Unlocking Victorian Tourism, or throwing away the key?

The Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission has just released its draft report on the barriers facing Victorian Tourism. Apart from the fact that the commission clearly does not understand the market forces surrounding inclusive tourism or its potential growth over the next 10 years with the retirement of the baby boomers, it has clearly been influenced by the tourism operators who blame low occupancy of accessible hotel rooms on over regulation instead of their own inability to present accessible information in a way the travelling public can understand or their inability to come up with cost effective universal design standards. The Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission purports to be the Government's primary advisory body and yet it has produced such a shallow and poorly researched document.

At the recent SATH World Congress the research presented was compelling with over 10,000 baby boomers retiring per day from the 1st of January this year. If there is a barrier to the Victorian Tourism Industry competing for international tourists it is the lack of accessible facilities, marketing of accessible facilities or even the recognition that the market segment exists at all, something the commissionaires would have seen had they done a proper job with their research.

Draft Recommendation 6.2
That the Department of Planning and Community Development, in consultation with the accommodation industry evaluate the accessibility ratio standards. The evaluation would assess the costs and benefits of this regulation, and examine the utilisation of accessible rooms and the efforts of the accommodation industry to better manage the use of these rooms. This evaluation should inform Victoria’s position on the accessibility ratios and a decision to pursue potential changes to the accessibility ratios nationally.

Short-term accommodation
Several participants argued national building standards and their administration in Victoria impede the development of major new hotel accommodation in Melbourne and regional Victoria. In recent years, the supply of serviced apartments in most major cities, including Melbourne, has grown more rapidly than the supply of stand alone hotel rooms. While participants argued federal and state policies supporting residential development may be driving this trend, they also considered the different building standards applying to these two types of short-term accommodation distort investment.
According to participants, building standards for serviced apartments and hotels differ in areas such as disability access and fire safety. These standards exist to deliver benefits such as improved access to accommodation for older people as well as those with a disability and reduced risks and damage resulting from fires. It was argued, however, that the standards also impose a number of costs, including:

lost revenue from the hotel floor space required for accessible rooms, which would otherwise have been used for additional non-accessible rooms with higher occupancy rates
higher costs of construction and greater lending requirements for hotels compared with serviced apartments
lost revenue to hotels competing in the short-term market with lower room rates because they do not have to cover the cost of providing accessible rooms.

A survey by the Tourism and Transport Forum and Australian Hotels Association on the requirements for disability access reported the ‘average demand for accessible rooms was 0.47 per cent of rooms per night, per establishment’ and ‘occupancy for accessible rooms was 30.7 per cent compared to 71.4 per cent for other rooms’ (sub. 44, p. 38). A review of the accessibility requirements, however, argued business could address this low use of accessible rooms by more carefully designing accessible rooms, educating staff and better marketing to older people as well as people with a disability.
On balance, the Commission considers the Department of Planning and Community Development, in consultation with the accommodation industry, should conduct an evaluation of the accessibility ratio standards. The evaluation would assess the costs and benefits of this regulation, and examine the utilisation of accessible rooms and the efforts of the accommodation industry to better manage the use of these rooms. This evaluation should inform Victoria’s position on the accessibility ratios and a decision to pursue potential changes to the accessibility ratios nationally

The deadline for submissions is the 15th of April.
We need to act on this. Please repost this link to spread the awareness!!!!!!

Unlocking Victorian Tourism

May lock Victoria out of the fastest growing Tourism Sector Inclusive Tourism

May lock Victoria out of the fastest growing Tourism Sector
Inclusive Tourism