RESET Report 3. Visitor Economy Resilience Report in Melbourne's West

COVID-19 has created a global health crisis, and wreaked social, political and economic havoc worldwide. The human and financial costs of the pandemic have been documented in the form of widespread job losses, poor mental health and economic stress (OECD, 2020b). No sector is feeling this more right now than the tourism, hospitality and events industry. The RESET (Resilient Enterprises and Sustainable Employment in Tourism) project has been established to support the recovery and transformation of the visitor economy in Melbourne’s West. RESET Reports No. 1 and 2 have provided an overview of the characteristics and skill needs of Melbourne’s West, and presented preliminary findings on the impact of the pandemic on tourism businesses (Lindsay-Smith et al., 2021b, LindsaySmith et al., 2021a). This RESET Report No. 3 provides an overview of key survey and interview findings. 1 The survey was originally circulated among employers located in Melbourne’s West, but was later promoted to regions in Victoria. This supported a comparative analysis between Melbourne’s West and non-Western regions (see Appendix E)