Our plan to back Australia's tourism industry and create more jobs

03 May 2019 

Sourced via: CCH parliament 

Our plan to back Australia's tourism industry and create more jobs 

A re-elected Morrison Government will continue to grow Australia’s $136 billion tourism industry as part of our plan to keep the economy strong and generate another 1.25 million jobs across Australia. 

Over the last five years, international visitor numbers have grown by 45 per cent while spending by overseas visitors is up 53 per cent, compared with a 10 per cent increase in international visitor spending during five years of Labor.  

Nearly 45,000 tourism jobs have been created, more than four times as many as under Labor and we’ve also grown tourism in regional Australia, with 43 cents of every visitor dollar now spent in the regions. 

A re-elected Morrison Government will continue to back and grow our tourism industry.  We’ll do this by:

Attracting more international visitors through continuing our record funding to Tourism Australia for cuttingedge marketing campaigns and the continued success of the Business Event Bid Fund. 

Improving transport infrastructure through our commitment of around $30 billion for major tourism-related infrastructure including airports, roads and rail across Australia. 

Boosting regional tourism through a greater focus on regional areas in Tourism Australia’s marketing and providing dedicated funding in future rounds of the Building Better Regions Fund for tourism-related infrastructure. 

Improving the visitor experience through our $50 million Tourism Icons program that will ensure Australian tourism icons such Rottnest Island and the Freycinet National Park remain world-class experiences and continue to attract high-value tourists. We’re also investing in tourism-specific infrastructure at destinations like Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, the Great Ocean Road and Shipwreck Coast in Victoria, safari and cultural experiences in South Australia and Cradle Mountain in Tasmania. 

Growing indigenous tourism through the establishment of a new $40 million fund to encourage the development of new and expanding Indigenous owned and operated tourism enterprises across Australia. 

Attracting more working holiday makers to support our farmers and regional tourism through enhancements to the Working Holiday Maker visa program that expand the regional areas where working holiday makers can work, increase the time period they can stay with an employer and adding the option of a third-year. Our approach is in stark contrast to Labor and the ACTU who plan to abandon altogether the second year working holiday visa, which would remove over 36,000 Working Holiday visa holders from the Australian economy. 

Supporting small and family tourism business through increasing the instant asset write-off threshold to $30,000, lowering taxes and growing the economy. 

We will also deliver the Beyond 2020 tourism strategy to help Australia’s tourism industry make the most of opportunities provided by fast-growing markets over the next decade, as well as benchmarking the competitiveness of our visa settings against other international tourism markets.