Axing Games boosted interest in Victoria, tourism boss claims

afr.com:

A top Victorian tourism bureaucrat says axing the 2026 Commonwealth Games did not damage the state’s reputation for hosting major events and in fact boosted travellers’ interest in the state.

Documents released this week to an inquiry examining the cancelled event show Visit Victoria spent $1.9 million of its $26 million marketing budget promoting the Games before they were dropped on July 18.

A Victorian upper house inquiry is probing the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games. Eddie Jim

A promotional video, A Games Like No Other launched at the 2022 Birmingham Games closing ceremony, cost nearly $590,000 to produce.

Visit Victoria boss Brendan McClements flew to Birmingham and London three times in connection to the Games, at a cost to taxpayers of $41,032.

“The slogan cost $600,000… I think we’re all in the wrong game and we should become consultants. That’s a lot of money,” Nationals MP Melina Bath said of the video’s cost.

Mr McClements said former premier Daniel Andrews’ announcement that the Games were off because costs had blown out from $2.6 billion to up to $7 billion had not damaged Victoria’s reputation.

“If anything, it’s increased the interest in people coming to Melbourne and Victoria,” he told the inquiry on Friday.

Fresh documents released this week also revealed that former Victorian Governor Linda Dessau was sent to Birmingham in June 2022 for a final bid presentation, at a cost of $52,143.

Another $5222 was spent on a dinner for the governor and Commonwealth Games Federation on February 28 last year.

Polling company YouGov was paid $14,000 to research the popularity of the sport of Kabaddi in India earlier this year.

A contractor was hired to analyse social media coverage from July 24 to July 31 at a