Accommodation Industry: Even-handed Tasmanian Budget

The 2012-13 Tasmanian State Budget has provided the state’s accommodation industry with an even-handed outcome.

Speaking on behalf of the industry, the Accommodation Association of Australia says today’s announcements could have been far worse.

“Operators of accommodation businesses in Tasmania are pleased that Tourism Tasmania’s marketing budget has been quarantined from cuts,” said the Association’s Chief Executive Officer, Richard Munro.

“Given the tight fiscal environment, it would have been easy for the State Government to reduce funding for marketing, but by slightly increasing it, the Government has demonstrated that it is keen to assist the industry through difficult trading times.

“However, Tourism Tasmania must still find a significant amount of operational savings and there is no growth in funding for the organisation over the next three years.

“It is pleasing to see the restoration of some of the funding for events which was removed in the previous Budget and it is now up to the Government to work on retaining existing major events and enticing new ones.

“It is vital that all public policy decisions that impact on tourism take into consideration that occupancy in accommodation businesses in Tasmania last winter was 47 per cent and some operators are currently forecasting a decline on this figure for 2012.”

Source: Accommodation Association of Australia, 17 May 2012