A press release from the Victorian Events Industry Council put out last week at first seems unsurprising. 
The first line of the press release should be enough for you to see where it is going:
The state’s peak events body has again voiced its support for the Australian Grand Prix today, saying the financial gains and international exposure are worth much more than the government investment debate.
You know what I’m going to say – that the GP runs at a massive financial loss and that the media exposure is always overblown – supporters either don’t read their own reports on the media exposure, or don’t understand them. But this is just the lobby group for the “events industry” lobbying for an event. Nothing surprising about that.
The surprise comes when you work out who the “Victorian Events Industry Council” is. I’d never heard of them and had to look them up. VEIC appears to be a sub group of the Victorian Tourism Industry Council, a body that claims to:
actively lobby various levels of government to ensure tourism in Victoria receives the attention and support it deserves.
A quick look at the site and who’s on the board shows that VTIC represents a range of businesses such as nature tourism operators, wineries, backpackers associations, regional tourism organisations, etc. Businesses such as these get nothing from the grand prix. And unless they agree that $50m per year is nothing more than a minor “government investment debate”, then they’re losing just like the rest of us.
Do the members of VTIC really think that money could not be better spent in their interests? Of course they don’t! Have a look at their “Quarterly Snapshot”, in which members call for cuts in taxes and government charges and the need for multilingual staff training. Guess where that money could come from?
$50m per year is a lot of money – that amount could be spent on serious investment in Victorian tourism. We could even set up Victorian tourism promotion offices in places like Chongquing, Chennai or Hanoi – that might actually deliver some benefits. Hell, we could just give away 25,000 airfares to tourists in target markets…..but no, VTIC would rather stick to the GP.
A lobby group that actually lobbies AGAINST the interests of its members. Something new every day.
As grand prix season approaches, the claims are again contradicted by the evidence. But the credibility gap is wider than ever before.
For a decade, the corporate world has been reluctant to sponsor the grand prix. The lack of a naming rights sponsor once again in 2013 indicates the real global exposure or ‘branding’ of the grand prix is well south of $1m. The Herald Sun’s business writer, Terry McCrann reported on 24 Jan 13 the last time this so called massive global exposure was on sale Qantas “paid just $100,000 for naming rights .” This demonstrates the absurd claims of the government’s consultants are not believed in the marketplace.
I note the consultants FormulaMoney costed the branding of “Melbourne” at the 2011 grand prix at $262,000 – consistent with the sale price to Qantas but the government claims in a report they refuse to release that the same consultants value it at $200,000,000.
Only a comedian would have a reply to this! I’ll leave the evidence to speak for itself.