By Roy Weavers

In recent years, the tourism industry has shown how resilient it is. It’s rebounded from the impacts of SARS, the Bali bombings, and most recently - the Global Financial Crisis. 

The Government’s economic stimulus package and an increased focus on domestic marketing - particularly the No Leave No Life campaign - have helped deliver a better result than what may have otherwise occurred in some sectors.
International tourism to Australia has held up very well in 2009 and we’ve out-performed the rest of the world.

The Australian Government understands that without access to a well-trained and committed workforce, it is difficult to meet the demands of an increasingly discerning consumer. Improving skills and training will give tourism operators access to a more mobile, professional workforce.

So the recently released National Long-Term Tourism Strategy placed a premium on skills and training. The government is working with Service Skills Australia to implement their Tourism and Hospitality Workforce Development Strategy, developing a plan that addresses labour and skills shortages in the tourism industry, increasing labour mobility and identifying projected labour and skills shortages and planning for future demand. 

Better market intelligence helps the industry plan for future growth and producing the right data on employment, skills and market trends allows industry to make better investment and business decisions.  It improves investor confidence and empowers tourism operators to plan and grow their business.

Mr Ferguson launched the addition of tourism data to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations website called ‘skills info’.  It includes, the state of play for tourism employment, industry profiles by sector and future trends.

He also launched the Regional Tourism Employment in Australia report which provides an outline of employment for tourism in key regional centres.  Tourism employs almost half a million Australians. Many of those jobs are in rural and regional areas.  The National Long Term Tourism Strategy also provides a focus on future investment in tourism - in hotels, airports and attractions.

This investment is needed. The majority of Australia’s 3 and 4 star properties were built between 1965 and 1980.  The Strategy aims to remove barriers to investment and provide better information – on demographics, taxation, market trends and labour issues to give investors more confidence.

In endorsing this strategy, tourism ministers in all states have committed to engage more with other portfolios – on issues such as planning approvals, business regulation and infrastructure development. This stronger co-operation between industry and state and territory governments is unprecedented and will help accelerate the investment we need.

Editors Comments: Positive words from the Minister, let’s hope the message for this new era gets right through to the grass routes.  When we plan for future spending for future tourism initiatives, the plan should also include a monitoring and analysis component for results.  No good spending money if we don’t whether we are achieving any direct results and benefits.