Tourism WA has hit back at criticism from industry that the agency failed to develop alternative major events for the state following the announcement that WA's flagship event, the Red Bull Air Race, has been cancelled.
Tourism WA has hit back at criticism from industry that the agency has failed to develop alternative major events for the state following today's announcement that WA's flagship event, the Red Bull Air Race, has been cancelled.
Tourism WA chairman, Kate Lamont told WA Business News that while she was surprised and disappointed at the news from the Red Bull organisation overnight, it was all part of the highly competitive commercial events industry around the world.
"It's the cut and thrust of a competive events environment and we're ready for it and are already out there looking for the next one," Ms Lamont said.
And she was confident a replacement event of the same noteriety of Red Bull would be secured for Western Australia in the coming months.
"(I'm) not at all concerned that we will find a replacement event of that calibre, I think that goes without saying that we will," she said.
"We've got a dual strategy going: one is to bring big hallmark events to Western Australia that West Australians love but also to be developing local events that, at the end of the day, will become of the significance and will in fact one day be a hallmark event."
Earlier today the boss of the WA arm of the Australian Hotels Association slammed Tourism WA for "navel gazing" the last few years having failed to secure or develop hallmark events of the calibre of the Red Bull Air Race.
AHA (WA) executive director, Bradley Woods suggested that the agency responsibile for tourism in the state has been asleep at the wheel in recent years, questioning what it had in mind to replace the iconic event.
"I think questions need to be asked as to what Tourism WA and its board have been doing to not develop up alternative replacement events and have them ready to go," he said.
"For the last three to four years Tourism WA has been navel gazing.
"Tourism WA has known for years that it can't rely on buying in international events but it has to develop its own locally home-grown attractions that are owned by Western Australia and will attract visitors from interstate and overseas, and they simply haven't done that."
"We recommended to the Tourism WA chairman and the board that it needed to have a focus on creating and developing new Western Australian-owned and home grown events.
"They've had three to four years to do that while they've had the luxury of Red Bull in Perth. Now that it's gone for next year we're left with nothing.
"They've put all their eggs in one basket and now there's nothing left."
Mr Woods said he was very sad to see the popular event, officially estimated by the state government to be worth around $11 million to the local economy while industry estimates it could be worth up to $20 million, end its successful run in WA.
"We've got to find something that's going to bring in that type of revenue to the state, and generating around $20 million in revenue is a big ask," he said.
Eventscorp (the division responsible for bringing events to WA) executive director, David van Ooran fielded the disappointing call last night from Red Bull representatives.
Mr van Ooran said Red Bull were stopping the Air Race to reassess the commercial aspects of the global event which has been pulled from all other international host cities including Abu Dhabi, Rio De Janeiro, New York and Budapest.
"We're disappointed, of course, as it's a hallmark event," Mr van Ooran said.
"Us (Perth) and all the host cities are quite disappointed."
Mr van Ooran refuted suggestions from the AHA that Tourism WA and Eventscorp had put all their event eggs in one basket.
"There's new opportunities coming up soon so we have not been caught flat-footed in any way," he said.
"There's some good opportunities out there, so no one egg in one basket."
Ms Lamont admitted that the level of supplementary funding, as part of the state government's total budgeted funding for events in WA, will fall considerably in coming years, dropping from about $24 million currently to $15 million by FY2013, while suggesting the millions of dollars that would've been spent on Red Bull will now be used to secure or develop other potential flagship events.
"The recurrent (funding) stays the same, it's the supplementary funding for hallmark events that falls away as you've pointed out," she said.
"That (the money from the Red Bull event) is an opportunity now and we're out there looking for events constantly and we're almost certain we'll have some good announcements in forthcoming months."
She also highlighted that while Eventscorp will have to approach the state government for supplementary funding, on a case by case basis for each proposed event, the state government had, to date, consistently provided the funding required.
"Everytime a hallmark event of this status comes we talk to government and we've never been knocked back for supplementary funding," she said.
Mr Woods suggested the agency's recent restructure, which has halved Tourism WA's staffing levels including reducing numbers in the Eventscorp team, has highlighted the problem being faced by the state in terms of events and tourism.
"Tourism WA's board has decided to reduce staff in Tourism WA, reduced the number of staff in Eventscorp and that's going to leave Western Australia even more exposed," he said.
"The shutting down of our international offices is again going to expose WA to having a greater tag of 'dullsville'.
"It's not just hotels and accommodation providers around Perth that win out of major events, it's regional towns and communities that vistors and travellers go to stay after a major event like Red Bull, so there's certainly going to be less work, less money for communities and less money for tourism and hospitality and business."
Ms Lamont said there were still 44 events scheduled for Western Australia in 2011.
The President of the Tourism Council, Paul King believes the decision was a commercial one.
"It highlights the fact that WA is one of the most remote capital cities in WA," he told ABC Radio.
"We've got a situation in WA where we really need to say are we serious about tourism," said Mr King.
"Our domestic tourism industry is really suffering badly."
