Recruitment, marketing and accommodation infrastructure in the travel and tourism sectors will benefit from a $48 million Federal Budget across four years in time for the upswing of domestic travel and the return of international visitors to Australia.
The government funding will support recruitment and marketing in the travel and tourism industries as well as infrastructure upgrades for caravan parks.
It includes a commitment to support the Accommodation Association’s ‘The Hub’ platform to connect people to vacancies, foster skills development and showcase tourism as a career.
Accommodation Australia and Tourism Accommodation Australia have been working closely with the government and relevant departments to raise awareness of the massive skills gap and workforce challenges confronting the travel and tourism industries.
The Accommodation Association represents more than 80 per cent of accommodation providers from caravan parks to some of the largest hotel groups in the world.
Accommodation Association President Leanne Harwood welcomed the news, saying the sector’s biggest post-pandemic challenge is filling the skills shortfall and workforce gap created during COVID.
“The announcement of $10 million in training and skills development will go a long way in helping us attract, educate and retrain the 100,000 staff we need right now, including supporting more First Nations Australians, people living with a disability, and older Australians,” Ms Harwood said.
“This is a very welcome shot in the arm for one of the most important sectors driving Australia’s economic recovery, our visitor economy.”
Tourism Accommodation Association CEO Michael Johnson said the budget allocation will help position tourism as a desirable and viable career.
“This funding will go a long way to assist with our goals of upskilling existing talent, attracting more people to return to the workforce and share their skills and knowledge and allowing us to spotlight the career paths that exist in our sector.”
More to be done
The Council of Australian Tour Operators (CATO) welcomed the government’s budget announcement including “measures to address the sector’s labour and skills shortages through free TAFE and vocational educational places”.
“We however believe there is much more to be done in this area, to provide more support towards relevant business and skills-based training, as well as a re-positioning strategy towards long term careers in our industry,” CATO managing director Brett Jardine told Karryon.
“We will continue to work closely with the government to ensure outbound leisure travel is recognised as a valuable contribution to supporting inbound tourism, underpinning aviation capacity.
“This will include engaging to seek further ways in which our sector can benefit from the travel and tourism funding to ensure a sustainable future.”
