Victoria’s struggling tourism and events sectors plead for help to get back on track

Victoria’s ailing tourism and hospitality sectors have welcomed calls for a probe into the handling of COVID and its impact on the industries.

Exclusive: Devastated tourism and events business owners have welcomed calls for an inquiry into the impacts of the pandemic and how to restore hundreds of thousands of lost jobs.

The state’s third lockdown, which plunged Victorians into strict stage four measures, has put further financial strain on struggling operators.

Latest tourism statistics show prior to the pandemic, tourism contributed 6.5 per cent of the Victorian economy and supported 263,000 jobs.

About $2.5 billion per month has been lost from Victoria’s visitor economy and another 85,300 jobs are expected to go by September this year.

The Opposition’s leader in the upper house David Davis said he will tell parliament on Thursday that he would call for an inquiry into the impacts of the pandemic and what can be done to get people back into work.

“This is a desperate step to try and save the tourism and events industry in our state,” he said.

“It’s a short sharp inquiry to put the spotlight on Labor’s mismanagement and the failure to support businesses, in light of their harsh lockdowns.”

Victorian Liberal Party leader in the upper house, David Davis, said he would call for an inquiry into the impacts of the pandemic. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

Mr Davis said the tourism sector makes up 7.8 per cent of the state’s workforce, including 142,300 jobs in Melbourne and 110,000 jobs in regional Victoria.

The Victoria Tourism Industry Council’s chief executive officer Felicia Mariani said thousands of operators were hurting and their ability to recover from the pandemic is diminishing.

“The resilience and the stamina of the industry to keep bouncing back is really waning,” she said.

“It’s just becoming relentless for them, not only from their personal ability to recover but also for the health and wellbeing of their staff.”

She said she’s supportive of an inquiry to help the badly-hit sectors and said many regional Victorians don’t have other job options if they are left unemployed.

Theresa Albioli and her partner Tony De Marco own and run Hotel Bellinzona at Hepburn Springs in Daylesford after purchasing it for $4 million in August.

After opening up in December, last week’s snap shutdown hit hard.

Hotel Bellinzona owners Theresa Albioli, 57, and her partner Tony De Marco, 55, say their business is struggling after the latest lockdowns and restrictions imposed. Picture: Jake Nowakowski.

“I’m standing in my beautifully refurbished restaurant and it’s completely empty,” Ms Albioli said this week.

“We didn’t think restrictions would still be going on. I feel like it’s cemented in our brains that this is our life for a very long time.”

Alla Wolf-Tasker from the Lake House in Daylesford has more than 100 staff and said the “lack of certainty” with lockdowns and restrictions makes it impossible to plan ahead.

“We can’t keep doing this to the people who have booked with us … I don’t know what we’re doing from one day to the next,” she said.

“I’ve got bookings for weddings right through the year now and some of those people have changed their bookings so many times I don’t know if they’ll just give up.”

Mr Davis said the inquiry would require the Economy and Infrastructure Committee holding public hearings in Melbourne and regional Victoria to outline the major issues into the sectors.

They would be required to report back by June 30 of the impacts to the State Government to provide support measures.

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Originally published as Victoria’s struggling tourism and events sectors plead for help to get back on track