Quarterly, Issue 2 September 2006
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The “inconvenient truth” about climate change
Indigenous
tourism
From Dreamtime to reality
Setting Sun
Why the Japanese no longer have a yen for Australia
“Super
size me!”
Tourism’s mega departments
Tangled web
Unravelling the distribution riddle
The
business class
Getting the government on board
The magazine of Australia’s inbound tourism industry: an official Australian Tourism Export Council publication
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atx: d atx: from the MD
atx: the content
03 the interview 04 the inconvenient truth 06 about climate change indigenous tourism 12 setting sun 16 what’s happening in Japan? 20 super size me 22 tangled web 26 spotlight on 30 the business class 31 research snapshot 34 tourism hero 36 social pages 38 ATEC in touch 40 results in action 41 advertising directory 42 useful stuff 44 your say
Have service levels in the tourism industry changed over the past decade? Martin Ferguson
Dear industry colleague Welcome to the second issue of atx: - and a great big thank you to all who gave us such fantastic feedback on Issue One. In particular thank you to our advertisers for their enthusiastic support, which has allowed us to expand this issue, with 12 more pages supporting more articles on the topics affecting Australia’s inbound tourism sector. atx: is, and always will be, a work in progress and we hope that each issue will improve on the last.
From Dreamtime to reality
Why the Japanese no longer have a yen for Australia
This quarter we look at the hot topics on the inbound industry’s lips, plus a few which perhaps should be. It’s official - the sky is falling in, or at least warming up, and the verdict comes from no less an “out there” trendy greenie organisation than the Howard Government. In this edition Kerri Anderson explores climate change, what it means for the industry in general and your business in particular – and how you should be prepared. atx:’s resident soothsayer Ben Sandilands turns his inquiring mind to distribution while Sheriden Rhodes runs the magnifying glass over the management structures of state tourism offices and the challenge presented by so many entities selling such a diverse product. On the “opportunity” front, Elizabeth Corfe examines the development of the indigenous tourism sector, Allan Leibowitz takes stock of the business events sector and Graham Readfearn casts his eye over the Action Plan for Japanese Tourism. We get to know a couple of people better, including Shadow Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson and one of the great leaders of the modern inbound industry, Denise Scrafton. We also get to know the team at Riverlife, the dynamic new company that has turned the Brisbane River into an exciting tourism destination! Again, keep the feedback coming and let us know the articles you’d like to see – after all this is your magazine. Matthew Hingerty Managing Director Australian Tourism Export Council
Tourism Research Australia analysis Tourism’s mega departments
Unravelling the distribution riddle Riverlife Adventure Centre
Getting the government on board
Decipher – tourism business knowledge Denise Scrafton
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“Have service levels in the tourism industry changed over the past decade? are they better, worse or pretty much the same?” Perhaps it’s not so much a question of whether service levels have changed for better or worse, but whether standards have kept up with consumer expectations. Our expectations of service, including getting what we perceive to be value for money, receiving prompt attention and even being rewarded with added value, have certainly increased over the past decade. More competition for our disposable dollar, less personal time and more working hours are just some of the reasons this has happened. By and large, the response has been to provide ‘improved service’ on a more commercial basis, such as discounted costs, loyalty programs or value-add offers. All of which are certainly welcomed by the back pocket, but don’t guarantee overall satisfaction.
Absolutely they’re better! Australian tourism operators have become far more professional in the way they do business and it is great to see local people becoming successful on the world stage. The difficult thing for us all is maintaining high levels of customer service to a consumer that has become very savvy, extremely dollar driven and has higher expectations of their travel experience. In hotels, they want five star services on a three star budget and this is affecting our margins. ‘Service with a smile’ now includes so much more. Melanie Chettle Director of Sales and Marketing Doma Hotels
As a restaurateur friend of mine puts it, when describing why her favourite café is just that, “great coffee, happy staff, each time”. If service is to meet, let alone exceed, customer expectations, it needs to comprise at least these three things – good product, responsive staff and consistency; a combination that is quite rare to find.
I do feel service has changed over time but I feel this is due to people wanting the world but not prepared to pay for it. The industry has become much more competitive, offering deals just to get the business. However, they are so bitter about giving away their product/service that they are reluctant to give decent service, or they skimp on staff costs to compensate for the lack of income. Hence the service suffers. This will never change until the industry stops agreeing to taking customers at such low margins.
Louise Terry Marketing Manager
Natalie Carey Sales & Marketing Manager
Tourism Noosa
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I generally believe they have improved – and I treat the term ‘service’ by defining it as ‘customer expectation’. Given the increasingly competitive nature of the industry, and the challenges from a domestic perspective it faces with a growing consumer perception of attractive and affordable overseas locations, I believe more Australian operators are doing it better, more often and promoting and targeting their product to their particular ‘audience’. There are many stand-out examples. It’s easy to find criticism in anything if you look hard enough, but one area that sorely needs redress around the country is the overall knowledge base and friendliness of many taxi drivers and the cleanliness of their vehicles. This welcome mat for so many international guests and interstate travellers at airports and a key transport mode in our CBDs over recent years, has really become quite worn and tattered. We can do better. Simon Westaway General Manager Corporate Relations Jetstar Airways
go online and have
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atx: contributors Allan Leibowitz is a former editor of Business Queensland and the Australian Travel Reporter. He now specialises in business travel, and edits the specialist publication, Business Travel Monthly.
Kerri Anderson began her career as a newspaper journalist, and has extensive experience in tourism marketing and corporate communications. As National Media and Communications Manager of ATEC, Kerri describes atx: as one of the most rewarding projects she has worked on.
Ben Sandilands has reported airline affairs for 36 years. His contributions appear in The Australian Financial Review, Aviation Business Asia Pacific, and overseas publications served by the Guardian & Observer news service.
Graham Readfearn is an award-winning freelance journalist and feature writer. He emigrated to Brisbane in December 2005 and has written for The Courier-Mail and its Saturday magazine QWeekend.
Elizabeth Corfe is a travel and lifestyle writer with a particular interest in indigenous culture and society. Earlier this year she stayed in a remote Aboriginal community outside Alice Springs where she photographed and interviewed the local indigenous people.
Anders Lindström is the former features editor of Travel Week. His travel pieces have appeared in the Sun Herald, The Age, Voyages magazine and The Courier-Mail. He is also a travel correspondent for Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden’s largest daily broadsheet.
Lee Mylne is a Melbournebased freelance journalist who has specialised in writing about travel and tourism for a range of consumer and trade magazines around Australia for the past 15 years.
Sheriden Rhodes is an experienced and award-winning travel writer and photographer. She has been a journalist for 17 years, having worked on both newspapers and magazines and was previously an editor for travel trade.
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atx: the interview
Martin Ferguson By Lee Mylne
In his private life, Martin Ferguson has had little opportunity to discover Australia as a tourist does. But the Federal Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Resources, Forestry and Tourism has “lived out of a suitcase all around Australia” since his earliest working days, seeing parts of the country many never get to, and gaining a new perspective on it along the way. After growing up in Sydney, Ferguson moved with his wife and two children to Melbourne in 1990 when he became president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). Politics is in his blood. His father Jack was elected to the New South Wales Parliament in 1959 when Martin was five, and served as deputy premier in the Wran Government from 1976 to 1983. Graduating from Sydney University with an honours degree in economics, Ferguson was soon involved in the union movement, working for the Federated Miscellaneous Workers’ Union of Australia for 15 years before heading the ACTU. Elected to Federal Parliament as the Member for Batman in 1996, Ferguson
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was soon part of Labor’s Shadow Ministry, taking on Employment and Training as his first portfolio, areas of interest which he also now applies to his thinking on the tourism industry. Since moving to Melbourne, he says annual holidays have always meant a return to Sydney to meet family obligations with only rare chances to explore other parts – getting away these days usually means heading to Apollo Bay or the Grampians.
“It is far easier being a country in Europe than it is promoting Australia to the North American and European markets.” And on the road for work, he says, there’s been no time for beaches or sightseeing, but plenty of hotels, conference rooms and restaurants. “This is a terrifically big country,” he says. “You go out to the desert to visit a gold mine, which seems massive, but then
you see it from the air as you fly away and you realise how small it is in this amazing, big country.” Appreciating the vast distances involved also leads to understanding how difficult it is – both domestically and internationally – to promote tourism in Australia, he says.
“We have to work hard to keep this market and chase new markets, or someone else will.” “There are so many good places to visit and how to convince people to put the time and the effort and the money into coming here is a huge challenge,” he says. “It is far easier being a country in Europe than it is promoting Australia to the North American and European markets. “It is a tough global market, and it will get tougher.” In that tough market, he says, Tourism Australia is doing a good job. “The advertising campaign seems to have had some success, and I’d like to thank the British regulatory authorities for rejecting the ads,” he says, referring to the international publicity over the controversial “Where the Bloody Hell Are You?” campaign, which he believes worked in Australia’s favour. Tapping into high-yield markets and the opportunities offered by Asia’s growing middle class markets – especially India and China – while maintaining established successful markets like Japan will be challenges for the industry in coming years, he says. “We have to work hard to keep this market and chase new markets, or someone else will.” Encouraging people to holiday in Australia – whether they are domestic or international tourists – would mean greater employment and training opportunities for the industry, he says. “There are a lot of young and semi-retired Australians who could be employed, but we have to attract, train and employ them. “And I think we have to move away from just focussing on young people; there are mature age people looking for seasonal or part-time work who provide an untapped opportunity for the tourism industry.”
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atx: coverstory
The inconvenient truth about
CLIMATE CHANGE At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, film buffs were all talking about former US Vice President and 2000 presidential hopeful Al Gore’s new documentary on climate change.
The release of An Inconvenient Truth was a master stroke in timing. The past two years have arguably been the worst on record for natural disasters – our planet battered by the Boxing Day tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the Pakastani earthquake, heatwaves in Europe, floods in China – and at home, Cyclone Larry. 2005 was also the hottest year on record, topping a decade of the hottest years since records commenced in the 1800s.
Kerri Anderson looks at why the tourism industry needs to be prepared.
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If you believe Gore and his fellow environmentalist doom-sayers who have been spruiking about the ramifications of the greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change for years, our planet is going to hell in a hand basket and we will arrive sooner rather than later unless we change our wasteful, polluting ways. While there is no irrefutable proof that a failure to significantly decrease greenhouse gas emissions will spell disaster for our planet, there is a strong and increasing scientific consensus that our global climate is changing.
For example, in 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change*, acknowledged as the most authoritative analysis of climate change, concluded that: Global temperatures have increased around 0.6 ° C since the beginning of the 20th Century and around 0.4° C since 1990; it is likely that 1990-1999 was the warmest decade in the last 1000 years and; by 2100 temperatures are projected to increase by an additional 1.4° C to 5.8° C. Fast forward to 2030 and what kind of Australia will we be living in if these predications prove to be accurate? We can expect: • Warmer temperatures of between 0.4 and 2° C; • A 10 – 50 percent increase in days over 35° C; • A 20 - 80 percent decrease in days below 0° C; • Up to 15 percent less year-round rainfall in the south-east and in spring in Queensland; • Up to 15 percent more rainfall in summer on the east coast and in autumn inland; • Heavier rainfall and increased risk of flooding where average rainfall increases, or decreases slightly; • Stronger tropical cyclones; • Higher storm surges.
* impacts and Risk Management – Department of Environment and Heritage – Greenhouse Office
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If these climate changes come to pass, what will they signify for our way of life and of making a living – particularly for the tourism industry, so dependent on our natural attractions and climate? According to the Australian Business Round Table on Climate Change – a forum of business leaders from companies such as BP, Insurance Australia Group, Origin Energy, VISY and Westpac – the economic impacts of climate change on Australia will be significant and widespread – especially for the tourism industry. “There is broad consensus that climate change is real, the impacts may be significant and we need to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” the report states. “However, there is currently no agreement on how best to respond, when this response should begin and what it will cost.” Australia’s key icons such as the Great Barrier Reef, wet tropics, Kakadu and our snow fields are particularly vulnerable. (see potential climate change consequences pg 10). A mean temperature increase of just two degrees celsius will have a potentially catastrophic impact on many of our natural tourism icons.
Apart from the well-publicised threat of coral bleaching, many of Australia’s coastal tourist resorts for example, face serious threat from damage to reef systems on a wider scale as fringing reefs, which reduce wave strength, provide protection from onshore erosion. The ski industry is also likely to be heavily affected as our ski fields may lose up to 40 percent of natural snow cover – and there is no doubt Kakadu’s visitor numbers would dry up along with the predicted 80 percent of its wetlands.
As regions experience more high temperature days and increased severe weather such as flooding and cyclones, tourists, particularly those from cooler climes, might increasingly choose other destinations. The financial impacts are equally grim, also to be considered, is the possibility of soaring insurance and public liability costs for businesses situated in “high risk” areas. According to risk management specialists Marsh and the Insurance Group Australia, despite the seemingly bleak outlook, there
Hazard risks: Hazard
Cause of change in hazard
Resulting change in damage/loss
Windstorm Doubling of wind speed 2.2° C mean temp increase
Four-fold increase in damages 5% - 10% increase in hurricane wind speeds
Extreme temperatures 1° C mean temp increase episodes
300 year temp events occur every 10 years
Floods
25% increase in 30 minute precipitation
100 year flood return period reduced to 17 years
Bushfire
1° C mean summer temp 28% increase in wildfires increase Doubling of CO2 143% increase in major wildfires
Commonwealth Department of Environment and Heritage – Greenhouse Office atx:magazine:issuetwo
The potential effects of climate change on tourism industry operations*
atx: coverstory “There is broad consensus that climate change is real, the impacts may be significant and we need to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” are things businesses can do – both on the macro and micro levels. Elayne Grace, Sustainability Research Manager for the Insurance Australia Group – one of the participants in the Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change – says climate is very much a core business for insurance companies. “At IAG we insure more than $850 billion worth of property so changes in the destructive nature of weather events represent a significant risk to our business,” she says. “[Introducing] strategies for adapting to these impacts need to be included in development and planning processes such
Temp rise Tourism impact
>2° C
> 4° C
Most Australian vertebrates lose 90% to 100% of their core habitat
>3° C
Distribution of Great Barrier Reef species shrinks by 95%
>1° C
81% of Great Barrier Reef bleached
65% of reef species lost in Cairns region
Snow-covered alpine area shrinks by 20% to 85%
Vertebrates in the World Heritage Wet Tropics lose 90% of their core habitat
<1° C
“60 day” snow cover declines by 40% to 95%
Snow-covered alpine areas shrink by 10% to 40%
Vertebrates in the World Heritage Wet Tropics lose 50% of their habitat
*Australian Round Table on Climate Change – The Business Case for Early Action, April 2006
as building codes, infrastructure planning, water resources and health responses. “Once we know the risks we can work with the community and our customers to minimise these risks and keep insurance premiums down.” There are however, scarily few small businesses that are really prepared for the possible impacts of increasingly frequent and severe natural disasters according to global risk management firm Marsh.
97% of Great Barrier Reef bleached 80% of Kakadu freshwater wetlands lost
Marsh estimates for example, that half of Innisfail’s businesses weren’t insured when Cyclone Larry hit in March this year. “Small businesses can be so focussed on meeting their targets that they don’t look at other things such as whether or not they have adequate insurance,” National Sales Leader, Phil Hunt says. “There are a lot of statistics about small businesses that don’t insure adequately. Aound 70 percent of businesses that face a severe interruption don’t recover.
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Cyclone Larry devastated the Innisfail region in March this year.
“Climate change is slow and yet to be really understood, but anecdotally we need to be aware and it could reach the point where some destinations may no longer be suitable to visit during high risk periods such as cyclone seasons.” Head of Marsh’s Risk Consulting, Steve York, says it is essential to have a business continuity plan in place. “Business [owners] need to ask themselves, what will be the consequences to my business if something happens and will I be able to protect my revenue flow and associated costs? “It’s important to understand what the risks to your business are – some events may be low probability, but they are high impact. “But you also need to look at your supply chain – are those you do business with adequately prepared as well?”
“The New Orleans experience ought to serve to remind people in the first world just how dependent they are on services such as power plants, electricity and airconditioning, he writes.
York says that a risk too is, if natural disasters such as cyclones increase in frequency, premiums in high-risk areas will also increase and there is a real possibility that insurers may refuse to cover some events.
“Any tourism community that does not have a well-trained tourism security unit ought not to be shocked when it loses its industry.”
“As populations in coastal areas become increasingly dense, the aggregate exposure to the insurance industry increases significantly,” he says. “We’re in a fortunate position in that the insurance industry globally has been making good money over the past two years and was able to wear the consequences of Hurricane Katrina for example [which cost an estimated US$105 billion]. “If that hadn’t been the case, we would have seen insurance capacity reducing now and costs going up.” In a paper on Hurricane Katrina and the lessons it provided, President of US-based
Tourism & More, Dr Peter Tarlow, has a dire warning for the tourism industry.
While the future may seem grim if there are more Katrinas and Larrys decimating communities, businesses and infrastructure, Hunt says there are definite opportunities for smart operators on both an individual and industry level. Large companies for example, are increasingly looking at dealing with operators they know are prepared – and an operator who can demonstrate they have good risk management processes and business continuity planning in place may win business over one which doesn’t. “If the tourism industry can work together to be better prepared and have that image, if something happens in another part of the world, the global tourism population
will begin to look more at Australia,” he says. “If the industry is more capable of dealing with a situation then the impact will be less and their business will be more resilient.” Inconvenient though it may be, Gore is right and the truth of climate change can no longer be ignored. Those businesses which don’t take adequate measures to protect their environment and their livelihood do so at their own risk.
where to find out more: Climate Change: – Business Risks and Solutions www.marsh.com.au Australian Business Round Table on Climate Change – The Business Case for Early Action – www.iag.com.au Climate Change and Risk Management – A Guide for Business and Government www.greenhouse.gov.au/science Climate Change Impacts on Australia: Australian Business Roundtable Report www.cmar.csiro.au
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Every day, just before night, Noosa puts on a show unlike any other. Our wild sunsets are a gorgeous, breathtaking showstopper in a place already vibrant with fabulous events like the Noosa Jazz Festival, The Noosa Longweekend and A Celebration of Australian Food & Wine, Noosa Style. There’s only one Noosa but so much to be astonished by. Visit www.tourismnoosa.com.au
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holiday noosa style atx :magazine :issuetwo Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
atx: coverstory
casestudy – cyclone larry an operator’s view: When Voyages made the call late on Saturday afternoon March 18 to evacuate 100 guests and 200 staff from Dunk and Bedarra Islands, the company put into action a response plan it had never before activated on such a scale. The operation was a challenging one – communicating the urgency of a category five cyclone to guests and staff and organising the logistics of getting them safely off the islands and 300km overland to Cairns. “I would hazard a guess that no other tourism operator was in our position of having a category five cyclone come over two operations at once,” a Voyages spokesperson said. Voyages’ head office and island staff monitored the situation through news and emergency services channels and on Saturday afternoon made the call to evacuate the islands. The response plan rolled out seamlessly. On-site staff and guests were informed and the evacuation effort coordinated with local ferry and coach operators, alternate accommodation in Cairns secured, and early Sunday morning the operation began. By Sunday afternoon guests and all but a skeleton staff who stayed behind to lock down the resorts before taking refuge in cyclone shelters were off the islands. Larry hit on Monday March 20. Meanwhile, Sydney staff were working to keep media, industry and trade informed, reorganise guests’ plans and juggle forward bookings.
Voyages attributes its successful handling of the situation to a well-prepared and well-executed disaster response, crisis communications and emergency procedures plan. Voyages’ most important piece of advice in dealing with disaster? “Focus on the things you can control – especially your communications with key stakeholders – and realise that natural disasters are fluid situations,” the spokesperson advises. “For example, we initially thought we would be able to reopen on June 1, but April was the wettest month on record in North Queensland and this impeded the reconstruction work. “When it was obvious that we wouldn’t be able to reopen until July, we had to make sure our stakeholders understood why – it’s all about relationship management.” So, did any benefits arise from Larry? “Yes,” he says. “On Dunk Island for example, parts of the canopy have opened up and some rooms that previously didn’t have views now have stunning vistas so we’ve taken advantage of that in our reconstruction.”
an industry view: Although it is undoubtedly cold comfort to the residents of Innisfail and to Australia’s banana growers, the North Queensland tourism industry escaped Cyclone Larry’s fury relatively unscathed, overall. But, had Larry crossed the coast a few hundred kilometres north, how would the industry have fared? Tourism Tropical North Queensland CEO Rob Giason, who faced his first cyclone in his first year as head of TTNQ, was
“No other tourism operator was in our position of having a category five cyclone come over two operations at once.” Repairs began as soon as possible on the structural and environmental damage caused by the 300km/hr winds and torrential rain.
10
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impressed by the industry’s awareness of what needed to be done and the precision with how it was implemented.
“Over the past 10 years an enormous amount of new tourism infrastructure has been built in Cairns and Port Douglas, all of which adheres to strict building codes developed after extensive research on past cyclones and I am confident a good proportion of our infrastructure would hold up very well,” Giason says.
“The individual operators who were affected showed incredible courage and determination to get back into operation.” “What we do know is that the industry’s individual strategies to protect and secure assets were impressively implemented, highlighting the sophisticated risk management strategies that are in place. “TTNQ took the action we would take in response to any serious event affecting the region in disseminating accurate information to key contacts who could then send this on and so on in order to provide some balance to the media hype that invariably surrounds this type of event. “The TNQ industry as a whole coped as well as could be expected after the cyclone,” he says. “The individual operators who were most affected showed incredible courage and determination to get back into operation as quickly as possible.” Giason agrees that there were some positives to come out of Larry. “Only one or two operators decided not to reopen and many actually took the opportunity to upgrade their premises so the post-cyclone area now offers an improved level of product.” The biggest lesson learned according to Giason: “That it is essential to be prepared – as a regional tourism organisation and as individuals we must have a risk management strategy that is understood, regularly updated and ready to implement.”
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atx: feature
Indigenous
tourism from Dreamtime to reality
Meet Aboriginal tourism’s greatest irony. It’s an adventurous traveller looking for the real Australian experience. Someone who researches their holiday extensively, enjoys meeting the locals and travels to broaden their perspective on the world.
Aboriginal tourism could be Australia’s next big draw card,
so what’s
holding it back? Elizabeth Corfe investigates. 12
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It’s someone like English backpacker Simon Martin who travelled Australia for six months looking for authentic experiences. As an organised traveller, he joined various tours on the internet and researched places that were off the beaten track. “Unfortunately, the only contact I had with Aboriginal people was on the streets of Alice Springs,” Martin says. “The scene was depressing. There were groups of people just sitting outside shops, most of them were drunk and I didn’t feel comfortable approaching them. I knew that Aborigines were an underprivileged minority group but I still found the situation shocking. “I would have been interested in going on a walk guided by an Aborigine, visiting an indigenous community or even going out bush for a couple of days – but I wasn’t aware that those things existed, nor did I know where to find them.” While the growing demand for Aboriginal tourism has been identified through surveys and market
research, meeting the demand and providing travellers with the means to access the products are now the major challenges facing the industry. And that is just the beginning. As an emerging, specialist market operating largely from remote, underdeveloped areas, Aboriginal tourism must overcome cultural and market barriers and develop sufficient training programs if it is ever going to grow and compete with mainstream tourism. Although there are various independent state bodies established to help indigenous tour operators, Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators (WAITOC) is the only one of its kind because it operates as a one-stop-shop for consumers, the tourism industry, the government and overseas industries. Since it became an equally incorporated association board in May 2002, WAITOC has established strong relationships with the tour operators and overseas market. With the exception of the Executive Director, Angelique Fransen, everyone on the board is indigenous. While Fransen is pleased with the progress WAITOC has made – for example raising the number of indigenous tourism experiences from just 12 in 2000 to 55 in 2006 – she says there is still a long way to go. “One of the biggest challenges the market faces is cultural barriers, people need to have a different mindset when addressing Aboriginal tourism. They need to remember that the culture is very different.” “There is a big gap between mainstream and indigenous tourism, which I think comes from a lack of knowledge and awareness of Aboriginal culture.” In addition to mental blockades, Fransen says the fact that many operators are located in isolated regions also creates practical problems for Aboriginal tourism. “Many of the Aboriginal sites are in remote areas. A lot of travellers simply don’t have the time or the means to visit.”
“In the beginning we copped a lot of scepticism from government and tourism departments. As Aborigines we were doing the impossible and no-one believed we would even last a season, but here we are, 13 seasons later.” Isolated areas cause other problems too. “We take resources like the internet and even phone lines for granted, but many operators in WA don’t have access to these tools, which makes it hard to keep track of who’s out there and even harder for consumers to hear about them,” Fransen says. At the time of publication, less than half of the 40 indigenous tourism operators listed on the WAITOC website had their own functional website. Despite these challenges, there are success stories. One began about 13 years ago, at a time when indigenous tourism was practically unheard of, and Aboriginal business owners were few and far between. Regardless of the odds, Maria Morgan and her husband Collin began a small tour company in Wyndham, Western Australia. “For about six years we’d been taking Collin’s hospital colleagues and friends or visitors out bush. We’d take them fishing or camping or we’d go visit areas in an Aboriginal reserve.
“We did it as a hobby, something we liked doing on the weekend. We enjoyed sharing our culture and showing visitors our country but when people suggested we start a company we’d say, ’You’ve got to be joking.’ You just don’t see many Aborigines in their own business.” Maria and Collin began Wundargoodie Aboriginal Safaris in 1993 and started offering small, one-day trips to domestic and international travellers. The couple realised there was a demand for tailor-made camping trips and educational excursions and the business extended. Together with four of their children and some of their children’s partners, the family-run tours encompass dreamtime stories, bush knowledge, bush tracking, contemporary Aboriginal history and also provide food and entertainment. As one of the longest running Aboriginal tours in Australia, Wundargoodie Aboriginal Safaris averages 320 customers per season. But Morgan says it hasn’t been an easy road.
For a true experience of life in the outback, visit Tennant Creek. Jimmy Hooker, the Bush Tucker Man of the Barkly is a former ringer and bushman who used to spend months at a time living alone off the land, Jimmy now lives in town and spends his time writing poetry and entertaining tourists with his stories and knowledge of bush tucker.
Local bush tucker, witchety grub
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Traditional and contemporary Aboriginal performance at the Red Centre Dreaming Dinner and Show, presented by Heavitree Gap Outback Lodge in Alice Springs
atx: d Indigenous tourism activities in 2005
In 2005, about 15 percent (733,000) of all international visitors experienced indigenous arts/crafts and cultural displays, and six percent (321,000) of international visitors visited an indigenous site/community during their travel in Australia (Figure 1). In contrast, in 2005, less than one percent of domestic overnight travellers participated in either of the two indigenous activities.
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Dealing with skepticism and the idea that Aboriginal tour operators are unreliable are some of the biggest challenges facing indigenous tour operators. Indigenous Tourism Australia (ITA) is a government body established in June 2005 to address such issues. ITA’s Executive Chairman and former Australian Democrats Senator, Aden Ridgeway, says the body’s job is to determine what tools the operators need and to gain recognition from mainstream tourism and the overseas market. The first major developments – which are set to be implemented at the Australian Indigenous Conference in Alice Springs this September – include a new web portal and plans to reintroduce international road shows. The web portal is a business-to-business tool, designed to help indigenous tour operators join a wider network and to help audit who’s out there and who’s doing what. COB&CO_strip.pdf 10/08/2006 15:45
“We recognise that there is enormous interest from the overseas market and obviously want to capitalise on that,” Ridgeway says. Market insights conducted by Tourism Australia indicate that interaction and authenticity are important aspects of Aboriginal tourism and that those who experienced Aboriginal tourism did so to learn, to experience and to interact with Aboriginal people. While tourists’ interaction with Aboriginal people is largely seen as mutually beneficial, it should also be remembered that the experience exposes several unappealing aspects of Australian society. Paul Conlon is the manager of Gunya, a soft-capital community development that invites tourists into the Aboriginal community of Titikala in the NT and allows them to view first-hand how Aboriginal people live. The situation in Titikala is grim. Unemployment is 80 percent, there are only 22 houses for 300 people and there are no medical services or police officers, but Conlon says the experience is positive.
International and domestic overnight visitors who experienced indigenous tourism activities, 2005. Figure 1 Visitors (000)
“In the beginning we copped a lot of skepticism from government and tourism departments. As Aborigines we were doing the impossible and no-one believed we would even last a season, but here we are, 13 seasons later.”
“The people who come here are amazed for two reasons. Firstly they’re appalled
Tourism Australia research
800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Experience A aboriginal art/craft and cultural displays
Indigenous tourism activity International
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Visit an A aboriginal site/community
Domestic overnight
atx: feature and horrified to see Aboriginal people living the way they do in a country as developed and prosperous as Australia. But secondly they’re touched by the depth of culture that still exists. They’re amazed to see that people living in such poverty can still smile and be happy. “The experience is usually life-changing for the tourist and the whole program has been incredibly beneficial for the community too; there’s a new sense of pride, culture is being preserved, and obviously there are employment and economic benefits.”
Visitors who experienced indigenous tourism activities, 2000-2005 International Domestic overnight Year Indigenous visitors Proportiona Indigenous visitors Proportiona 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 a
(‘000) 628 524 482 479 552 829
% 14 12 12 12 12 16
Mathew Robbins, who is the only nonindigenous employee, says that establishing the tours has been a long and difficult process. “The biggest issue we’ve had, particularly with inbound, domestic operators is proving our reliability. Because we’re an indigenous company, many don’t have the faith that we’re going to be around in six or twelve months,” Robbins says.
% 0.6 0.5 0.6 0.8 0.6 0.8
Proportion is as a total of international or domestic overnight visitors respectively. (Tourism Australia research)
“It’s understandable because a lot of tour companies in the area come and go, so we’ve spent the past 18 months proving to people that we’re going to be here day in, day out.”
Another tourism program that is making a difference for an Aboriginal community is Djabugay Country Tours. The indigenous, community-owned company has been offering spiritual, cultural and historical experiences near Cairns for 18 months.
(‘000) 432 362 459 554 475 584
To help get themselves established and to prove their reliability, Djabugay Country Tours worked with Kuranda Scenic Rail. For the first 12 months they had a representative at the station every day waiting for customers. “Out of the 300-odd days that we were there, we were lucky to get about 30 tours,” Robbins says.
industry that we weren’t just a one-week show. Now it’s slowly starting to come to fruition and we’re getting phone calls from inbound operators.” Operating from a town where unemployment is estimated to be as high as 85 percent and where alcohol and drug abuse is common, Djabugay Country Tours offers a glimmer of hope for the Aboriginal people of Kuranda. “Tourism allows Aboriginal people to stay on country, to share their culture, employ the local youth and keep the stories alive,” Robbins concludes.
“Obviously that wasn’t good operationalwise, but it was important to show the
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atx: feature A Japan Action Plan to halt the declining numbers of Japanese visitors was published by the Federal Government in January. So what has happened since? Graham Readfearn reports.
When Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey stood up at the Gold Coast Tourism Futures conference last October saying she wanted an action plan to stop Australia haemorrhaging Japanese tourists, the news for most came out of the blue. While nobody argued that there wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a desperate need for action, the erratic Japanese visitor figures had been showing
Why the Japanese no longer have a yen for Australia
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overall downturns since the late 1990s and so many delegates in the room must have been wondering â&#x20AC;&#x153;why now?. But just a few weeks earlier the International Sales and Marketing Consultant at Marriott Surfers Paradise, Kerry Watson, had sat down with Tourism Australia to ask that something should be done.
“I said that I was very concerned about the market and that we needed to get people around a table.” “I said that I was very concerned about the market and that we needed to get people around a table,” says Watson. Whether that meeting prompted the Minister’s call is hard to say, as at the same time Fran Bailey was digesting figures from the Tourism Forecasting Committee, which had dropped its projected annual growth for Japanese tourism between 2005 and 2014 from 3.5 percent to 2.9 percent.
But what is certain is that the 90-day deadline for the action plan Fran Bailey imposed focused the minds of many. Watson described the Minister’s call as “gutsy”. Watson was announced as the chairman of the committee assigned to draw up the plan alongside six other leading figures, including Tourism Australia Director International Marketing, Richard Beere, and Manager Tourism Development at Qantas, Nick Crabb. After consulting widely with the industry, including state and regional tourism offices, inbound tourism operators and airlines, the committee released its action plan with four key recommendations.
Latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that during June this year there were 42,700 visitors from Japan, bringing the total for the six months to June 2006 to 318,000, a decrease of three percent relative to the same period last year. Compared to 2000-01, there are now about 25,000 less Japanese tourists in Australia each year, but the 700,000 annual visitors still represent a $2.1billion market. But Watson said he expected these depressing figures to begin to show improvement by mid year, based on forward position statements on bookings from airlines. One positive announcement has already emerged, with Jetstar International commencing a daily Osaka-Brisbane route by March 2007, bringing a potential 100,000 passengers a year.
But the real message in the report was that Japanese tourist numbers would continue to decline unless all the stakeholders could come up with a way of working together to deliver products and marketing that was more focussed and compelling.
The impact of the controversial “So Where the Bloody Hell Are You?” campaign, which in the Asian market was changed to “So, why don’t you come?” to avoid offence, is still unknown. But Watson warns: “If we deem that it is not working (in Japan), we should not sit on our pride. We should cut, and move in another direction.”
Since the publication of the action plan in January, the Minister has appointed a Japan Industry Monitoring Group, again chaired by Kerry Watson, to oversee its implementation. The group, which reports every three months until May 2007, has already met in Sydney, travelled to Japan and held meetings with airlines.
According to the Pacific Asia Travel Association, Australia is by no means the most vulnerable destination to the changing Japanese market. Between 2000 and 2004, for instance, mainland USA lost almost 800,000 visitors a year, representing an annual drop of 11percent. In comparison, Australia lost just 0.4 percent.
Many of the action points in the report were designated to Tourism Australia, which has been filing weekly reports to Watson’s monitoring group.
“Japanese visitors want the best and newest experience.”
“At this time we are happy with the progress. The report was never going to be a quick fix. Japan is a hugely competitive market place – I have been working in it for 32 years,” Watson says. “What I had been worried about was that when you are working with such a wide array of groups – wholesalers, inbound tour operators, major airlines, state governments and regional groups – getting communications to a level that produces cohesive strategies is very difficult.” He said that now state and local governments, together with Tourism Australia, have been putting together more coherent marketing strategies which would be rolled out in the second half of the year.
While the number of Japanese tourists travelling abroad has remained relatively static in recent years, their choices have varied widely and so, as the PATA has pointed out, the battle has now become one of winning market share. The big winners, in terms of volume, have been China which welcomed 1.3 million more Japanese visitors in 2004 than in 2000. Yoshimi Kobayashi is senior director at Jalpak, one of the largest inbound tour operators (ITOs) and wholesalers bringing Japanese tourists to Australia. Jalpak also submitted its views to Kerry Watson’s committee, so Kobayashi says she was happy to see that the report asked for a more co-ordinated marketing approach. “We think that we need to be sending the same message to Japan. In the past there atx:magazine:issuetwo
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Japanese family bushwalking in Tamborine National park, Mount Tamborine
have been so many different messages going out to the Japanese consumer. Look at some of our competing destinations – take Hawaii.
“We have different tourism organisations who work very hard, but are sending a mixed message.” They have a very simple message. But we have different tourism organisations – who work very hard – but are sending a mixed message.” Kobayashi also believes that while Japanese travellers are becoming more experienced and adventurous, there is still the barrier of language which can have a negative impact on their visit. “We can’t just provide them with the same product that’s given to the UK or US market,” she says. “If they want to really enjoy a product, need to understand 37504 GBR Heli Ad 210they x69 4/8/06 10:06itAM in their own language.”
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Kobayashi says that Australia has much going for it from the point of view of the Japanese visitor. Time zones are similar and Australia is a safe destination with friendly people. The opportunity is there to increase Australia’s small market share. Anthony Hayes, executive director of international operations at Tourism Queensland, agrees that rather than just stopping a decline, there is still an opportunity to significantly grow the Japanese market in Australia. “This market is absolutely life and death. The action plan has been brilliant as it has really focussed everyone’s minds on the job at hand,” he says. “ But what we need to keep in mind is that we are only getting a tiny percentage of the Japan market anyway so there is plenty of room for growth, but we need to get the story straight and get into the market in a more effective way.” Tourism Queensland is preparing its own Japan action plan which will set out the state’s responsibilities in growing the Japanese Page 1 market.
Hayes points out that up to three-quarters of all the Japanese visitors to Australia will visit Queensland and, in particular, Cairns and the Gold Coast. As a result of the recommendations in the action plan, Tourism Queensland has signed formal marketing arrangements with the two major regional tourism bodies, Gold Coast Tourism and Tourism Tropical North Queensland. Queensland Tourism Minister Margaret Keech made a weeklong trade mission to Japan and Korea in March, during which she said that Japan Airlines was willing to work with Tourism Queensland on joint marketing campaigns. “It makes a lot more sense if we are spending our money together,” adds Hayes. That spirit of togetherness is something which Tourism Minister Fran Bailey has been trying to foster. “There is a good, strong co-operative approach because we know it is in the interests of the country as a whole to grow this market,” she told atx: The Minister admits that the announcement of the action plan did
atx: feature catch a few people by surprise “including my own department”. But she says that since she became minister almost two years ago, she has been getting a range of differing opinions from the industry about the reasons behind the Japanese decline. “We really needed to put our heads together to come up with the real reasons,” she says. It is “too early to tell” whether the “bloody hell” campaign has had a positive impact on potential Japanese visitors, says Bailey, but she says that anecdotal reports are positive. But she adds: “The problem will not be solved with a marketing campaign. That is why the action plan was so important. This is about arresting a decline, but it is also about tapping into some of those other key markets. There are a number of key markets in Japan that we have not targeted.” The action plan said that in the eyes of the Japanese tourist, Australia was failing to offer the kind of innovative and new experiences that they crave. “We have to refresh things. We certainly do have the range of experiences and a good quality brand to go with them, but the Japanese market is not hearing about them, and that is a large part of the problem.”
She says that during one of her first visits to Japan as a Minister, she had met an industry leader who had asked “do you like to do the same thing for your holidays every year?”. “I have repeated that story a lot over recent months because it shows largely what the problem is,” she says. “The Japanese tourist wants new experiences instead of the same old thing. They don’t get a lot of holidays so when they do, they want to have the best and the newest experience. “We know they have the money, and we know that they love to travel, but we need to make sure that more of them decide to come to Australia.” Postscript: One success story comes from Tourism NT which is doing its best to capitalise on the Japanese short break market. They have combined forces with Japan Airlines and a number of leading Japanese wholesalers to introduce a series of special charter flights which travel non-stop from Japan to Alice Springs. Passengers spend three nights in Central Australia then fly home. Since their introduction in 2003, more than 3,500 Japanese have visited on the charter flights, Tourism NT says. They estimate that the latest six charters, which began on August 3, will bring 1100 extra Japanese visitors into Alice Springs and inject around $1 million into the Central Australian economy.
WHAT THE ACTION PLAN SAID The Action Plan for Japanese Tourism made four key recommendations, with Tourism Australia being charged with taking a lead in 19 of the 26 actions. The recommendations were to: • Restore the Australian brand and refresh the product to create a ‘must see’ destination. • Build a strong, aligned and collaborative approach to marketing and distributing product to target markets. • Ensure airline pricing and products for the Australia– Japan route are competitive and promote growth. • Adopt a new experiencebased approach to product development to match the needs identified by new market segmentation. A copy of the plan is available on Tourism Australia’s website www.tourism.australia.com
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What’s happening to the Japanese market? Japanese leisure visitors’ changing travel patterns
We all know that Japan is a vitally important market for the Australian tourism industry. Figures from Tourism Research Australia (TRA) indicate that there were 636,000 visitors from Japan in the year ended 31 December 2005, with a total inbound economic value of $2.2 billion. Japanese arrivals have, however, been steadily falling since their peak of around 766,000 in 1996 and 1997. Recent aviation developments and changes in the marketing and distribution of Australian product have impacted on the travel itineraries of Japanese visitors! Is this really the case? Analysis undertaken by TRA has found that the travel patterns of Japanese leisure visitors have been changing since the late ‘90s. One significant insight that has been uncovered is the trend towards mono/ single destination travel rather than multidestination travel. From 1999 & 2000 to 2004 & 2005 the
number of Japanese leisure visitors travelling to a single destination increased 18 percent. Correspondingly, the number of Japanese leisure visitors visiting multiple destinations declined 25 percent. During 1999 & 2000, the majority (58 percent) of Japanese leisure visitors visited more than one destination. The most popular travel itineraries were focussed around: • Gold Coast and Sydney, visited by 49 percent of multi-destination Japanese leisure visitors • Tropical North Queensland (TNQ), Sydney, Gold Coast and Petermann (Uluru) – The Golden Triangle – visited by 26 percent of visitors, and • Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane, visited by 24 percent of visitors. In contrast, during 2004 & 2005 the majority (54 percent) of Japanese leisure visitors visited just one destination. The destinations that have benefited from this trend towards single destination travel were TNQ, Perth and Melbourne, with the number of visitors just visiting TNQ doubling and the number to Perth and Melbourne increasing around 40 percent and 30 percent respectively. During 2004 & 2005 the top five regions visited as a single destination by Japanese
leisure visitors were TNQ (124,000 visitors per year), Sydney (64,000), Gold Coast (62, 000), Perth (25,000) and Melbourne (11,000). At a time when there has been a general decline in Japanese visitors to Australia, the TNQ region has become the most visited destination for Japanese leisure visitors. During 2004 & 2005, 42 percent of all Japanese leisure visitors stayed in TNQ. The equivalent share in 1999 & 2000 was only 29 percent. Furthermore, the increase in Japanese leisure visitors to TNQ is not solely due to the trend toward single destination travel. The number of Japanese visiting the region in combination with Sydney, Gold Coast and Petermann has increased by 14 percent from the 1999 & 2000 figure. In addition, we are now seeing Japanese leisure visitors on package tours switching from visiting multiple destinations to just a single destination. During 2004 & 2005, 40 percent visited a single destination on a package tour, a third more than 1999 & 2000. So have recent aviation developments and marketing and distribution changes impacted on the travel itineraries of Japanese visitors? It appears so. The travel options for Japanese visitors have altered, changing the focus to single destination visits.
Top regions visited by Japanese leisure visitors, average percentage change between 1999 & 2000 to 2004 & 2005
Japanese leisure visitors in Australia, 1999 & 2000 and 2004 & 2005
100%
25%
-50% Region
-75%
Source: TRA International Visitor Survey (unpublished data) Single destination visitors
Multi-destination visitors
TRA undertakes research projects on domestic and international travel in Australia. This article is part of a larger research project on multi-destination travel itineraries of international visitors in Australia. For further information contact TRA on 02 6228 6100 or tra@tourism.australia.com. 20
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Bri sba ne
Per th
0% -25%
lur u
562 15 11 1.7 76 67
Pet erm an n/U
604 18 11 2.1 77 73
Me lbo urn e
260 14 15 2.6 36 34
ast
349 19 14 2.9 48 46
50%
Co
302 17 7 1 40 33
99&00 04&05
Go ld
255 Proportion of all leisure visitors (%) 18 Average stay (nights) 8 Number of stopovers 1 Proportion on package tour (%) 30 Proportion first time visitors (%) 26
99&00 04&05
Total
S yd ne y
Average visitors per year (‘000)
99&00 04&05
Multi-destination
TN Q
Single destination
Percentage change
75%
Japanese leisure visitors
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atx: feature d
“Super Size Me” Tourism’s mega departments Try this simple exercise. If you took all the state branding, particularly the various television campaigns, and removed the name of the state, would you be able to guess which state or territory was being advertised? Wotif Managing Director Graeme Wood’s guess is probably not. Sheridan Rhodes reports.
to hear.” Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) Chairman John King believes tourism can be represented under a mega department so long as the marketing and industry development role is under a separate structure.
Tourism NT in February this year. As part of the changes, Tourism NT was integrated under the Department of Business, Economic and Regional Development with a Tourism NT advisory board replacing the previous statutory authority.
“It is better if the other activities under the mega department are related to commerce and business development rather than social welfare or an environmentallyoriented portfolio,” he says.
Even Queensland, which has one of the last remaining statutory authorities in Tourism Queensland, appears to be moving in this direction with the government making noises that it would like to see Tourism Queensland become part of a government department.
Wood says all the state marketing stories say the same thing. “They’ve all got the same images of yuppie people eating lovely food, walking on lovely beaches. “Some of the scenery might change, but if you took out the brand name, I guarantee 90 percent of consumers wouldn’t know which state they were advertising.”
Both Wood’s and King’s comments come at an interesting time for the tourism industry. The leadership and governmental structure that has existed for the past two decades is shifting. A big leap forward took place when tourism was taken out of government departments and put into statutory corporations. This resulted in the bringing together of boards of industry people who understood what was going on and the issues facing the industry.
Wood says nobody seems to question what return the industry gets for the marketing efforts of state tourism organisations (STOs) or the national tourism body, Tourism Australia.
Over time however, with changes to government and political persuasion, the governments across the various states and territories have moved from statutory corporations that it doesn’t have control
His argument is if the private sector was charged with the same responsibility, it would have to be accountable down to the last cent. His controversial stance is that STOs are moribund organisations that need shaking up at the grass roots. “The industry as a whole needs to start thinking about the problem, rather than continuing to throw money against the wall,” he says. “Having tourism as part of mega departments means it’s easier to lose money and no one is accountable for it. Hopefully in a small department, there would be more focus and more people’s heads in the game.” Wood contends there is limited or nonexistent consultation between STOs, Tourism Australia and operators. “Typically a company like wotif.com is shunned by the national body because we say what we think and it’s not often what they want
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In NSW, the government said the move to integrate tourism into a department was in recognition of the importance of the state’s $23 billion tourism economy and its role in the creation and maintenance of 250,000 jobs, direct and indirect, which equates to eight percent of the total NSW workforce. Under the changes, Tourism Minister Sandra Nori (who has said she will not contest her seat in next year’s state election) said Tourism NSW would continue to provide the tourism industry with a clear voice in government. “Tourism NSW’s position will be enhanced
“They’ve all got the same images of yuppie people eating lovely food, walking on lovely beaches. Some of the scenery might change, but if you took out the brand name, I guarantee 90 percent of consumers wouldn’t know which state they were advertising.” over - or defacto control - to integrating tourism into government departments or groupings of departments. Victoria, NSW, Tasmania, WA and the ACT no longer have full fiduciary boards, but advisory boards. Tourism NSW, which became part of the Department of State and Regional Development in April this year, has an advisory board responsible to the Minister for Tourism as does Australian Capital Tourism. Likewise, the Northern Territory Tourism Commission became
by its linkage to the Department of State and Regional Development which has been charged with attracting more investment to grow the NSW economy.” Northern Territory chief minister Clare Martin meanwhile, said integrating Tourism NT into the Department of Business, Economic and Regional Development was not just an amendment in name only. “This will provide more opportunities to develop and expand partnerships with other government agencies to develop
tourism, particularly in regional areas,” she said. Others don’t necessarily see it that way. Some claim the benefit to government in having this model is it can exercise a greater degree of control over policy and is better able to influence outcomes and campaigns - meaning potentially it can become more about the government’s agenda versus what is actually required. As a board member it takes away policy control over an organisation, and the degree of fiduciary responsibility. An advisory board member is there to give advice but ultimately management and government don’t necessarily have to take it. John King says there is more accountability under a board/ commercial structure as such a structure is designed to deliver real results. “With a strategic focus results are appropriately measured against strategic objectives. Furthermore with an expert, commercial and independent board, the scrutiny is much more related to true and strategic outcomes.” Most would agree wholeheartedly that tourism is about marketing to consumers and not about government, although government is certainly needed to provide the infrastructure to ensure the industry grows. Until recently, tourism in Australia has been a good news industry. But with times getting tougher, competition growing and the world changing, many are concerned that Australia is still using old models and going backwards in terms of how it competes with the rest of the world. A total examination, they say, of the resources used as part of government tourism strategies, along with the number of public servants employed to produce papers and so forth, versus what’s been spent in the market, is desperately needed. Many applaud the direction taken recently by the Gold Coast City Council which has given a huge increase in funding to Tourism Gold Coast. Some take the view that tourism doesn’t happen in Tourism Queensland, Tourism Victoria or where parliament sits, but rather at the destination. At the end of the day the local people and the local government are the ones that determine an area’s tourism future. The suggestion is that there needs to be an evolution of resources and focus away from a centralised approach down to regions and destinations. But if you look at Australia across the board, this isn’t happening. By and large regional tourism is largely under-funded and under-resourced, not just in terms of money but in professionalism and wherewithal. A lot of local governments are floundering without the knowledge of strategic planning and what’s needed to facilitate tourism in their regions. King says bringing an STO into a government department reduces its focus on the market and the strategy needed to drive it. “Government departments are designed to develop and carry out government policy. This is not the principle focus of STOs if they are to be as effective as possible in fulfilling their primary role.”
visitmelbourne.com
Drew Kluska, Managing Director of South Australiabased tour operator Outback Encounter, said in an ideal world tourism would have its own stand-alone atx:magazine:issuetwo
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GST generated by international visitors by state 2003 Net GST generated by international visitors
department, represented by the one government minister.
(GST - Input Cr - TRS) x % Share)
â&#x20AC;&#x153;The industry as a whole now has a more unified voice, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s such an important portfolio in terms of its economic impact that it really should be represented by the one minister.â&#x20AC;? Having said that, Kluska said the STOs he has dealings with do put in the effort and do try to make a difference. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They have close contact with the market and know whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s doing what and can help you direct your efforts.â&#x20AC;? Kluska says Australia is a complex product and while the STOsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and Tourism Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s marketing efforts may not always fit in with the needs of his company, he can see what they are trying to achieve. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have to be realistic. Improvements can be made, but Australia is in a very fortunate position to even have support from government organisations. Lots of countries around the world simply donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have this backing.â&#x20AC;? Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Regional Director â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Pacific, Chris Flynn, sympathises with the STOsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; challenging position. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Those charged with the responsibility of marketing Australia face a number of complex issues. And one of the key issues of course is the diversity in product and environment.â&#x20AC;? Flynn says it makes perfect sense for the states to work together and in conjunction with Tourism Australia to market and promote their different strengths and opportunities. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There does need to be consistency in the message Australia is trying to promote internationally, while also ensuring that each part of the puzzle is brought to the fore for the benefit of each region.â&#x20AC;? Flynn agrees with Kluska that Australia is not as cut and dried a destination as somewhere like New Zealand, where the industry can rally together because they are all singing the same song.
GST return rate (as per CGC return on total GST)
International visitor GST returned
Total GST payment 05/06
(net GST x return rate to State)
NSW Victoria Queensland SA WA Tasmania NT ACT rounding
$232,986,501.07 28.93% $143,073,400.65 21.65% $147,667,500.68 20.40% $24,939,400.11 9.09% $70,224,100.32 10.18% $7,219,300.03 3.70% $14,438,600.07 4.25% $13,126,000.06 1.82% $2,625,200.01
$189,837,871.18 $142,094,470.42 $133,894,251.16 $59,625,921.57 $66,781,620.62 $24,250,522.85 $27,866,622.41 $11,948,722.80
$12,904,000,000.00 $9,658,700,000.00 $9,101,300,000.00 $4,053,000,000.00 $4,539,400,000.00 $1,648,400,000.00 $1,894,200,000.00 $812,200,000.00
TOTAL
$656,300,003.00
$656,300,003.00
$44,611,200,000.00
100%
* ATEC commissioned report by Aegis Consulting
Tourism state funding The following table shows state and territory funding to their tourism promotion agencies over years 2000 to 2006. State and territory tourism allocations (nominal dollars)* 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 State $m $m $m $m $m $m
NSW VIC QLD SA WA TAS NT ACT Total
54.5 39.6 42.4 54.0 37.5 28.2 26.7 23.0 305.9
49.6 43.2 45.4 55.0 34.3 28.7 25.9 22.4 304.5
56.9 38.4 43.4 46.0 35.4 29.0 26.1 16.7 291.9
56.5 38.3 42.6 45.7 39.5 33.4 38.2 16.6 310.8
49.4 38.0 42.9 41.0 39.4 35.0 37.9 20.2 303.7
50.3 39.1 43.4 45.2 40.6 36.7 37.8 19.7 312.8
% change from 04-05 to 05-06 1.8% 2.9% 1.1% 10.2% 3.0% 5.0% -0.1% -2.5% 2.9%
*State and territory budget papers, various years
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Australia is an incredibly diverse and complex geographic environment.â&#x20AC;? Potentially though, he says, this creates a nightmare scenario for marketers in trying to deliver the one message overseas. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What is positive is the various STOs are trying harder to work together more, and cross-border issues are no longer as pronounced as they once were. I think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recognised by the various STOs and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re now seeing greater synergy between each stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s marketing.â&#x20AC;?
General Manager Marketing and Sales for BridgeClimb, Christopher Gough, says the industry also needs to take responsibility for ensuring the government keeps its focus on the industry. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Naturally I feel it is important that government sees tourism as an important contributor to the economy, but it is also the responsibility of the tourism industry to try and influence positive outcomes for our sector,â&#x20AC;? he said.
DISCOVER SYDNEYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S STORY
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rav ellin g
atx: feature
Tangled Web
the
The times they-are-a-changing to the way your customers find and book your product, Ben Sandilands reports. One of the toughest questions for inbound tourism sellers is ‘How do our customers find us?’ and a multi-sided battle between airlines, retail agents, webbased booking services and traditional computer reservations systems isn’t making the search for answers easier. In July the predominantly outbound or domestic on-line retailer Webjet made its first move into inbound distribution. Webjet integrated the information stored in the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse into its US booking engine.
distribution
riddle
Other inbound markets will follow and in a similar display of intentions, Jetstar International emphasised that it planned to do most of its inbound business directly with the customers and not via the traditional channels best known to industry in the Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan markets. Note that Webjet and Jetstar have already locked horns over domestic distribution. And Jetstar has plenty of company among other airlines world-wide which are determined to eliminate as far as possible those retailers they see as coming between them and their customers. It is a battle of monumental scope and consequences, not just in domestic and outbound markets, but inbound. The ubiquity of on-line services in banking, bill payments, and general information is changing the behaviour of customers forever, making them predisposed to seek on-line services as the starting, if not finishing, point of their search for travel product. It used to be said that customers would research on the ‘net and buy in an agency.
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That too is under immediate challenge. So-called dynamic packaging of tour components with fares is turning into a feedback process, where consumer queries, as they start their search on a particular site, are used to generate split-second assessments of what sort of customer they are so they can be offered a ‘compelling’ option to buy at that time. A ‘compelling’ value proposition is not necessarily the same as dirt cheap. Consumers are becoming savvy enough to know they can never be certain of nailing down the best deal over hours of web surfing. But information technology is now closing in, especially through Google, on the good old-fashioned merits of impulse buying, as long practised by department stores, and the most successful traditional travel agencies. When someone talks about ‘dynamic packaging’ think ‘impulse buying.’
In broad terms, how your customers book your product is becoming more important than how they are persuaded to choose it. In broad terms, how your customers book your product is becoming more important than how they are persuaded to choose it for one compelling reason. The booking processes or ‘distribution’ show every sign of costing more. Marketing costs need to be considered elsewhere in the mix. A large resort, or an exclusive guest house that occupies a ravishing position that commands universal recognition and appears in every second edition or telecast of the most read or watched travel magazines or shows, mightn’t need to spend a cent on marketing. But they will still spend on ‘distribution.’ Distribution, and the fees involved, have become targeted as a cost to be reduced by the airlines, and a source of revenue to be increased by the expanding ranks of specialised on-line booking sites, of which Webjet is but the most widely recognised example.
atx: d When airlines cut costs, they often transfer them to their customers, with web checkins, booking engines and surcharges for credit cards or the use of call centres all providing examples of making the customer do the data entry or pay for costs previously borne by the carriers. Neither the airlines nor retailers are necessarily interested in the marketing processes that make people want to book your superbly located two bedroom B&B or a suite in a 1000 room resort in the first place, since their real interest will be to sell the fares, or collect the booking ‘toll’, or in a some cases, do both. Ryanair does both. Out of a full year’s revenues of $US1.8 billion, Ryanair collected $100 million from linking car, tour and accommodation providers, including B&B aggregators like those used by Webjet, to ryanair.com, through which more than 95 percent of its flight bookings are now claimed to be made. It’s an example not lost on Virgin Blue, Jetstar or Qantas, which have individually emphasised that they want a bigger slice of the money other businesses are making ‘downstream’ out of their services, as well as selling flights which they claim earn the lowest margins of the entire inbound visitor money chain. The message from the Australian carriers is that they are moving, resolutely, to paying
Neither the airlines nor retailers are necessarily interested in the marketing processes that make people want to book your superbly located two bedroom B&B or a suite in a 1000 room resort in the first place. In the thick of the action between new retail distribution channels like Webjet and the carriers in general are the GDS or global distribution systems, lead by Sabre and Amadeus, their low-cost challengers or GNEs including Navitaire (Open Skies) and the nascent airRES system being rolled out by Cendant Corp, and traditional retail travel agents and the tour wholesalers. The decades of former stability in the long and predictable relationships between airlines, the GDS, and retailers are at an end. Among the portents are carriers, including Jetstar in Australia and Southwest in the US, which have declared that their logos, fares and inventory are their trademarked intellectual property, and not there to be exploited by third party web sites over which they have no control.
nothing to their retailers, and encouraging them to charge service fees or mark up net fares as they deem commercially appropriate. And equally, they intend to charge third party providers, including hotels, car rental firms and card reward programs that use their loyalty points, higher fees for leveraging the power of brands like Qantas or Virgin Blue to sell more of their own goods and services.
In the US, Southwest all but broke the intended reach of the Orbitz fare booking portal by removing its inventory. In that market, low-cost carriers are very expensive at the last minute, but the legacy carriers offered their distressed inventory sales cheaply at the last minute, with the result that last minute bargain hunter web sites turned cheap airlines into costly airlines. The lesson for those chasing web bookings is that not everyone will be trying to sell at an acceptable yield when you put your rooms or tours up for sale. Or take the case of the competing GDS
giants, Sabre and Amadeus, that entered into a pact in March to offer through each other’s services, any inventory that an airline decided to pay only one GDS to host. American Airlines initially implied it might take legal action against a GDS which gave its data to another with whom it did not wish to do business, and in a later development, was joined by United in imposing a $US3.50 per sector booking fee to be debited against any agent booking a sector using an ‘unapproved’ booking program. This has potential consequences for your agents if these hostilities spread. Those who are paid incentives to use a particular system may be ‘fined’ for doing so by the airlines which may, however, be your partners in packaging. This can do unexpected harm to your sales, and complete resolution of these issues seems uncertain. The decision by two dominant GDS to give their supposedly exclusive content to each other has the potential to generate consumer and competition related litigation world wide and divide a GDS booking environment that was once considered universal into hostile or exclusive camps, with adverse consequences for efficient inbound product distribution by the systems. But the reason behind this disturbing GDS dispute is dear to the hearts of Qantas, atx:magazine:issuetwo
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atx: feature Singapore Airlines and all the other major inbound carriers. GDS sector fees are an increasingly unsustainable burden on the airlines, and in terms of published charges, typically range from $US3.75-4.50 per booked sector. The airlines want to break free from the outdated pre-internet, labour-intensive costs of the GDS, but can’t sever the links because none of the GNEs have yet replicated their depth and breadth of functionality when it comes to the flexible access of inventory. In turn, the GNEs make the case that consumer needs are changing and the GDS is becoming less important. They argue that over time your customers are less likely to use a retail agent to deliver a total deal, and are becoming more likely to buy their airfares directly from an airline or third party fare booking site, and either pick up the tour components using ‘dynamic packaging’ (an offer of rooms for example generated by the site based on your apparent profile or price range) or go to one of the many hotel sites, whether multi-brand, like lastminute.com, or run by a brand. There are many ways of cutting and dicing these power plays. But the main ones involve control (of information) and costs. The internet empowered the consumer to research Australia on-line. Google more recently freed on-line shoppers from needing to know a web address, since it will find them for you, ranking them in terms of visibility according to commercial criteria which include fees paid to the global search engine. If you have a web site and you can’t find yourself on the top half of the first page of a Google search you are no longer exist for the rapidly growing mass of discretionary on-line shoppers. The internet has not caused consumers to
Examples of how customers book product: A jetstar homepage screen grab & Webjet homepage screen grag
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There are many ways of cutting and dicing these power plays. But the main ones involve control (of information) and costs.
This gives them control over how their product is presented, and removes the exposure to comparison shopping or advice on how a consumer can exploit fare rules.
stop seeing a travel consultant, especially one offering Australian expertise, to finalise or review plans for personal leisure, or especially to devise a conference or incentive trip.
Or does it? Webjet managing director David Clarke says of its current domestic site: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We had 52,000 customers in May. Our customers, not the airlineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s customers. They paid us a fee for unbiased fare data on which to base their choice.â&#x20AC;?
The consumer markets of Japan and Korea that have traditionally tended to take a lead from what the major tour wholesalers decided would be the hottest selling destinations of the coming year are also the ones most liberated by high household uptake of broadband internet. Traditional wholesaler market influence or control is clearly under challenge when Jetstar International bypasses them with directly competitive offers. The internet is a relief to national tourism offices because being represented on sites easily found by Google costs almost nothing compared to a short television campaign in say Japan, or at half time at the Super Bowl in the US. Being readily accessible through the
data warehouse links or others found on Australia.com is assuming critical importance for inbound tour operators, and stand alone products where the commercial case for paying for such exposure is justified by their scale or location. Dynamic price packaging for fares plus accommodation has just gone one step further, with Webjet integrating Google Earth into the choose-and-book process. Within a few years customers could use this technology to reverse the relationship with an inbound tour operator, emailing them a screen capture of the particular wing of a resort in the Whitsundays they have chosen for its outlook in order to seek a quote, including that product instead of making a selection from your recommendations. Inbound product distribution is also being influenced by the desire by the carriers to redirect as much booking away from travel agents and third party sites onto their sites.
Clarke is on rare common ground with those traditional travel retailers who say that unbiased data aimed at helping the customer make the best possible value judgment - which is different from choosing the lowest price - is the real product that an agent has to sell in a world where commissions, incentives and overrides are being removed or reduced by the suppliers. This tussle for control of information and inventory by airlines and other suppliers on one hand, and a new breed of technologyenabled product bookers who champion the notion of impartial comparison shopping and comprehensive choice on the other, has only just begun.
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atx: spotlight Abseiling is one of RIverlife’s products.
– overlooking Brisbane’s corporate skyscrapers – that the pair hit upon the idea for Riverlife. “Because we were new to tourism we didn’t know how things worked, but the industry has helped drive our product for us. I am amazed at the level of support you get, even from your competitors,” says Sharpe. Riverlife’s marketing strategy was to join industry groups such as Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC), Brisbane Marketing and ATEC. “What that did,” explains Sharpe, “was lead us to the networks of retailers and inbound tourism operators. They have been contacting us, rather than us contacting them.” In November last year, Riverlife was named the winner in the New Tourism Development category at the 2005 Queensland Tourism Awards.
successful and award-winning tourist attraction.
“The award has built credibility in the eyes of the public,” says Sharpe. “We started writing the award submission when we had been open just two weeks and it forced us to address some criteria which at that stage we were not aware of. We had looked at risk management, business planning and marketing, but, for example, we hadn’t thought about international visitation.”
Riverlife offers adrenaline-charged experiences such as kayaking, rock climbing, abseiling and in-line skating – with or without instructors – from as little as $15 without customers needing to book or organise groups.
Every visitor to Riverlife is given the option of being updated with a monthly email, which also offers draw prizes, and so far more than 12,000 people are being regularly reminded of their Riverlife experience.
Graham Readfearn reports When business partners Danielle Geddes and John Sharpe launched Riverlife Adventure Centre just over a year ago, it was never meant to be a tourism business. But within a year, the pair has turned their operation at the 120-year-old Naval Stores on the banks of the Brisbane River into a
John Sharpe explained that the original plan was to offer the activities to corporate groups, rather than tourists. But now, only about a quarter of Riverlife’s customers are corporates. “We didn’t realise just how popular this was going to be with international visitors,” admits Sharpe. “I think a lot of visitors are seeking out adventurous ways to discover Brisbane.” Neither owner-director Sharpe nor ownerdirector and CEO Geddes have previous tourism experience. Geddes worked in the fashion industry and Sharpe was in construction. It was during late 2003 while Sharpe was working on the safety and engineering aspects of the nearby Story Bridge Adventure Climb
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Enjoying the Riverlife in a kayak. atx :magazine:issuetwo
Sharpe revealed that financially too, the business is performing well, and is currently 25 percent above budget expectations with an increasing demand for their product. Riverlife’s management team of seven obviously have an eye for detail. The premises are cool, clean and modern and safety measures are built into the activities. For example, the fleet of 50 kayaks are specially imported from America because of their superior buoyancy and steering capability. Sharpe adds: “Word of mouth is probably our strongest way of marketing. We don’t let anyone go away having not had the best adventure that they could. Even if it was down to something out of our control – like the weather – we let people come back to have another go for free.” For more information go to www.riverlife.com.au.
Postscript: After the initial interview for this article, Riverlife received the 2006 Premier’s Award for Reconciliation for their new Riverlife Mirrabooka product.
atx: feature
Australia is riding the crest of a meetings and incentive wave, but there may be tough times ahead. As Allan Leibowitz reports, business tourism players are looking to Canberra for real support to back the encouraging words and ambitious plans.
Business tourism, the cluster of activities which includes meetings, incentive travel, conferences and exhibitions, looks set to continue its expansion, with governments, associations and industry players determined to build on achievements to date. The sector has been buoyed by a recent report which shows the enormous value of business tourism.
The business class Getting the government on board
The National Business Events Study shows that business events in Australia generate annual expenditure of $17.36 billion and create 214,000 jobs. The report identified more than 316,000 business events held across Australia in 2003, involving 22.8 million participants, with international events triggering an average daily delegate spend of more than $550. To date, most business tourism has been domestic. Local events generated $15.5 billion, while international business accounted for $1.86 billion during the last survey period. Elizabeth Rich, Executive Director of the Business Events Council of Australia, stresses that the domestic atx:magazine:issuetwo
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atx: feature When Sydney hosted the 2000 Olympic Games, “we proved we could do it.” Cannon says. While the industry is growing, “it could do so much better if the national marketing authority had a campaign to position Australia as a business events destination”. market “underpins our whole industry sector” and provides around 80 percent of the total business events pie, so it cannot be ignored. While the sector continues to do well in a strong economic climate, she cautions that “events are usually one of the first to be hit by corporate budget cuts when times are tough”.
efforts by collectively planning and resourcing projects.
For this reason, she argues, it’s important to balance the books with strong international business, a strategy firmly in the sights of Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey.
Indicative of the collaboration between federal government, state authorities and the private sector, the Australian exhibit showcased a range of convention centres, tourism authorities, Crown Towers & Crown Promenade Hotel, Qantas, and a number of convention bureaux.
She notes a 14 percent rise in business tourists to Australia in 2005, citing ABS figures of 735,400 arrivals - an increase of 89,900 on 2004. “Business tourism gives Australia maximum bang for the buck. Thousands of business tourists descend on Australia each year, spend up big attending conferences, then visiting regional Australia for a few days rest,” she says. “But as good as the results are for 2005, we think we can do even better.” To do better, the Government has established Tourism Events Australia to tactically market Australia overseas as a business tourism destination. This augments the Team Australia initiative, a joint thrust by members of the Australian Association of Convention Bureaux (AACB) and Tourism Australia. Team Australia was formed in 1998 to increase the effectiveness of Australia’s international business events marketing
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Marketing initiatives include participation in global events such as the recent IMEX in Frankfurt, where Australia’s business tourism offers were shown off to more than 7,600 visitors.
Michael Cannon, Executive Director of the Association of Australian Convention Bureaux, believes that Australia is well positioned to make inroads in the global business tourism arena. When Sydney hosted the 2000 Olympic Games, he says, “we proved we could do it.” Cannon says that while the industry is growing, “it could do so much better if the national marketing authority had a campaign to position Australia as a business events destination”.
“Tourism Australia has plans and they look terrific,” he says. “But they will only work if there is substance behind the plans - if they put dollars of significance behind the campaign, if the campaign has longevity and if (there is appropriate market) research.” Cannon’s caution was echoed last month at an industry workshop in Melbourne where Geoff Donaghy, Chairman of the Business Events Council of Australia (BECA), outlined the rapid growth of world capacity with new convention centres, hotel meeting facilities and major venue expansions under construction on every continent. “But it is not just this supply growth that we need to be concerned about as so many of our competitor destinations are also undergoing major increases in, and very aggressive mobilisation of, their marketing resources,” he warned. Donaghy called on authorities to “start matching these aggressive collaborative strategies with some urgency”. The view that Canberra needs to “walk the talk” seems widespread among operators.
“Tourism Australia has plans and they look terrific,but they will only work if there is substance behind the plans - if they put dollars of significance behind the campaign, if the campaign has longevity and appropriate market research”.
Janelle Schreiber, Public Relations Director of the region’s leading events showcase, the AsiaPacific Incentives & Meetings Expo (AIME), welcomes the establishment of Tourism Events Australia, but notes that “we have yet to see any really new initiatives come out of this new entity”. The business events sector is becoming increasingly competitive around the world, and some parts of Australia may find it hard to compete in the world market in the future,” she notes after seeing continued growth in foreign exhibitors at the Melbourne trade show. While BECA’s Rich also sees Tourism Australia as slow off the mark, she has strong admiration for state governments which, she says, “have stepped up to the plate with investments in convention centre infrastructure”. Among the states, there is little doubt New South Wales is the dominant player, accounting for 58 percent of all international business visitors to Australia in 2005. The Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau (SCVB) has secured almost $373 million worth of conferences and other events for New South Wales in 2005/06, eclipsing its previous record of $291 million set in 2002/03. Sydney, according to SCVB Managing Director Jon Hutchison, “remains Australia’s leading city for business events and one of the world’s most desirable locations for conferences.” But while New South Wales has enjoyed the largest share of events and the biggest number of participants, Victoria is snapping at its heels and, thanks to a sizeable government investment, looks set to catch up soon. In the last budget, the Bracks Government allocated $72.7 million over four years
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“But it is not just this supply growth that we need to be concerned about as so many of our competitor destinations are also undergoing major increases in, and very aggressive mobilisation of, their marketing resources,” Geoff Donaghy warned. for major events, business events and marketing Melbourne and Victoria. This includes $8.1 million for the Melbourne Conventions and Visitors Bureau. Earlier this year, the Premier unveiled plans for a new 5,000-seat convention centre and five-star hotel on the Yarra that “will secure Melbourne’s position as Australia’s business event capital generating millions of dollars each year for the business tourism and retail sectors and creating thousands of new jobs for Victorians.” For now, things are looking promising. As SCVB’s Hutchison sees it, “there is no question that Australia maintains an edge
the choice made easy
because of its very professional suppliers as well as its unique attractions.” This is evidenced by the latest International Congress and Convention Association rankings which rate Australia as the world’s eighth events country for the second year in a row. But even as the only Australian city in the ICCA top 20, Hutchison is taking nothing for granted. “All governments in Australia need to do more (to encourage business tourism),” he says. “Our main competitors in Asia are more strongly supported by government investment and leadership, particularly in the area of infrastructure creation.”
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it’s never been so easy call 02 9977 3646 info@providentfinance.com.au 33 atx:magazine:issuetwo
atx: research story
We all know information is key and time is money, but is data that can be accessed for free worth paying for? Anders Lindström reports.
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The on-line research tool decipher.biz claims to be the tourism industry’s onestop-shop for any research or data, and in many ways it is exactly that. In essence, the Decipher format combines Australia-wide data and makes it easily accessible to the industry. The search tools are easy to use - as long as you know exactly how to use them. Various research can be stored and modified into a personalised report. The website launched in February 2005 following more than four years of planning and development. Aimed to be a service for the industry by the industry, it was lauded by Tourism Minister Fran Bailey as the world’s largest tourism business information portal. Since then the service, which includes data from some 200 sources, has attracted 2000 subscribers. The website was somewhat revamped earlier this year to become more user friendly. With its extensive portfolio of information, Decipher can be somewhat overwhelming for first time users. The company therefore provides seminars across Australia in addition to its standard help line. For a number of tourism operators, ranging from international hotels and wholesalers to small private companies, the information available is not just useful, but the key to survival
in a competitive market. Research is undoubtedly the ultimate tool in order to expand any business. Not knowing your market is like entering it blindfolded – yet it is a mistake too often repeated. The majority of Decipher’s data is from reputable sources such as Tourism Australia, state tourism organisations, city councils, airports, hotel associations, etc., but it is all research that would be carried out regardless of Decipher’s existence. The data can therefore be found on the respective websites or at least obtained from respective bodies, all for free – if you have the time and knowledge of knowing where to look. Decipher’s advantage, is to link it all together, easily and efficiently in seconds. And its content is constantly evolving and improving, although there are no plans to introduce any exclusive research. Besides research data, decipher. biz contains numerous marketing campaigns, branding awareness tips and other information that could otherwise cost a small operator a fortune to obtain. According to chief executive Paula Quirk Russo, the most sought-after information is the international visitor surveys, followed by AAA Tourism’s
For a number of tourism operators, ranging from international hotels and wholesalers to small private companies, the information available is not just useful, but the key to survival in a competitive market.
star ratings and census data. She acknowledges this information can be found elsewhere, but notes that Decipher’s technology to combine, manipulate and modify it is unique. Most importantly, Decipher’s information is unbiased compared to a lot of data available to the masses online that is sometimes tweaked to represent something it is not. ATEC is a Decipher founding member and as such, ATEC members can procure special rates for Decipher products. Information on the special members’ deal can be found by contacting Decipher at www.decipher.biz
MYOB – the Decipher way Decipher offers both quick and advance searches. The latter allows subscribers to choose resource type and supplier, as well as the standard topic of interest and region (nation-wide, state-wide or specific region).
So, for instance, if you are a Blue Mountains-based operator wanting data on the characteristics of visitors to the region, in just a few clicks you have three reports to choose from, one from AAA Tourism and two from Sensis. However, none has been updated since 2003. In a more advanced search, subscribers
can study the impacts of tourism in the Northern Territory, with seven results ranging from indigenous interest in fishing tourism to renewable energy sources for the Australian tourism industry; or search for tourism forecasting for Sydney, which surprisingly only returns two resources, both from ANZ.
You haven’t experienced the best of Perth without a leisurely trip to its largest recreation and conservation reserve.
1/2 Page AD Whiteman Park is all about Western Australia’s wonderful lifestyle - relaxing outdoors with friends and family. Situated in a magnificent bush setting, just fifteen kilometres from the centre of Perth, its ten thousand acres is home to native animals, grazing cattle and a working cross section of Western Australian transport history. This includes four kilometres of electric tramway, six kilometres of narrow gauge railway, the country’s second biggest motor museum, vintage tractors and buses and a collection of historic horse drawn wagons. But that’s not all you’ll find.
In the charming central village there’s a licensed café, craft shops and working displays of ‘old time’ trades, including printing, bootmaking and traditional wheel wrighting. And of course, there are playgrounds for the children, including a summer splash pool, sports courts, walk trails and bike paths, and much, much more. For more information, simply visit us at www.whitemanpark.com
WHITEMAN PARK R E C R E AT I O N & C O N S E R V AT I O N R E S E R V E
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atx: tourism hero Denise Scrafton never set out for a career in hospitality. Instead she says she was 19 and simply applying for jobs, ending up with what in 1971 was Flag Motels“. I had worked in a bank for a short period of time and that wasn’t me,” she says. The hotel industry, she quickly realised, was definitely all her. Her passion for the industry is rivalled by few, which has resulted in a career spanning over 35 years, and Scrafton is far from done with it.
passion All about
Anders Lindström
talks to an industry icon.
At Flag she started in the reservation area, but within a few years becoming reservations manager, then opening up and managing the inbound division in 1974. Over the years, her scope expanded, as did her market responsibilities, and promotions succeeded one after another. When New Zealand firm Mainstay launched in Australia in 2004, Scrafton was at the helm as general manager. The chain concentrates on properties in the mid-market range. “It is a very competitive market as it is where the bulk of the business is. It is also very challenging to ensure that you have an international perspective and can get into wholesale brochures. It’s all about relationships,” she says. At time of the launch the aim was to have 100 properties within three years. At present Mainstay has 30 in its portfolio. “We’re slightly behind on that target. It was an ambitious target, but it is now not as important as when we started the company. We’re making steady progress.” Scrafton is one of few industry professionals who has worked across all global markets. “I loved the UK/Europe market, it’s very constant. It is very much you go in and do the deal, it is not highly negotiable,” she says. She cites emerging markets such as the Middle East and South America “interesting”, and the latter also tough. Luckily, Scrafton says, most markets like dealing with Australians. “I’m always just myself. One of the biggest mistakes is to change yourself to adapt. If you go in and do business as yourself, obviously respecting cultures, that’s what they want to see.”
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Standing tall in the Pacific International apartments.
Image by www.zahrina.com