Visit Victoria chief defends $2m advertising spend on cancelled Commonwealth Games

The boss of Visit Victoria has been slammed as “ridiculous” for claiming axing the Commonwealth fiasco boosted tourism by raising interest in the state.

Victoria’s tourism boss has backed the decision to spend $600,000 on one video to spruik the bungled Commonwealth Games, and claimed the cancellation has boosted interest in the state.

In a bizarre claim to a parliamentary inquiry into the Games fiasco, Visit Victoria chief Brendan McClements said scrapping the event had no impact on the state’s reputation, despite the saga making international headlines.

“If anything it’s increased the interest in people coming to Melbourne and Victoria,” he said.

Mr McClements said he engaged daily with rights-holders of other major events.

“It hasn’t had any impact,” he said.

“This has never generated any issue for us in any of those conversations, not for a moment.”

Visit Victoria chief Brendan McClements says cancelling the Commonwealth Games has boosted the state’s profile. Picture: Rob Leeson

But event industry veteran Simon Thewlis, director of Event Pty Ltd, slammed Mr McClements’ comments, stating that cancelling the Games’ had hurt the state’s reputation.

“It is ridiculous to suggest that Victoria’s attractiveness as a location for larger events hasn’t been tarnished by the sudden cancellation of the Commonwealth Games,” he said.

“The feedback from event organisers — especially those involved with international business events — is that it has made Victoria a less attractive destination.

“With business events, you want to minimise risks and to align with destinations that are seen to be successful.”

Visit Victoria was given a whopping $26m budget to carry out marketing for four years.

It had already ripped through nearly $2m before the Games were axed in July.

Mr McClements defended spending nearly $600,000 to create one video, titled A Games Like No Other, which premiered at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Birmingham Games.

“It was a campaign that was designed to ensure that as many people as possible knew of the extraordinary experiences that are available in regional Victoria,” he said on Friday.

“I think that’s a very good investment.”

Taxpayers slugged $2m for marketing campaign

Victorian taxpayers were slugged almost $2m on a marketing campaign to promote the bungled Commonwealth Games.

New documents reveal the state’s tourism agency, Visit Victoria, wasted almost $4m on its marketing strategy and the use of consultants before the event was sensationally scrapped.

The agency was given a budget of $26m to carry out marketing over four years.

It had so far spent $1.9m, with nearly $600,000 set aside to create one video, titled A Games Like No Other, which premiered at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Birmingham Games, spruiking Victoria’s failed regional cities concept.

Visit Victoria also dedicated $1.9m on consultants, including more than $92,000 to carry out polling in India, the United Kingdom and Singapore, to inform a pre-Games strategy.

A further $30,000 was dedicated to research that informed broadcasting negotiations, while $8000 was spent on researching culturally diverse audiences to inform a Games’ strategy for connecting to multicultural communities.

Victorian taxpayers were slugged almost $2m on a marketing campaign to promote the bungled Commonwealth Games. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

Another $14,000 was forked out to conduct research into the popular Indian sport of Kabaddi, which the former government promised to be an exhibition sport in a move viewed as a strategy to win over Indian voters in last year’s state election.

Taxpayers also stumped up $52,143 to fly former governor Linda Dessau to Birmingham in June 2022 to participate in the final bid presentation.

A dinner for the governor and the Commonwealth Games Federation on February 28 last year cost $5222.

While over there, $5000 was used to cover the costs of a dinner for the governor and the Commonwealth Games Federation.

Mr McClements was flown to Birmingham and London on three occasions at a cost of $41,032.

The first trip was to present the state’s proposal to the Commonwealth Games Federation, while the second was a formal presentation of Victoria’s bid.

On the third trip he met with international stakeholders about future major event opportunities.

Mr McClements was accompanied by Visit Victoria’s director of major events, with her travel costing $52,547.

Former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said cancelling the Games was an easy decision. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

Visit Victoria’s strategy and planning specialist and media and communications manager were both also flown over to view the 2022 Birmingham Games.

The document states the media manager’s purpose of travel was to ensure the “sensitivities and uniqueness” of using traditional Elders from Victoria in the marketing video was “well understood” by global and Australian media.

After the event was cancelled, Visit Victoria spent $6575 on a contractor to analyse social media coverage between July 24 and July 31.

Opposition Tourism, Sport and Events spokesman Sam Groth said the document confirmed millions of dollars of more waste.

“Even after the Games were cancelled, Labor was still spending thousands of taxpayer dollars to monitor the social media fallout,” he said.

“Victorians who are footing the bill for this humiliating saga and are entitled to know exactly what went wrong and why.

“This is a test of Jacinta Allan’s leadership and the Premier must commit to front the parliamentary inquiry and tell Victorians the truth.”