The Caravan Industry Association of Australia (CIAA) is pushing a plan under which the Federal Government would offer a 10% rebate to all Australians buying new motorhomes, caravans or camper trailers.
The organisation’s head, Stuart Lamont, says if the ambitious initiative were to be adopted it would go along way to stimulating the struggling tourism and manufacturing sectors.
Mr Lamont told Adelaide’s Sunday Mail that, for every 5000 additional RVs put on the road via the rebate, 3.2 million extra regional tourism nights could be generated.
“We need to do more than just throwing out bucketloads of money for people to just survive,” Mr Lamont said. “We need to get people out there spending money, kickstarting the economy, and that is what we are trying to do … at a $58 return for every $1 invested by the government, this policy concept makes a lot of sense.”
He argued that people who received a ‘nice 10% cent kick back in cash’ will go out and spend it while they are travelling.
He also hailed the success of travel voucher schemes introduced by the Northern Territory and Tasmanian governments to be used on tourism experiences, and called for other jurisdictions to adopt a similar scheme.
“The Northern Territory scheme went gangbusters … and we expect the same in Tasmania,” he told the Sunday Mail. “Australians are cooped up, governments can do something to get people out into their backyards with encouragement to do so … you might give people a voucher for $200 but they are going to spend $1000.”
When asked about the CIAA proposal Federal Tourism Minster Simon Birmingham said the government had stepped up support for the tourism industry, including through cash payments to businesses of up to $100,000 and the extension of JobKeeper through to March next year.
“We’ll also continue to talk and engage with the tourism industry, and consider other targeted measures going forward to help further stimulate economic and tourism activity right across Australia,” Senator Birmingham told the Sunday Mail.
Why not
Every bit of stimulus helps the country
No jobs, no income. How can some people afford a new van?
Put a rebate on all RV’s if you want everybody to benefit, not just the well to do. Travel vouchers sound like a good option.