Monday 22 June  2009

Estimates Committee B (O'Byrne) - Part 2

DIVISION 2
(Department of Economic Development, Tourism and the Arts)

Output group 2
2.1 Sport and recreation –

TASMANIAN TRAIL & MOUNTAIN BIKE TOURISM
 Mr FINCH - I just wanted to ask about the Tasmanian Trail. Does that come under the aegis of Sport and Recreation Tasmania?

Mr MARTIN - Yes.

Ms O'BYRNE - Yes, in a sense.  It comes under of a whole host of departments because it crosses a whole host of different land management issues.  We have worked really hard. We did the trail strategy. We talked about that last year.  There are still some land usage issues for Tasmanian Trial, but the key has been about access points now, which is a change in the debate. It is about saying, 'If you do this part of the trail, you can potentially overnight in this town or you can access or exit from these towns,' whereas before it was about the purest point of view. The Premier has done the Tasmanian Trail.  He is one of the few people I actually know, other than the Tasmanian Trail people, who has done it.  It is a significant trail.  I think the conversations that we are having now are about individual access and exit points, but there are still some land management issues to be resolved.

Mr FINCH - So are people able to access the Tasmanian Trail?  You say the Premier has done it.  But can the general public, can tourists, access the trail?

Ms O'BYRNE - There is a trail and you can get detail about it.  I do not want to say the problem because it is not a problem but the reality with the Tasmanian Trail is that it is trying to be all things to all people.  Yet there are some sections that are perfect for mountain biking, some that are perfect for walking and some that are perfect for horse riding.  For instance, there is a section of the Tasmanian Trail that is along roads.  You do not necessarily want to be riding your horse on a road but that is a part of the Tasmanian Trail.

I think the conversations that we need to have are about saying, 'This is the section of the Tasmanian Trail that you would do if you only wanted to get the benefit of riding your horse,' or 'If you only wanted to get a mountain bike experience, these are the areas that you might focus on.'  We should be looking at that rather than at what I think has been the broader acceptance that absolutely everybody would get value for the whole trip. I think we probably need to work on packaging those sections.

With mountain bike tourism - and we would be happy to talk about this when we get to tourism - they do not necessarily want to camp.  Sometimes they do, but mostly they want to stop at a town and stay in a hotel and have a really nice feed that night.  So it is about making sure that the exit and access points provide for a range of users.  I have been on only a very small part of the Tasmanian Trail, and it was very nice.  But it is a significant commitment.  If you are somebody who enjoys a long, hard core experience and not showering for a week - how long does it take to do the whole trail?

CHAIR - Five days I think.

Ms O'BYRNE - I think it is a week, isn't it?  It would take me longer, I have to admit, if I were doing the whole thing.  We need to package it in a way that allows you to have that sort of hard-core experience but that also allows you to do the segments of it that might respond to the interest that you have and the way you might want to travel.

Mr FINCH - That probably segues nicely into the -

Ms O'BYRNE - That worries me now.

Mr FINCH - No - the mountain bike program that you have going at the Tasmanian Institute of Sport.

Ms O'BYRNE - Yes, we are very proud of that.

Mr FINCH - I do not know anything about it.

Ms O'BYRNE - Tasmania was selected to host the Olympic mountain bike training course. So at the institute in Launceston we set the Olympic course for this.  This is a significant thing and it clearly builds on opportunities for Rachel Fry and a number of other Tasmanians who are particularly good mountain bikers.  But it is an opportunity for us to grow that sport.

Coach Neil Ross is a Canadian.  He has athletes come down all around the year.  They train at different times of the year.  He argues that Tasmania is not unlike the Mecca; it is like Tasmania was designed for mountain biking.  The important thing to realise in terms of mountain biking is that before he came to us he was at Whistler, which is clearly a skiing resort, and they have more people there and make more money from the mountain bike season than they do from the ski season, to the point where they actually have to peg it back now because they have to manage the site a bit better.

So having the elite mountain bike training facility here does place us on a national map and an international map.  It also allows us to build on mountain bike tourism, and mountain bike tourism is high-end, good money tourism. So it is six months attached to the Institute of Sport as the national place to run. The only other place in Australia that would have it would be Mount Stromlo. Is that the Canberra site that has the mountain biking?

Mr MARTIN - I am not sure.

Ms O'BYRNE - I cannot think. There is somewhere in Canberra that was affected by bushfires which they have actually turned into a site for the competition for the world so they will have the world national mountain bike riding there. There will be a lot of interest in Tasmania because Tasmania is considered to be where you can really engage in mountain biking.

Mr FINCH - How many athletes have we attracted in the program?

Ms O'BYRNE - Do we have that number at the moment?  We have it somewhere.

Mr FINCH - And how long has it been going?

Ms O'BYRNE - We only launched it last year.  We were lucky to get the funding last year. Was it last year?

Mr MARTIN - Yes, it was 2008-09.  I am not sure how many. I think we have roughly a dozen participants in that program.

Ms O'BYRNE - At the high end.

Mr FINCH - Do they come from around Australia?

Mr MARTIN - Yes.

Ms O'BYRNE - But they do include elite Tasmanians as well.

Mr MARTIN - And they race for part of the year in other parts of the world. When they race in other parts of the world, they have Tourism Tasmania's website emblazoned across their vests as well.

Mr FINCH - It is part of the deal?

Ms O'BYRNE - Yes, part of the deal. The funding takes us up to the Olympics.

CHAIR - What was the cost again? What was the funding?

Mr MARTIN - It is $100 000 a year for four years.

CHAIR - And we are only the second year in.

Ms O'BYRNE - We not only get the Institute of Sport's benefit from it, but we also get a tourism leverage as well.

 

Mr FINCH - I just wanted to ask about the Tasmanian Trail. Does that come under the aegis of Sport and Recreation Tasmania?

Mr MARTIN - Yes.

Ms O'BYRNE - Yes, in a sense.  It comes under of a whole host of departments because it crosses a whole host of different land management issues.  We have worked really hard. We did the trail strategy. We talked about that last year.  There are still some land usage issues for Tasmanian Trial, but the key has been about access points now, which is a change in the debate. It is about saying, 'If you do this part of the trail, you can potentially overnight in this town or you can access or exit from these towns,' whereas before it was about the purest point of view. The Premier has done the Tasmanian Trail.  He is one of the few people I actually know, other than the Tasmanian Trail people, who has done it.  It is a significant trail.  I think the conversations that we are having now are about individual access and exit points, but there are still some land management issues to be resolved.

Mr FINCH - So are people able to access the Tasmanian Trail?  You say the Premier has done it.  But can the general public, can tourists, access the trail?

Ms O'BYRNE - There is a trail and you can get detail about it.  I do not want to say the problem because it is not a problem but the reality with the Tasmanian Trail is that it is trying to be all things to all people.  Yet there are some sections that are perfect for mountain biking, some that are perfect for walking and some that are perfect for horse riding.  For instance, there is a section of the Tasmanian Trail that is along roads.  You do not necessarily want to be riding your horse on a road but that is a part of the Tasmanian Trail.

I think the conversations that we need to have are about saying, 'This is the section of the Tasmanian Trail that you would do if you only wanted to get the benefit of riding your horse,' or 'If you only wanted to get a mountain bike experience, these are the areas that you might focus on.'  We should be looking at that rather than at what I think has been the broader acceptance that absolutely everybody would get value for the whole trip. I think we probably need to work on packaging those sections.

With mountain bike tourism - and we would be happy to talk about this when we get to tourism - they do not necessarily want to camp.  Sometimes they do, but mostly they want to stop at a town and stay in a hotel and have a really nice feed that night.  So it is about making sure that the exit and access points provide for a range of users.  I have been on only a very small part of the Tasmanian Trail, and it was very nice.  But it is a significant commitment.  If you are somebody who enjoys a long, hard core experience and not showering for a week - how long does it take to do the whole trail?

CHAIR - Five days I think.

Ms O'BYRNE - I think it is a week, isn't it?  It would take me longer, I have to admit, if I were doing the whole thing.  We need to package it in a way that allows you to have that sort of hard-core experience but that also allows you to do the segments of it that might respond to the interest that you have and the way you might want to travel.

Mr FINCH - That probably segues nicely into the -

Ms O'BYRNE - That worries me now.

Mr FINCH - No - the mountain bike program that you have going at the Tasmanian Institute of Sport.

Ms O'BYRNE - Yes, we are very proud of that.

Mr FINCH - I do not know anything about it.

Ms O'BYRNE - Tasmania was selected to host the Olympic mountain bike training course. So at the institute in Launceston we set the Olympic course for this.  This is a significant thing and it clearly builds on opportunities for Rachel Fry and a number of other Tasmanians who are particularly good mountain bikers.  But it is an opportunity for us to grow that sport.

Coach Neil Ross is a Canadian.  He has athletes come down all around the year.  They train at different times of the year.  He argues that Tasmania is not unlike the Mecca; it is like Tasmania was designed for mountain biking.  The important thing to realise in terms of mountain biking is that before he came to us he was at Whistler, which is clearly a skiing resort, and they have more people there and make more money from the mountain bike season than they do from the ski season, to the point where they actually have to peg it back now because they have to manage the site a bit better.

So having the elite mountain bike training facility here does place us on a national map and an international map.  It also allows us to build on mountain bike tourism, and mountain bike tourism is high-end, good money tourism. So it is six months attached to the Institute of Sport as the national place to run. The only other place in Australia that would have it would be Mount Stromlo. Is that the Canberra site that has the mountain biking?

Mr MARTIN - I am not sure.

Ms O'BYRNE - I cannot think. There is somewhere in Canberra that was affected by bushfires which they have actually turned into a site for the competition for the world so they will have the world national mountain bike riding there. There will be a lot of interest in Tasmania because Tasmania is considered to be where you can really engage in mountain biking.

Mr FINCH - How many athletes have we attracted in the program?

Ms O'BYRNE - Do we have that number at the moment?  We have it somewhere.

Mr FINCH - And how long has it been going?

Ms O'BYRNE - We only launched it last year.  We were lucky to get the funding last year. Was it last year?

Mr MARTIN - Yes, it was 2008-09.  I am not sure how many. I think we have roughly a dozen participants in that program.

Ms O'BYRNE - At the high end.

Mr FINCH - Do they come from around Australia?

Mr MARTIN - Yes.

Ms O'BYRNE - But they do include elite Tasmanians as well.

Mr MARTIN - And they race for part of the year in other parts of the world. When they race in other parts of the world, they have Tourism Tasmania's website emblazoned across their vests as well.

Mr FINCH - It is part of the deal?

Ms O'BYRNE - Yes, part of the deal. The funding takes us up to the Olympics.

CHAIR - What was the cost again? What was the funding?

Mr MARTIN - It is $100 000 a year for four years.

CHAIR - And we are only the second year in.

Ms O'BYRNE - We not only get the Institute of Sport's benefit from it, but we also get a tourism leverage as well.