Tourism industry is resilient
MY first personal experience with the external shocks that the tourism industry is subject to was going to Brisbane Airport to welcome home my father from a work trip.
Instead of stepping off a commercial service he appeared from the belly of a RAAF Hercules resplendent in his noise-cancelling headphones and clutching his meal pack. It was of course the time of the pilots’ strike.
Fast forward to today and once again our industry finds itself in the midst of not one but two external shocks.
Over the next few months the Cairns industry will be tested as never before. The scenario in which we now find ourselves facing is unprecedented.
This all said, I remain an optimist about the long-term outlook for Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef region.
It’s easy in times like this to focus on the dread and gloom, but we often forget how resilient the industry is in Queensland.
Events like these raise some perennial issues for our sector. Issues that have long not been addressed for fear of having the “hard conversation” or were masked over by the cyclic performance of a destination.
The first and foremost of these issues is the source and level of government funding for the sector.
For a sector that has been called a key pillar of the state’s economy and a super sector of the future Australian economy, we have been under funded. This is across all levels of government – federal, state and local – and across many years. From time to time there are one-off injections – usually in a time of crisis – but at an operating level the tourism bodies who market destinations like Cairns often live a hand-to-mouth, year-to-year existence.
Compounding this is the fact that these bodies are called upon to market everything in a region, further depleting scarce resources.
Overlay external shocks and the problem only intensifies.
The proposed introduction of a new visitor levy to fund the likes of TTNQ floated by Mayor Bob Manning is an interesting concept that’s worth discussing and should be discussed by industry and government together.
There are pros and cons of the mechanism for others to debate but the facts are that its common place in other cities around the world particularly in Europe and the US. It’s also been used as part of a mechanism to license and regulate home sharing operators, such as Airbnb.
To me however, the fundamental issue that needs to be resolved as part of any discussion around new funding sources is ensuring we have the most efficient structure to use the additional resources.
By this I mean the way we market the region and the state. By the nature of its federated structure and our three layers of government we have a cluttered tourism marketplace.
During my time at Tourism Australia, we would often launch a new campaign, only to watch as a state and territory or local tourism organisation launched their own campaign in parallel. The net effect on the customer who is looking to book a holiday to Australia is to confuse them. It’d be like the Cairns Post and The Courier-Mail advertising in the local Cairns market.
Our competitors, such as destinations like Japan and Singapore, don’t have this issue and thus already have a competitive advantage over Australia in this regard.
Domestically, the question is also the same. If there are additional funds available is it TEQ or TTNQ that takes the message forward?
Again, it’s no use if they are going to use this money to fund the same types of activity but with a different message; the customer just gets confused.
In my opinion the structure is simple. Tourism Australia concentrates solely on international marketing. There is market failure here and overseas visitors select a country first.
TEQ’s job should be to focus on the broader national audience and largely intrastate market. The role of bodies such as TTNQ needs to focus on the regional market.
To be honest it should be a structure that is implemented now but it will become even more important if Cr Manning succeeds in his quest to gain more funds for the sector.
IT’S EASY IN TIMES LIKE THIS TO FOCUS ON THE DREAD AND GLOOM, BUT WE OFTEN FORGET HOW RESILIENT THE INDUSTRY IS IN QUEENSLAND