Partnerships were the bedrock of Australia’s tourism success, said Peter Shelley, MD of the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC), at the Satsa Conference 2019.
He said ATEC’s strength lay in its partnerships with the Australian government and with Tourism Australia. Speaking about Australia’s 2020 tourism strategy, Shelley pointed out that the whole of government was engaged. “This was an industry-supported strategy, but a government-led strategy, done in unison.”
Shelley said government went around the country speaking to key stakeholders and, in partnership with trade, developed a consolidated plan. “The thing that was powerful was that every level of government bought into the plan.”
He also pointed out that China was the country’s number-one market for international spend. Australia has also seen a 21% increase in visitors from India. According to Shelley, current trends in the Australian market were for shorter stays, and for more travel from the west to the east of the country. Australia ranks 40th for international arrivals, and seventh for tourism receipts. But more importantly, according to Shelley, Australia ranks first in the world for per visitor spend. “This is the most important metric we focus on.”
There were no secrets to success, he said. “It’s just that everyone is working on the same page. We hunt in a pack. We have a common base and a common message. And then as individual businesses we benefit.”
Challenges
Shelley also pointed out that Australia had various challenges when it came to tourism. Visas remained a challenge, for example, and more resources would be needed to process the high number of applications. “Let’s not have a visa process that is clumsy. If it’s too hard they [travellers] will go somewhere else,” he said.
He also spoke about infrastructure challenges. He said as a country Australia needed to make sure that infrastructure was strong enough to allow someone to stay for longer periods of time in a region.
“We need more marketing funds. We have an industry that is primed to deliver but we are suffering because our marketing funds have not increased in the last ten years.” This, he said, was surprising given that in Australia there was a 16 to one return on investment for every dollar spent on tourism marketing.
