Tourism industry reminds government of sector's importance to economy
Representatives from the tourism industry are making a concerted effort to remind Australian politicians of the importance of the industry to the industry is to the country’s economy and calling for visa costs to be slashed.
Australia’s Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) is calling on all of Australia’s political parties to develop and announce positive policies that will support and enhance the continuing strong growth of Australia’s visitor economy.
“This election campaign needs to see some ambition from our political parties to get behind Australia’s visitor economy because it really has been one of the great economic success stories we’ve seen in recent time,” said Margy Osmond, TTF chief executive officer.
“The challenge for all our political leaders is to back up their strong words of support for the tourism sector. We need to see positive policies that will allow the industry to reach its full potential as an economic wealth and jobs generator for Australia,” she explained.
“This is an area that we have continued to see a gulf between words and action in recent times. Now is the time for political parties to get real about support for the visitor economy sectors and the jobs and opportunities they can generate,” she added.
The TTF will be campaigning for the adoption of policies that encourage more international visitors to travel to Australia. It is calling for visa costs to be reduced and a continuation of the freezing of the Passenger Movement Charge.
It is also vehemently opposed to the upcoming backpacker tax and demands more investment in destination marketing and public transport and visitor infrastructure to make cities and regions more attractive to tourists.
Business Review Australia & Asia's May issue is now live.
Follow @MrNLon and @BizReviewAU on Twitter.
Business Review Australia is also on Facebook.
SOURCE: [Australia Forum]
