Commonwealth Games preparation in Ballarat relies on tourism investment, says VTIC

The CEO of the Victorian Tourism Industry Council (VTIC) Felicia Mariani says the regional hubs for the games, including Ballarat, are facing hospitality and tourism crises with shortfalls in employment, transport and accommodation.

According to the VTIC the tourism and events sectors employed more than 230,000 Victorians in 2020, regional Victoria employing 45 per cent of that number. By the end of 2021 the number had fallen to 120,000, a 52 per cent reduction from pre-pandemic levels. This collapse in employment, Ms Mariani says, is the single most critical issue impeding the pace and scale of recovery across Victoria.

Without a rise in the number of workers available for the tourism sector - the Government's new Victorian Skills Plan says 90,000 workers are needed to fill jobs in the service industry, representing the most acute shortage of all industries - then the rest of what is required to foster recovery cannot happen, Ms Mariani told The Courier.

"From the end of December 2019, our industry used to be worth $32.5 billion to the economy of Victoria, Ms Mariani said.

"Over the course of the pandemic we have wiped more than $20 billion off of that spend. When you get to the end of March 2021, our total visitor spend dropped to $9.8 billion."

While the tourism industry is recovering relatively quickly, and regional Victoria rallying even faster with spending doubled to June 2022, there is a long way to go and questions surrounding critical infrastructure - athletes' villages, athletic facility upgrades, rail and bus hubs - remain unanswered

The Courier has received no response from the state government, Commonwealth Games Foundation or Commonwealth Games Australia in response to questions regarding these upgrades, including the City of Ballarat's requests for funding to increase the number of seats and a 'major events rail platform' at Mars Stadium, an upgrade to the Ballarat train station's inadequate and inaccessible facilities, a review of the bus network.

The state government announced earlier this year that each of the four host cities for 2026 - Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, and Gippsland - will receive an athlete's village and facilities, converted to affordable housing after the games. Ballarat's village will require space for almost 2000 people, with no concrete location yet identified. Ballarat will also require a significant upgrade for its athletics facilities to meet IAAF requirements.

Even if all these infrastructure needs are somehow met, the tourism infrastructure for Ballarat will still be lacking, Ms Mariani says.

"The reality is none of our regional destinations are going to have enough accommodation supply to support all of the people that will be coming to these games in 2026," she says.

"Right now we see three major streams of activity that must be addressed: accommodation, transport, and visitor servicing, and accommodation and transport are probably inextricably linked. "So there is going to need to be a relationship back to Melbourne as a kind of 'hub and spoke' to get people to all of these different regional host destinations. That's where the transport links become so crucial.

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"The Melbourne Airport Rail Link, sadly, isn't going to be ready in time. So we have to be realistic: we're going to have to rely on VLine, our key public transport mechanism, and there will need to be bus options. Even for those who use VLine, you still have that last mile to consider. Once (people) arrive at a VLine station, there is going to need to be some type of shuttle service to the venues and shuttle services around those communities."

VTIC says its plan's platform centres on recognising changing tourism desires, rebuilding employment, improving access and infrastructure, readying adequately for the Commonwealth Games, and creating a 10-year blueprint to revitalise Greater Melbourne.

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