Tourism Australia Unveils 5-Year Industry Boosts
More tourists will hopefully flock to Australian destinations as industry officials announced on Wednesday a long-range tourism blueprint designed to lure more visitors into the country.
Tourism Australia chief executive Andrew McEvoy revealed today the forging of an agreement with his firm, the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) and the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism (DRET) that aims to ramp up the marketing of the country as an attractive tourist spot.
The alliance, according to Mr McEvoy will have a projected lifespan of five years and will lay out specific projects that would contribute to Australia's goal of becoming one of the world's busiest tourism locations.
The three entities will coordinate efforts of further improving the existing attractions of the Australian tourism industry by creating an environment that is conducive for both local and foreign investors, the Tourism Australia boss said.
"We acknowledge that investment sourced both locally and internationally is vital to growing the Australian tourism industry and achieving our industry's goal of doubling overnight visitor expenditure to up to $140 billion a year by 2020. This is the level of growth we need to bring new investment to life," Mr McEvoy said in statement.
"As part of a recently expanded remit for Tourism Australia, we're broadening our focus to play a greater role to help facilitate tourism investment opportunities and more strongly align demand and supply side activities," The Australian reported him as saying on Wednesday.
In line with the finalisation of the deal, Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson unveiled today the setting up of the Tourism Investment Monitor, which will serve as a reference tool for prospective investors in the industry.
The monitor, according to the Tourism Ministry, will help out investors to identify their specific investment interests in the industry, which reportedly has an existing project pipeline that runs to more than $40 billion, both short-term and long-term.
The monitor will be included in the Ministry's Australian Tourism Investment Guide division, which to date is handling some 80 investment opportunities that would be presented to likely investors for their consideration.
Tourism Australia's fresh initiative will be primarily focused on Asian audiences, specifically the Chinese tourists, whose growing affluence and mobility have been the emerging target of the country's tourism industry managers.
Australia, Mr McEvoy said, has the capability to enchant the hordes of Chinese visitors that were expected to flood the country in the immediate years ahead.
"Our country is poised to take advantage of some of the exciting opportunities being created through the powerhouse economies of Asia, particularly in China, our fastest growing and highest international spending market," he noted.
And one way of attracting them is the planned establishment of a new casino complex in Sydney by Australian business mogul James Packer, who has a standing application for the construction of a gambling resort in Barangaroo.
If that project pushes through, and along with Tourism Australia's push for more tourism projects, Mr McEvoy believes that the country will gain more traction in the stiff global tourism competition, stressing that "Australia is within the strongest performing tourism region and largest global aviation market in the world."