A report produced by the Victorian Tourism Industry Council says the effects of coronavirus could see Victoria lose up to 49 per cent of visitor spending and jobs.
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The Visitor Economy Recovery Taskforce was submitted to the state government this week in an effort to ensure funding for the industry to aid its recovery in a post-COVID world.
Research in the report showed a best-case scenario for Bendigo would see a drop of 27 per cent for visitor spending and job maintenance. A worst-case scenario said the number could be as high as 40 per cent.
VTIC chief executive Felicia Mariani said Victoria's tourism industry was worth $32.5 billion in 2019 and employ more than 230,000 people directly and indirectly.
"Those are very significant numbers," she said. "In the March-April period, our research was saying Victoria was likely to lose $23 billion by end of 2020. That was before second lockdown. So the reality is we have got considerable issues in front of us."
"This submission has become more vital because of where we are right now. The projections are based on everything prior to the second lockdown.
"It's taken a crisis like this one to show the important role the visitor economy plays in spending and in jobs. There are so many important industries hurting but the reality is no industry has been hit as hard or for as long as the tourism industry.
"COVID-19 wasn't the beginning of the trouble, it started in January with the bushfires."
City of Greater Bendigo tourism and major events manager Terry Karamaloudis said a survey of tourism members throughout Greater Bendigo and the region was part of the VTIC submission.
"The Bendigo Tourism Board in collaboration with council went out early with a survey that captured critical thinking from the broad cross section of industry partners around what the impacts of COVID-19 were for them and what they felt was need from levels of government to assist with recovery," he said.
"The most immediate support needed is financial. Many businesses have had their cash flow decimated because of the heavy decline in visitation.
"We know government is listening intently which is great. The tourism industry has received good support from government and we look forward to many more recommendations from the Visitor Economy Recovery submission being actioned."
The report hopes to see funding secure for the organisations that help attract visitors to Victoria.
"One of the key things needed is to ensure the demand driving bodies have the necessary long term funding to do jobs they are design for."
"We're asking for $40 million per annum over four years for Visit Victoria, $15 million per annum over four years for the Melbourne Convention Bureau and $630,000 per year over four years for Business Events Victoria.
"They are the bodies that do the heavy lifting to ensure Victoria is front and centre on the national and international stage."
Ms Mariani also hopes to see secondary airports in regional areas upgraded in the next 12 months to help spread visitors through the state.
The submission highlights Bendigo, Mildura and Albury-Wodonga as three airports that could benefit with the $2.7 billion Building Works Program identified as a potential funding possibility.
"That's a big thing in our infrastructure development proposal," MS Mariani said. "We have, for a very long time, struggled with regional disperal (of visitors). We are one of the worst performing states when it comes to spending in regional areas - particularly from international visitation.
"One way to encourage that is to make it easy to get to further flung destinations (in Victoria). Using Bendigo as an example, the flights from Bendigo were immediately almost full, so there is capacity to grow the size of aircraft, have more services and look at other destinations.
"In the context of the fund we have identified... we felt it wise to, rather than ask for additional money, quarantine funds from that $2.7 billion to create new and compelling reasons for people to travel.
"We know Bendigo has put in for (airport) expansion. Pre-COVID, the demand was there. Once flights resume, we want to see increase (flight) frequency and additional services from places like Adelaide."
The success of VTIC's submission will be known when the state government releases its budget later in the year.
"The proof in the pudding will be a reasonable allocation of resource to the visitor economy when the budget handed down later in the year," Ms Mariani said. "The visitor economy is such a crucial part of the economic fabric and vibrancy of Victoria."