‘Labor cannot manage money’: The funding cut costing Victoria its tourism share

Victoria is set to lose out in the race to attract visitors, slashing its tourism sector budget as other states spend big to market themselves on a global stage.

Victoria is set to lose a significant amount of its tourism share without continued investment in the sector.

Victoria is facing losing the tourism race to other states who are spending more to market themselves on a global stage, industry experts have warned.

The Allan government last week slashed funding to Victoria’s tourism sector, cutting Visit Victoria’s destinational marketing to just $15.5m over the next three years — less than half of the $32.5m it received last year.

On Friday the Western Australian government handed down record funding in its 2024-25 budget, including $73m for destinational marketing and a $25m boost in total tourism spending.

The Western Australian government handed down record funding for its tourism sector on Friday. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Victorian Tourism Industry Council chief Felicia Mariani has warned Victoria will lose a significant amount of its tourism share with continued investment in the sector.

“Having a well-resourced peak marketing body for our state is vital to ensure we are maximising and leveraging the extensive investment we make in our event calendar – both in our regions and in metropolitan Melbourne,” she said.

“VTIC will continue to advocate for recognition by government that slashing the budget for core destination marketing will lead to a serious loss of profile and preference for Victoria as a holiday destination on the global stage.

“We appreciate that tough decisions must be made, but we are hopeful in looking to work with government to find some alternate solutions to the current funding crisis we are facing.”

On Monday, Tourism, Sport and Major Events minister Steve Dimopoulos announced the $38m next instalment in the state’s Regional Events Fund.

Experts have warned Victoria’s international tourism spend is lagging behind New South Wales and Queensland. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Under the fund grants of up to $500,000 will be open to organisers of festivals, sports events, exhibitions to attract and grow events of international or national significance while grants of up to $50,000 will be available for marketing and support of events that attract intrastate and interstate visitors.

“Regional events bring visitors, boost jobs, and support local businesses while fostering civic pride throughout Victoria and further cement our state as Australia’s events capital,” he said.

Ms Mariani the fund was a critical component of the Government’s $170 million Regional Tourism Support package that was announced in the wake of the Commonwealth Games cancellation.

“Creating and securing events is an important ingredient to the recipe for a vibrant and successful destination,” she said.

“But this approach cannot be seen as a substitution for strong destination marketing, which will be hard to achieve on the $6 million allocated to this function in the state’s FY25 budget.”

Shadow Minister for Tourism, Sport and Events, Sam Groth, said: “Rehashing old announcements won’t make up for Labor’s brutal cuts to Victoria’s tourism sector.”

“Labor cannot manage money and has slashed tourism funding at a time Victoria’s international tourism spend is lagging behind New South Wales and Queensland.”

Opposition leader John Pesutto warned “untold damage” was being done to Victoria’s reputation as a tourism hot spot because of funding cuts.

“We’ll have less tourism, we’ll see greater threats to our major events calendar, and we’ll see more intense competition from other states and territories around the country which are looking at Victoria and seeing how weak we are because of the financial mismanagement of the Allan Labor government,” he said.

“We need to be investing more in our tourism and major events sector because it is one of Victoria’s great strengths, but it’s under threat.”