INDUSTRY UPDATE
Dear industry colleague,
It continues to be very challenging times for our sector, with changes occurring across the tourism and events space every day. As we have always sought to do, I want to keep you all informed as best we can, and also provide the most relevant information and advice that we can.
Importantly, we are aiming to give you tangible, practical and timely assistance that is best suited to your business needs – that may be a small business webinar, one-on-one mentoring, expert digital marketing advice, or answer your questions on JobKeeper and other government stimulus packages, managing cash flow, negotiating with your landlord or tenant, working with your bank, and more.
Last week we distributed the first of our Small Business Grant Funds, with money already in the bank accounts of hundreds of South Australian operators. The remaining applications are now being processed as a matter of priority.
As part of our Resilience and Rebound Program, we now have a host of resources available to you – including video tutorials and fact sheets on our SATC corporate website. These outline several key ways to build resilience right now and then work towards the rebound phase of the crisis.
We also start our free Digital Training Program next week, which will provide expert advice on upskilling tourism businesses marketing online. Almost 400 businesses have registered so far, which is great progress. I’d encourage anyone interested to sign up for one of the free programs, selected to best suit your business needs. Registrations close at midday on Thursday 23 April – details and to register here.
I’m also very pleased to report that next week I will host a series of regional engagement sessions – one dedicated to each of our state’s 11 regions – with representatives from each of our regions, including each Regional Tourism Chair, Board and Manager, as well as my senior Executive team. These sessions will help inform myself and the SATC Board to plan for the future and feedback will be shared with the Department of the Premier and Cabinet to inform the State Government’s response moving forward.
I am also in contact with our national colleagues daily, and am a panellist in a national webinar tomorrow afternoon with our state tourism organisations, hosted by the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC). I’ll be providing the South Australian perspective, so feel free to join in the discussion. You can register here.
South Australia should be very proud of the way it is managing and containing the virus, and how we are working together.
As always, please take care of each other. We all want to be ready to spring out of the blocks when all of this is over.
Yours sincerely,
Rodney Harrex
Chief Executive
