RESET Report 4: Resilience and recovery roadmap report in Melbourne's West

The place-based nature of tourism and its dependence on mobility make the tourism, hospitality and events industry vulnerable to risks and disasters. In the past, the industry has weathered crises with remarkable resilience. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented in terms of the magnitude and length of disruption faced by businesses. Consequently, the Victorian government and key tourism stakeholders have mobilised to manage the crisis and revitalise the industry and its workforce. Within this context, the RESET (Resilient Enterprises and Sustainable Employment in Tourism) project was established, in collaboration with Western Melbourne Tourism Inc. (WMT), and Victoria Tourism Industry Council (VTIC), to support the recovery and transformation of the visitor economy in Melbourne’s West. The project was implemented as part of the wider ‘VU RISE’ project funded by the Victorian State Government through the Higher Education Investment Fund. The region of Melbourne’s West comprises of six Local Government Authorities (LGAs) namely: Melton City Council, Brimbank City Council, Moonee Valley City Council, Maribyrnong City Council, Wyndham City Council, and Hobsons Bay City Council. The area spans across the traditional homes of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung (Brimbank, Maribyrnong, Melton and Moonee Valley), the Wathaurong (Moonee Valley and Wyndham) and the Yalukit-Willam Boon Wurrung (Hobsons Bay) peoples of the Kulin Nation (Lindsay-Smith et al., 2021b). A map of the region is provided on the following page1 . Recent data demonstrate the disastrous impact of the pandemic on visitation and visitor spend in the region. Compared to 2019 visitation levels, Melbourne’s West experienced a decline of a cumulative 5.1 million visitors. Compared to 2019 levels, visitor spend was also down by a cumulative $2.7 billion (across the period 2020 and 2021) (Western Melbourne Tourism Inc. and Urban Enterprise, 2022)2 . The RESET project is underpinned by a multilevel destination resilience framework – the ‘modified Destination Resilience Framework’ (Pyke et al., 2021). A detailed explanation of the framework can be accessed from its corresponding academic paper. The project encompasses a series of reports that support a holistic understanding of Melbourne’s West as a tourism destination. RESET Reports No. 1 and 2 provided an overview of the characteristics and skill needs of the region (Lindsay-Smith et al., 2021b, Lindsay-Smith et al., 2021a). RESET Report No. 3 highlighted key qualitative and quantitative findings on the implications of the pandemic on tourism businesses and Melbourne’s West (Gamage et al., 2022). The full suite of RESET reports can be accessed from the Victoria University website3 . RESET report No. 4 has two objectives. First, it presents findings relating to business and destination vulnerability/resilience in Melbourne’s West. Second, it uses an evidence-based approach to construct a roadmap for the long-term recovery and sustainable growth of the industry in Melbourne’s West.