New Opera Australia chief Fiona Allan facing tourist shortfall rethink

Australian-born arts administrator Fiona Allan will return from Britain to lead OA through its Covid recovery.

Fiona Allan has been appointed chief executive of Opera Australia. Picture: Pamela Raith

Opera Australia may have to rethink part of its business model that relies on inbound tourism, says arts administrator Fiona Allan, who will become the company’s chief executive from ­November.

Ms Allan, who has worked in Britain since 2008, will be joining Australia’s biggest performing arts company after it posted a $7.1m deficit last year and faces further losses this year because of Covid lockdowns.

She is currently the artistic director and chief executive of the Birmingham Hippodrome, a 1900-seat theatre, and chair of the Midlands Regional Tourism Board.

Tourists comprise a large part of OA’s audience, particularly during the summer season at the Sydney Opera House, and Ms Allan said ongoing restrictions on travel meant that the company would probably have to revise its model, although she did not discuss details on ­Wednesday.

“The immediate challenge is that it’s almost impossible for large-scale arts organisations to operate in a pandemic without support,” she said.

“We have seen the same things over here – your income stream stops overnight and you still have significant outgoings.

“We need to be lobbying the government for recognition of the value that arts and culture bring to society – not just economic value, but social value and wellbeing.”

OA went through a restructure last year and adopted a festival-style model to enable management to better deal with forced cancellations.

Hundreds of performances have been postponed or cancelled since last year, most recently the rest of the Sydney winter season and a production of The Phantom of the Opera.

Ms Allan’s appointment follows the decision by OA chief executive Rory Jeffes to step down for personal reasons.