Guy Barnett,Minister for State Development, Construction and Housing
Tasmania is blessed with picturesque locations, gourmet food and wine, an iconic heritage and a distinctly seasonal climate, and our tourism industry has successfully leveraged these exceptional and natural advantages.
The Tasmanian Government’s Expressions of Interest for Tourism Opportunities in National Parks, Reserves and Crown Land (Tourism EOI) process is being enhanced to ensure a continuous pathway for private operators to develop sustainable, sensitive and appropriate tourism attractions across the State, to finalise the full implementation of the 2020 Auditor General’s report and take into account further input on its operation.
We take our responsibility for managing Tasmania’s parks and reserves seriously and we also understand the importance of our tourism industry to our economy and local communities and families.
Tourism remains one of our biggest industries and remains critical to our economy and jobs.
The Tasmanian Government remains committed to delivering the Tourism EOI process and the important role it plays in delivering job-creating tourism projects in regional areas of the State while upholding natural and cultural values.
The Tourism EOI process incorporates a first level filter of projects at ‘concept stage’ to ensure that an accessible, equitable, consistent, and state-wide approach is maintained in the assessment of commercial tourism propositions on public lands.
Since we began our Tourism EOI process in 2014 it has made a valuable contribution to delivering the Tasmanian Government’s vision to grow the tourism industry, so it continues to deliver jobs and economic benefits across the state.
When fully realised, projects that have been approved through the process will deliver investment of more than $85 million in attracting more tourists to Tasmania, creating an estimated 274 ongoing jobs for Tasmanians.
From the Maydena Bike Park in the Derwent Valley to Blue Derby Pods Ride in the North East, we have been seeing great projects become great successes with the help of the Tourism EOI process.
A comprehensive review has been undertaken of the Tourism EOI process which included recommendations from the Auditor-General’s September 2020 report, and incorporated input from the Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania (TICT), the EOI Assessment Panel and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania (NRET).
The Auditor-General’s review of the Tourism EOI process showed that it is effective, consistent and transparent. We are committed to further improving the process and are implementing all of the Auditor-General’s recommendations alongside other changes, including:
- increasing accessibility by requiring existing and new proponents to progress their projects within appropriate timeframes;
- reshaping the membership of the Tourism EOI Assessment Panel;
- seeking further early-stage advice on proposals from relevant Aboriginal organisations, extending the current practice of seeking advice from Aboriginal Heritage Tasmania, and
- increasing the amount of information made publicly available on existing proposals.
Through the continuation and enhancement of the Tourism EOI process we are helping to revitalise regions by attracting more visitors, helping to ensure visitors stay longer, spend more and travel more widely.
Details of existing proposals and summary statistics are available on the Coordinator-General’s website – cg.tas.gov.au
