Tourism at centre of Libs recovery plan

OPINION PIECE

BY LOUISE STALEY

MEMBER FOR RIPON

SHADOW TREASURER

VICTORIA is now emerging from the second wave of COVID-19. Despite this, many businesses will struggle to recover from this enormous economic shock of being locked down for months.

Our state needs a plan to get Victorians back to work and back in business. This week the Liberal Party launched our plan for economic recovery, which included multiple initiatives to encourage job creation.

Tourism in our regional areas is vital to local economies; not only for the jobs in tourist attractions but also the broader economic benefits and jobs in accommodation and hospitality.

Job creation is at the heart of our plans and is why I am so happy to see $900 million of initiatives to get regional tourism going again.

Those initiatives include $300 million for a Victorian Tourism Fund aimed at helping regional businesses recover and promote themselves.

Brilliant local tourist attractions like the Ballarat Wildlife Park I visited this week would benefit from support to promote themselves.

Our plan for a $400 million fund to upgrade tourist attractions would also assist in making the Ballarat Wildlife Park even better – and if you haven’t been, I can tell you it is brilliant already!

Regional tourism businesses are eagerly awaiting being reunited with Melbourne, and hopefully, the rest of Victoria in the not-too-distant future. But these businesses need real support to get back to where they were before the pandemic.

This Liberal plan will get them back in business and back to work.