June 7, 2022
Guy Barnett, Minister of State Development, Building and Housing
Tasmania is blessed with scenic spots, fine food and wine, iconic heritage and a highly seasonal climate, and our tourism industry has been successful in exploiting these exceptional natural advantages.
The Tasmanian Government’s Expression of Interest in Tourism Opportunities in Crown National Parks, Preserves and Lands (Tourism EOI) process is being improved to provide a continuous path for private operators to develop sustainable, sensitive and appropriate tourism attractions across the state to complete the full implementation of the Auditor General’s report for 2020 and take into account further contributions to its work.
We take our responsibility to manage Tasmania’s parks and reserves seriously, and we also understand the importance of our tourism industry to our economy, local communities and families.
Tourism remains one of our largest industries and continues to be critical to our economy and jobs.
The Tasmanian Government remains committed to the EOI process in tourism and the important role it plays in tourism projects to create jobs in regional areas of the state while preserving natural and cultural values.
The EOI tourism process includes a first-level filter of projects at the “concept stage” to provide an accessible, fair, consistent, and whole-of-government approach to evaluating commercial tourism offerings on public lands.
Since we launched our Tourism EOI process in 2014, he has made a valuable contribution to the Tasmanian government’s vision for the tourism industry, so it continues to create jobs and economic benefits across the state.
When fully implemented, the projects that were approved during this process will provide over $85 million in investment to attract more tourists to Tasmania, creating an estimated 274 current jobs for Tasmanians.
From Maydena Bike Park in the Derwent Valley to the Blue Derby Pods Ride in the northeast, we see great projects achieve great success through the EOI tourism process.
A comprehensive review of the tourism EOI process was conducted, which included recommendations from the Auditor General’s September 2020 report, as well as input from the Tasmanian Tourism Industry Council (TICT), the EOI Assessment Panel and the Tasmanian Department of Natural Resources and Environment. (HPET).
The audit of the EOI tourism process by the Auditor General showed that it is efficient, consistent and transparent. We are committed to further process improvements and are implementing all of the Auditor General’s recommendations along with other changes, including:
- increasing accessibility by requiring existing and new initiators to advance their projects within the appropriate time frame;
- change in the composition of the Tourism EOI Evaluation Group;
- receiving further advice on proposals at an early stage…
