Albanese government slashes Tourism Australia’s budget amid fierce competition for international visitors after Covid-19

Efforts to lure high-spending international visitors to Australia have been dealt a blow, but caravan parks are in for a spruce up.

Luring international visitors back to Australia is expensive business and tourism operators will not be happy to see Tourism Australia’s budget cut. Picture: Brendan Radke

The organisation responsible for marketing Australia to international tourists will see its funding slashed by $36m next year.

Tourism Australia’s budget will fall from $214m to $178m in 2023 – and shrink to $176m by 2025 – in what will be viewed as a major blow for the industry.

Treasury noted in budget papers that the 25.1 per cent cut was “due to the temporary nature of the government’s additional tourism marketing campaigns as international travel resumes”.

The savings were identified as part of a spending audit by the government focused on quality of spending, uncommitted funding and duplicative measures.

Tourism Australia had its budget increased this year from $189m in 2021, in part to help fund a new campaign fronted by a toy kangaroo called Ruby.

Tourism Australia’s budget will fall from $214m to $178m in 2023 – and shrink to $176m by 2025 – in what will be viewed as a major blow for the industry. Picture: Brendan Radke

At last week’s launch in New York, Tourism Australia managing director Philippa Harrison emphasised the challenges of attracting international interest at a time when many countries were rolling out major campaigns.

Tourism operators were also hoping the funds would continue to flow after international visitor numbers fell from 9.5 million in 2019 to almost zero during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We would like to see that campaign extended to a range of markets to get a deeper recovery,” said Australian Chamber tourism spokesman John Hart. “With China still not in the game, we need to look at some market diversification to attract more international visitors and have a refresh of tourism product.”

Tourism Minister Don Farrell made no mention of the cut in his official budget statement. Instead, Senator Farrell noted a $48m commitment to upgrading caravan parks and helping small businesses attract workers.

“We know the last few years have been incredibly challenging for the approximately 300,000 Australian businesses in the travel and tourism industry,” he said.

“The Albanese government is committed to growing and rebuilding the sector to return to the economic powerhouse we know it to be and has committed $48m to support this recovery.”

An $8.5m indigenous tourism fund was cut back to $4.3m in the years ahead and there was no further money for a national tourism icons package established by the previous government to improve major attractions.

However, $100m has been set aside for Australia’s participation in World Expo 2025 in Osaka, which would showcase clean energy and low-emissions technologies. Reducing carbon emissions was also the focus of a new Jet Zero Style Council to be established within the Department of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. No specific funds were allocated for the council, the government said its purpose was to “inform the development of policy settings to encourage emissions reduction in the aviation industry”.

In other allocations, $150m will be shared among Hobart, Launceston and Newcastle airports for upgrades. Western Sydney Airport, will be given $17.9m for order services planning work ahead of a 2026 opening.

An investigation into contamination at civilian airports from a fire-retardant foam will also be extended to 2027.