A heritage tea room and accommodation business is set to shut its doors this November in the face of rising insurance and business costs. The tourism industry says they're not alone with small businesses feeling the pinch.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00When the virtues first stumbled across this historic property, it was a dream come true.
00:08I walked into the courtyard and it was like being on the set of Midsomer Murders. It was just delightful.
00:16But eight years on, significant insurance fees, on top of already rising business costs, are forcing them to close their doors.
00:24We've spent eight years restoring it and putting it in the gardens and building it up, and then just to have it taken away.
00:31Located in a flood-prone area, they say this year their insurance cost $15,000.
00:37But that was cheap, compared to the only quote they've been able to get for when their policy expires in November.
00:45What we've ended up with is an offer of around $35,000 a year.
00:49That's on top of our land tax doubling this year, and our rates going up 25%, and TAS water.
01:03Any one of those individual things we could have handled, maybe even two, but not everything.
01:08The virtues aren't the only business owners struggling with rising insurance costs.
01:12We continue to hear that number one challenge for doing business is the increasing cost of doing business,
01:17but right under that at number two is the cost of insurance.
01:20The Tourism Council wants state and federal governments to look at solutions.
01:25With the visitation that it is at the moment, it's really hard to weather, and as a consequence you'll see decisions like Glenn Derwent.
01:32The government says it's working with the sector to understand the key issues facing tourism and hospitality.
01:38It says there are a number of grants available to those who need extra support.