A ROADMAP FROM RECOVERY TO Renaissance INTRODUCTION Purpose This plan provides a strategic framework and roadmap to guide the regional visitor economy recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic to 2024 and ensure renewed strong sector growth from 2024 to 2030. It does this by emphasising responsible, sustainable and resilient policies that balance social, economic, environmental and cultural outcomes. Before COVID The historic impact of the COVID pandemic has required revisions to the previous 2015-25 Strategic Master Plan to the Visitor Economy of the Great Ocean Road region. This previous plan had strategies that pre-COVID were working well, with 80% of strategies implemented and with forecast growth of the visitor economy to 2020 achieved by 2018. Prior to the pandemic the GOR visitor economy was one of the largest industry sectors in the GOR region. In 2018/19 a total of 18% of the gross regional product and 17% of all regional jobs were due to the $1.9b direct visitor spending. This visitor spending followed from attracting 7m total visitors incorporating 8m visitor nights and 4.5m day trip visitors. COVID impacts It is difficult to overstate the impact of COVID in forcing economic depression, not recession, on the global, national and regional visitor economy. Global forecasts by McKinsey and Company and IATA (the international airline association) are for recovery in the global visitor economy to 2019 levels by 2024 or 2025. In Australia, the full impact of COVID on the visitor economy has been largely disguised up till the end of March 2021 by the JobKeeper wage subsidy and moratoriums on repayments, rents and bankruptcies in 2020. In addition, our comparative national success at limiting infections means we have to wait longer before international borders can re-open. The second punch is about to hit the Australian visitor economy. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and throughout 2021 has and will powerfully reinforce the importance of the visitor economy in the GOR region. The pandemic impact is forecast to result in between 3,400 and 4,700 job losses by mid 2021. This will be due to business closures, reduced staffing and increased business debt stress. Recovery to pre-pandemic levels of regional visitor spending is expected to take until 2024. Prior to the pandemic the region attracted Visitors Visitor NIGHTS DAY TRIPPERS 1 2 3 4 . 4 5 6 7 M 7 8 9 0 . 5 6 7 8 M 2 3 4 5 . 1 2 3 4 M READ MORE READ MORE READ MORE