20 jobs cut from Tourism Australia workforce in wake of federal budget

20 jobs cut from Tourism Australia workforce in wake of federal budget

In the wake of the recent federal budget, Tourism Australia has been forced to make wide spread cuts to it’s work force, confirming around 10 per cent have been made redundant.

A total of 20 roles from the agency’s marketing team based in Sydney were affected.

The shock move came as a surprise to many as a number recently worked at the Australian Tourism Exchange on the Gold Coast. The government attributed it to the, “the end of COVID-related additional tourism marketing campaigns as international travel resumed.

A spokesperson for Tourism Australia said the budget was confirmed as $169.1 million for 2023-24, well below the $208 million received the year previous, though still above pre pandemic numbers.

“With the return of international travel more than a year ago, Tourism Australia has continued to ramp up its efforts towards attracting visitors to Australia from overseas and rebuilding our visitor economy,” the spokesman said.

“Now with Tourism Australia’s budget confirmed for 2023-24 at $169.1m … we continue to work through how we best resource our business to maximise the opportunities to grow demand and convert that demand to visitation to Australia.”

Adding, “structural changes were being made to our Sydney operations which do involve some redundancies”.

Tourism Australia’s latest campaign, a $120 million video titled, “Come and say G’Day” was launched at the end of 2022.

Speaking at Cannes in Cairns, a three-day event put on by Travel Weekly’s parent company The Misfits Media that brings together the advertising, marketing, and PR industries, CMO, Tourism Australia, Susan Coghill said, “We support this incredible tourism industry that desperately needs international visitation to return.”

Susan Coghill at Canne in Cairns. (Supplied)

“It’s an industry made up of over 350,000 mostly small, mom-and-pop businesses that take out a second mortgage to buy boats to take you on a tour of the Murray River or up to the Great Barrier Reef.

“Tourism is our second-largest export. One in 12 jobs are tourism-related and here in Cairns, that number is one-in-eight.”

Speaking at the National Press Club on Thursday, minster for trade and tourism, Don Farrel said the tourism economy would, “continue to be a driver of Australian prosperity.”

Latest News

  • Conferences

Sydney confirms position as Australia’s No. 1 business events host

Sydney’s reinforced its position as the world’s preferred Australian host city, and top Australian city in the APAC region for international and local business events. Sydney secured 25th place in the worldwide ICCA city rankings and ranked 6th (ICCA) and 3rd (CVENT) in the Asia Pacific region. Tourism Australia also celebrated the ICCA 2023 rankings […]

  • Food & Beverage
  • Hotels

Luke Mangan launches Bistrot Bisou, in Hotel Indigo, his first Melbourne restaurant in over a decade

Melbourne-born, Sydney-based chef and restaurateur Luke Mangan will open his first Melbourne restaurant in more than a decade this winter with the launch of Bistrot Bisou, set within the art-focused, character-filled Hotel Indigo. Set on the corner of Flinders Lane and Spencer Street, the relaxed French bistro and bar will feature modern takes on classic […]

  • Luxury

COMO launches new family-sized farmhouse in the heart of Tuscany

COMO Hotels and Resorts has launched its new farmhouse apartments in the heart of Tuscany, just in time for Australians to escape our wet winter. And it’s also an ideal time for Aussies of Italian ancestry to explore their home country as 2024 has been declared the year of Roots and Heritage Tourism by the […]

  • Destinations
  • News

New Caledonia in lockdown and airport closed after violent riots rock Noumea

New Caledonia officials have announced a 6pm-6am curfew, a liquor ban and have closed the country’s main airport after overnight riots in which vehicles were torched and roads blocked in the wake of proposed constitutional reforms. Australian Government website Smartraveller has issued an alert informing visitors to exercise a high degree of caution in metropolitan […]