THE Mornington Peninsula Regional Tourism Board is preparing an action plan to “help prioritise the opportunities to address the challenges” facing tourism in the region. The board, which describes itself as the region’s “peak independent tourism board and lead voice” resolved to draw up an action plan during a forum last Friday (28 June).
Nepean MP Sam Groth, the opposition’s tourism spokesperson, said he had attended the “urgent meeting” as stakeholders and businesses faced “an ongoing “state of crisis”. “Attendees discussed restrictive trade and planning conditions, which are seeing already struggling small businesses face uncertainty as the cost of running a business continues to rise,” he said. Angela Cleland, the board’s CEO, said the forum was aimed at providing a “robust platform for dialogue and advocacy” to find “more sustainable business models for our region”.
The forum, at Safety Beach, had focused on solutions and discussed ways of clarifying roles and responsibilities within the tourism and hospitality industry. “Specifically, the industry organisations, local, state and federal government who both hinder and enable tourism to thrive in the local area,” Cleland said. There was a need to identify range of rules and regulations that applied to all businesses “that are applied inconsistently and inhibit productive tourism operations”.
Businesses on the peninsula had “opportunities and challenges” because it was seen as a regional environment classified as metropolitan. Cleland said the forum also explored “the issues related to timeliness of planning decisions, a lack of public transport, workforce shortages, housing and payroll tax, operating within the green wedge and local decisions directly impacting the ability for businesses to operate”.
James Newbury, opposition planning spokesperson, said the state government’s “restrictive planning rules are holding back tourism and hospitality businesses across this region”. In a joint news release with Groth, Newbury said that “unlike” state Labor government the Victorian Liberals and Nationals would work with peninsula’s “to grow and thrive now and into the future”. Groth said the state government’s most recent budget had cut $286 million from tourism and major events and $393.9 million to “visitor economy initiatives involving industry support, regional tourism, regional events and infrastructure”. “Local traders have expressed concern over the growing number of businesses on the brink of collapse,” Groth said. “This issue is not isolated to the Mornington Peninsula and the Allan Labor government’s increasingly hostile approach to business is hurting regional operators and driving them and their jobs interstate.”
First published in the Mornington News – 2 July 2024
