Blue Mountains Tourism Exchange 2022 questioned

November 25, 2022

One reads with encouragement in the local Blue Mountains Gazette on 26th October 2022 that Blue Mountains Tourism is staging a Blue Mountains Tourism Exchange ’22 on 6th December in a few weeks’ time to showcase Blue Mountains local tourist attractions and operators.

This initiative comes post the government-mandated socio-economic lockdowns of all visitations and economic activity out of the bushfire emergencies and coronavirus pandemic [Nov-2019 to Mar-2022] over more than two years back-to-back.

During that two-year (28 month) period, many local businesses, particularly local small business retailers and tourist operators have since gone to the wall, sold up, vacated shop, forced to just walk away, been locked out due to non-payment of rent and else left the region. The financial consequences of the government lockdowns have been nothing short of devastating for many in local business – owners and staff alike.

The Gazette advertorial at page 10 reads:

“Blue Mountains Tourism will shine the spotlight on attractions in the region at an industry expo in December. Blue Mountains Tourism Exchange (BMTE22) will be the fourth industry event held by the region’s recognised tourism organisation since it secured $2.6 million in Bushfire Local Economic Recovery funding last July.”

This is encouraging, however, the above press release warrants some questions, as follows:

What were the other three industry events prior? There is no clarity provided in the press release and one has no recollection of them.
The referenced “$2.6 million in Bushfire Local Economic Recovery funding last July” appears to refer to the Australian federal government’s ‘Blue Mountains Visitor Economy Revitalisation Project‘ which was announced in July 2021, not “last” July 2022.
Back on 10th July 2021, the Blue Mountains Tourism press release in the local Blue Mountains Gazette ‘indicated’ that these funds “will create more than 1000 local jobs and re-introduce the destination to the world through a $2.609M bushfire recovery grant.” Really? It sounded great, but how, where, what, who? What Blue Mountains job outcomes since then? Who’s checking on the grant cash allocation and deliverables?
Read the original press release dated 10th July 2021 reproduced below:

$2.6M FOR BLUE MOUNTAINS TOURISM

2021-07-10, ^https://www.bluemts.com.au/news/26m-for-blue-mountains-tourism/

‘Now to re-introduce destination to the world

BLUE Mountains Tourism (BMT) will create more than 1000 local jobs and re-introduce the destination to the world through a $2.609M bushfire recovery grant. The grant was announced on under round two of Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Funding.

Jointly funded by the Federal and State governments, the program supports social and economic recovery in regional communities most affected by the 2019-20 bushfires.

Blue Mountains Tourism, as the leading tourism authority in the region, will administer and manage the Blue Mountains Visitor Economy Revitalisation Project, a two-year destination management program that will reinstate the Blue Mountains as a key tourist destination in NSW and Australia.

It will involve destination branding, marketing, website development, major events, industry communications and a business resilience program.

BMT will deliver the project in partnership with Blue Mountains City Council, which will deliver the industry development and branding component.

The Blue Mountains was one of the hardest hit regions in the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires with a loss of 2500 jobs and $341M to the local economy, not including environmental and social impacts.

The fires were followed by the Covid-19 pandemic which further decimated the tourism industry which, even now, is struggling to recover from a lack of consumer confidence, border closures and lockdowns.

Blue Mountains Tourism president Jason Cronshaw said tourism, as the second largest employer in the region with more than 3000 jobs (16 per cent), was critical to the Mountains economy.

“This funding is recognition of the Blue Mountains’ key part in Australia’s tourism offering and that it needs help to get back on its feet.’’

The project was expected to create more than 1000 local jobs and bring more than 500,000 visitors back to the region.

He thanked the State and Federal governments for “providing this lifeline to the people of the Blue Mountains, given that so many rely on tourism and its supplier industries for their livelihoods”.

With the project set to deliver a new consumer brand for the Blue Mountains (lead by the council), the visitbluemountains.com.au website upgrade, a new CovidSafe destination event, as well as a 24-month rolling marketing campaign, the Blue Mountains will be well placed to compete with other destinations nationally and internationally once borders re-open.

To support the industry through the next 24 months, the grant will support an ongoing industry communications initiative and the council will roll out the Building Better Business Program for Tourism Operators.

Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill said:

“A strong Blue Mountains tourism sector is vital for our local economy and the last 18 months have been incredibly challenging for our tourism operators.

It’s the big attractions (but also the small businesses that dot our main streets) that desperately need visitors.

Council looks forward to partnering with Blue Mountains Tourism to roll out this destination management program as soon as possible, as it will retain and create new jobs in our {city} and build resilience.”

Echo Point (cloud free) thriving with 500,000 international tourists all back and packed to the gunwales through ‘resilience’. So where are the dozens of white buses that daily flocked to this icon pre Gospers Mountain?

So, is this a second $2.6 million grant by the federal government, or the same grant from 2021, but misreported? What has the $2.6M grant thus far been spent on? How much is left? Who has benefited from this “lifeline”?

$2,600,000 Blue Mountains Visitor Economy Revitalisation Project compo coughed up by a government gesture back in July 2021

Millions in taxpayer funded compo from government for its embarrassed mishandling of emergencies, but why has it been so long forthcoming? The pandemic lockdown was lifted for New South Wales by the NSW government in March 2021, so why the nine month delay to the first benefit in December 2022 with just an expo?

Given that the government has estimated that the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires directly caused a loss of 2500 jobs and $341M to the local Blue Mountains economy, its offer of $2.6M and promise of 1000 jobs (if that happens) translates to 1500 net job losses and $338M net loss to the Blue Mountains economy.

Government disregard for Blue Mountains tourism at federal state and local levels is consistent with our region being increasing dismisses not as a distinct destination of natural World Heritage value, but as as the outskirts of a greater Sydney megalopolis.

Local council has all but converted the Glenbrook tourist centre into a satellite counter for ratepayers.

This is Katoomba’s retail reality

The latest Gazette advertorial of the forthcoming Blue Mountains Tourism Exchange 2022 continues:

“The expo will provide attractions business owners and managers a chance to meet industry players like inbound tour companies and concierges from city hotels who help influence visitor travel plans, along with local tourism business owners, travel media and local peers.

Stallholders will have the opportunity to exchange information about their businesses and discuss possible business collaborations.

All businesses in the Blue Mountains region are welcome to attend the forum as well as those from further afield.

Blue Mountains Tourism has also invited industry contacts from a targeted list of government, industry bodies, industry influencers such as hotel concierge and neighbouring council and tourism regions.

But stallholders have been restricted to attractions businesses operating within the Blue Mountains local government area.”

Blue Mountains Tourism president Jason Cronshaw says:

“While all businesses in the region have been impacted by events of recent years (primarily bushfire, pandemic and severe weather), attractions businesses have without a doubt suffered the greatest.

BMT is providing the setting for attractions businesses to shore up their viability by lining up business with tour companies that take domestic and international tourists into destinations, and local and city hotel concierge who make activity suggestions to their guests.”

However, it is not just the big attractions like multimillion dollar Scenic World that have suffered the greatest. Many tourism-dependent small businesses engaged in hospitality, accommodation and tour operations have similarly suffered the denial of visitation to the Blue Mountains.

The total government compensation for the New South Wales bushfires 2019-2020 totalled almost $2.65 billion. The 2021 federal budget revealed that cost of the coronavirus pandemic to Australian economy was $311 billion. Consider the opportunity costs for the Australian society an economy. It is the worst governmental mismanagement in Australia’s history.

So the Blue Mountains Tourism Exchange ’22 is to be held at the Hotel Mountain Heritage in Katoomba on Tuesday, December 6. Registration is free but essential by booking online at the following outsourced website: ^https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/423135950017.

Eventbrite is a U.S. Silicon Valley commercial company providing a software ticketing and registration platform for events. Booking registration requires the attendee’s personal details – full name, email address, mobile phone number, job title, company name and work phone.

However, a quick review of Eventbrite’ Privacy Policy is anything but private. The small print reveals that Eventbrite collects a customer’s personal data and computer IP addresses and at clause 4.4 states: “We may use your personal data for our marketing and advertising purposes“. Mmm.

And this is Eventbrite’s privacy policy clause ‘5.4: Consultants and Service Providers‘:

‘We may share your Personal Data with our contractors and service providers who process Personal Data on behalf of Eventbrite to perform certain business-related functions.

These companies include our marketing agencies, online advertising providers, data enhancement and data services providers, database service providers, backup and disaster recovery service providers, email service providers, payment processing partners, customer support, tech support, hosting companies and others.

When we engage another company to perform such functions, we may provide them with information, including Personal Data, in connection with their performance of such functions.’

Mmm. So, no we chose not to register with Eventbrite, but instead we contacted the venue by phone directly requesting this event organiser Blue Mountains Tourism phone us back.

Then Zoe phoned back insisting that it was not possible to attend the expo without registering with Eventbrite. Flippantly she stated that the expo was really only for BMT members and it wasn’t not her job to be concerned about privacy policy.

Easy decision, we’re not attending. It sounds like another talkfest.

It seems Blue Mountains Tourism is just a trading name for the discredited Blue Mountains Accommodation and Tourism Association (BMATA), of which our organisation Nature Trail was once a member until the bullying started. We resigned forthwith on 16th March 2019.