed was a regional tourism investment strategy that's calling upon the states and territories to nominate projects that meet specific criteria, and those that are projects that are shovel ready to move ahead with. What the Federal Government is going to do is marry up those proposals with investors, private sector investors obviously, governments aren't in the business of building resorts, or building hotels, or building those sorts of private sector initiatives. What we'll do is make sure that we marry up investment in key infrastructure, like hotels, for example, with private sector investors, together with the ability to fast track, for example, the approvals process so we can drive that regional tourism infrastructure.

JOURNALIST: What part ... Where do you see Tasmania more broadly in Australia's tourism industry going forward?

STEVEN CIOBO: Look, Australia's tourism industry is doing so well. It's a credit to the Premier, I know he recognises the importance of the tourism industry and that's why it's a key part of his portfolio. We've seen such strong growth in Tasmania's visitation; we've got more tourists coming to Tasmania, staying longer and spending more money. That's helping to drive employment outcomes here in Tasmania. It's also a key part of the value proposition and the uniqueness of visiting Australia. We market internationally so it's a real shot in the arm to Tasmania that it's continued to grow so strongly, especially with Chinese inbound visitation which we saw off the back of President Xi Jinping's visit off the back of G20 in 2014.

JOURNALIST: It creates jobs, but do you think it creates careers? Because there is a distinction between the two.

STEVEN CIOBO: Well, look, I cannot stress enough how much there are really good career pathways in the tourism industry. We have got to break this view that exists in some quarters of Australian society, that people view the tourism industry as only something you do while you're trying to train to do something else. The fact that there are great pathways available for people to be involved in the tourism industry; there's whole pathways around hospitality, around restaurant management, around hotel management, in all of these sectors which provide great stable sources of income in the long term in what is a fun and friendly atmosphere of a vibrant tourism industry. So absolutely it's about careers. Okay? I might leave it at that.