Budget to support visitor economy growth, says ATIC

Budget to support visitor economy growth, says ATIC

The Australian Tourism Industry Council (ATIC) has voiced its support for Tuesday’s Federal Budget announcement and said it will provide crucial support to Australia’s visitor economy in developing product, attracting workers and delivering infrastructure upgrades.

The Federal Budget, Labor’s first since its election in May, includes $48 million in support for the visitor economy over four years, made up of five sub-measures for the tourism and travel industry.

These measures include attraction of workers to Australia’s tourism industry, expanding the ‘Hub platform, upgrading infrastructure for Australian caravan parks and enhancing the Quality Tourism Framework.

ATIC’s deputy chair Shaun de Bruyn said that the funding for the Quality Tourism Framework will provide mentoring, support and programs to develop new tourism product and access new markets for existing products, as well as micro-credentialling to upskill staff and business owners.

The Quality Tourism Framework (QTF) is an online program available to all business engaged in the visitor economy which drives business development, and improves and diversifies Australian tourism product, particularly for small to medium businesses.

“ATIC congratulates the Labor government in supporting small and medium businesses in the tourism sector via the Quality Tourism Framework. This will help our visitor economy to remain competitive and support a sustainable tourism sector,” de Bruyn said.

More than 10,000 tourism businesses around Australia already participate in the Quality Tourism Framework, which delivers training, accreditation and Awards programs. This enables small tourism businesses to develop high-quality sustainable, eco-friendly, accessible and internationally-targeted tourism products.

Other measures released in the Federal budget which will support the visitor economy included fee-free TAFE and vocational education in industries facing skills shortages, including tourism and hospitality, a promotional campaign to attract workers, the establishment of a National Electric Vehicle Charging Network which will support self-drive and caravanning road trips and continued support of sustainable tourism access to our World Heritage Sites.

Read our budget breakdown HERE.

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