Australian Government Long Term
Tourism Strategy
LAUNCH OF THE NATIONAL LONG-TERM TOURISM STRATEGY
The Hon Martin Ferguson AM MP, Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister for Tourism - Perth
15th December 2009
Ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to be with you today to make significant announcements for a very significant industry.
Tourism’s economic importance is far greater than many people think.
Tourism in Australia today is a $40 billion industry.
It is Australia’s largest export services earner. In fact, tourism generated more than 10% of total Australian exports in 2007/08.
Most importantly - tourism directly employs around half a million people.
With regard to the Government’s approach to tourism – I can simply say, we recognise there is a lot at stake.
· Our policy is to help tourism make an even greater contribution to economic growth
· Our objective is to unlock more investment in tourism products, hotels and other infrastructure
· Our strategy is to give investors greater confidence in tourism’s long-term potential for growth
· Our resources are all levels of government working in partnership with industry on a scale that’s unprecedented
· And our measure of success will be a more professional, innovative and competitive tourism industry that begins to recapture Australia’s standing in the international tourism rankings.
The Strategy: unlocking investment
Today I’m unveiling the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy.
This Strategy seeks to unlock investment in tourism businesses: hotels, airports and tourism infrastructure.
This investment is needed. For example - the majority of Australia’s 3 and 4 star properties were built between 1965 and 1980.
Australia’s tourism product needs to be constantly refreshed if it is to meet the changing demands of consumers.
This Strategy has been endorsed by every state and territory government.
It will assist in expediting the construction of establishments presently in the development pipeline and unleashing capital for reinvestment in existing businesses.
The Commonwealth has for more than 12 months now been working with the states and territories on this strategy in recognition of their responsibilities with regard to planning processes.
The Tourism Ministers’ Council will appoint an investment and regulatory reform working group to develop a business case around re-investment within the context of Australia’s taxation regime.
It will also develop a mechanism to streamline new tourism development through the approvals processes of the three tiers of Government.
If our objective is to unlock more investment in tourism product and infrastructure, This Strategy will address the impediments that can hold investment back.
Skills and Labour
New investment is critical for the industry’s future – but so too is its future workforce.
Tourism is a labour intensive industry.
For tourism to prosper it requires a workforce of passionate, committed, skilled individuals offering friendly and professional service.
However, tourism’s labour force presently has low levels of post-school qualifications and the industry needs better access to the array of skills programs offered by governments.
Indigenous people, in particular, bring unique skills to the industry, and greater participation would also help to ‘close the gap’ of disadvantage.
So the Tourism Ministers’ Council will implement the Tourism and Hospitality Workforce Development Strategy, so that skills and qualifications are recognised – and portable – and tourism’s labour force needs are integrated more closely into the migration program.
The Strategy: boosting competitiveness
As I have said - our measure of success is a more professional, innovative and competitive tourism industry.
To help deliver this - the role of Tourism Australia is to be broadened to incorporate industry development and online activities.
And as we have already flagged in recent months – we are boosting and broadening our research capacity.
Future actions and policy will be guided by robust research. There will be an annual state-of-the-industry report and a research conference (similar to that held by ABARE) to provide a better understanding of market developments and shifting demographics.
In the future, when investors come to us with questions – on productivity, taxation, skills and so on – the Government will have the right information at its fingertips.
Increasingly, some of those questions will be on climate change.
Climate change threatens our natural attractions and our market share, as consumers become more conscious of the impact of long-haul travel.
The Tourism Ministers’ Council now has a working group dedicated to:
· Enhancing Australia’s status as a green destination
· And giving the industry ways to adapt to a carbon-constrained future.
Travellers also want value for money so the quality of product and service delivery is vital.
As part of the Strategy, operators can be licensed to display a new, internationally-recognised, symbol of quality alongside their existing accreditation.
This is good for consumers and good for the participating operators who’ll benefit from greater exposure.
Staying with quality, the Strategy will help to maximise our inherent strengths – especially our cultural, natural and indigenous attractions.
After all, heritage and cultural tourism accounts for one-third of world travel and it’s growing by 15 per cent a year.
As part of the Strategy, we’ll review our indigenous tourism programs and look at using the National Landscapes Program as a model for growth.
The National Landscapes Program is a good example of planning that reaches beyond state boundaries, and which targets a specific market – in this case the so-called ‘experience-seekers’ who come because they won’t find that experience anywhere else in the world.
The Strategy: harnessing leadership
Leadership is pivotal to the success of the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy.
I’m grateful to my state and territory colleagues who agreed in October on plans to implement this Strategy.
For this to be a success - tourism ministers in all governments will now need to engage more with other portfolios – on planning approvals, business regulation, infrastructure development, labour and skills and so on…
I would also like to express my gratitude to Margaret Jackson and her team for their invaluable industry input.
This stronger participation from industry and state and territory governments represents unprecedented levels of co-operation.
And importantly - there is to be a stronger role for the National Tourism and Aviation Advisory Committee.
Aviation improvements
Last week in Cairns, the Prime Minister, the Minister for Transport, and I made an important announcement.
The Australian Government is welcoming new airline services to Australian skies provided they ramp up services to regional areas.
Regional centres such as Townsville, Darwin, Cairns and Broome – are set to benefit from significantly improved air links.
Destination planning
Reinvigorating transport infrastructure is fundamental to Australian tourism’s competitiveness.
It’s at the heart of our economic strategy.
In the Northern Territory, the successful National Landscapes Program, for instance, brings industry together with all levels of government to improve access.
Whether you call it destination planning, nation-building or simply ‘good planning policy’, the Australian Government is delivering better infrastructure for tourism:
· The Gold Coast Airport extension
· The Tugan bypass
· The Pacific Highway upgrade
· Access to Canberra Airport
· The Geelong bypass
· The Calder Freeway to name just a few…
Every dollar benefits the tourism industry down the track as visitors reach their destination sooner and safer.
TQUAL Grants
Direct support is another way the Australian Government is putting the tourism industry on a more competitive path.
Today, I’m pleased to announce the recipients of the TQUAL Grants program.
70 projects across Australia will receive funding from the program totalling almost $8.3 million.
These projects will boost the quality and diversity of tourism, particularly in regional and rural areas.
Some of the money is for national projects which align with the Strategy we launch today:
The Tourism and Transport Forum successfully applied for funds to develop a National Tourism Planning Code to help operators apply for development approvals.
The same organisation is being funded to track data for business events.
Elsewhere, the National Tourism Alliance is being funded to lift the profile of tourism as a career and to help identify the skills needed to build a sustainable industry.
And the Winemakers Federation of Australia is being funded to help wine tourism operators skill their workforce, broaden their product to meet a changing market, and boost partnerships and cooperation within regions.
The awarding of TQUAL Grants puts a premium on innovation and economic benefit from tourism.
The more innovative our industry becomes, the greater the benefit for our communities.
So the cascading effect of TQUAL Grants aligns closely with the Australian Government’s economic priorities.
Government funding for promotion
Let’s remind ourselves of how much government – at all levels – promotes Australian tourism.
The combined promotion budget was $537 million last year.
This is an important part of the tourism equation and one which is generating real results.
I’m particularly pleased with the success of the No Leave, No Life campaign.
The Australian Government is partnering with the private sector to separate hard-working Australians from their 123 million days of accrued leave.
Magazines, newspaper supplements, and a Channel 7 show are spreading the message.
Businesses employing 800,000 people are using program materials.
Australia’s leave stockpile is worth $33 billion.
Converting even a small proportion of this into Australian holidays will mean a lot to tourism operators around Australia.
A change in thinking
The Australian Government is proud of its support for the tourism industry.
But this Strategy is not about money – it’s about meeting the demand created by marketing.
It is about ensuring we have the new product, the tourism infrastructure, and the skilled workforce we require.
In the past, we’ve focused too heavily on campaigns.
Marketing campaigns don’t address the industry’s supply-side challenges.
The industry has proved very resilient in recent times to a range of shocks, such as the Global Financial Crisis, the SARS outbreak, and the collapse of Ansett.
Yet we need to acknowledge that Australia’s share of global arrivals has fallen by 13.2 per cent over the past decade and our domestic tourism has weakened by 4.5 per cent.
The worsening relative performance of Australia’s tourism industry points to structural impediments which require attention, so as to improve productivity and international competitiveness.
Short-term campaigns do not generate investment and infrastructure on the scale we need.
The National Long-Term Tourism Strategy is a generational change of thinking. While our tourism product should be innovative, the business of tourism is hard - often unglamorous - work.
Talk of copywriting and brochures will increasingly make way for talk of contracts and tenders, asset management, performance analysis, land and buildings, liquidity risk, venture capital and so on…
If the only questions being asked are about the ‘next big thing in tourism advertising’, it means we’re not properly focused on long-term competitiveness.
Only then can we start to reverse the decline in Australia’s share of global tourism since the mid 1990s.
I urge all those with a stake in our tourism industry – and our economic prosperity (which means just about everybody) – to get behind the Strategy.
Conclusion
Ladies and gentlemen, this Strategy looks to the long-term.
We need a tourism industry with the expertise, infrastructure and innovation to maintain Australia’s competitive edge.
The Strategy will help to remove obstacles to investment.
And by giving investors greater confidence, tourism will be front and centre of our economic policy reform agenda.
I will continue to lead the Strategy through the Tourism Ministers Council and we’ll be looking for a confident industry to drive this Strategy forward.
Thank you
QueenslandOnline
Latest
