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Dear member,
As you may be aware, the ‘National Long
Term Tourism Strategy' Steering Committee has presented its report
(The Jackson Report) to the
Federal Minister. The report outlines a number of
recommendations for the future growth of Australia's tourism
industry and its contents will be considered as valuable
contribution to the development of the national long-term tourism
strategy to be finalised this year by the Federal Government.
It may also inform future funding from the Commonwealth.
The ‘Jackson Report' is a very strategic
document which outlines 10 distinct recommendations, these are:
1. Develop a
high-powered national research capability focused on tourism
industry development, to complement the existing capability in
demand-side research and statistics. The
Steering Committee has proposed a need for greater research to align
market intelligence with industry and product development. It is
recommended that any research undertaken should act as a practical
resource for tourism operators nationwide to take advantage of
tourism opportunities.
The Committee proposes that the development
of an annual conference (convening STOs, RTOs, sector associations
and commercial operators should be developed alongside this research
and used as a means of distributing information.
The Steering Committee urges government to
continue to retain current funding allocations for tourism research
in the absence of further funding for the STCRC.
2. Urgently support
the acceleration of the online capability of Australian tourism
product, working with State and Territory Tourism Organisations to
fund programs that expand cost-effective digital platforms for
distribution and bookings and accelerate SME's uptake.
The Committee proposes that
Australia has fallen
behind in the online marketing of our tourism products and proposes
that we need to more rapidly embrace greater digital platforms. As
the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse is established technology,
which has strong links with open booking technology (TXA), the
Committee proposes that this is an ideal base to launch an
accelerated effort.
3. Ensure tourism has
equitable and adequate access to skills programs at national and
state level, and focus tourism skills programs and labour policies
in two areas: the recruitment development and retention of career
employees; and the facilitation of sufficient part-time and casual
employees. The Steering Committee
recognises that the industry requires a dual labour market of
full-time career professionals and lower skilled workers who tend to
take up part-time or casual employment. With this in mind, the
Committee has recommended that the industry has greater access to
national and state-wide skills programs. QTIC has previously
identified the need for greater skills development in the industry
and has developed a number of skills programs accordingly. Through
its Skills Link Team and through initiatives, such as the ‘Tourism
Recruitment and Retention Project' and the ‘Indigenous Employment
Project' QTIC has worked towards the promotion and retention of
workers in the industry.
The Steering Committee also recommends the
development of sufficient flexibility in Australia's migration
program to allow the industry to tap into overseas labour
sources. QTIC agrees with this recommendation and has liaised
extensively with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to
promote a more flexible migration program to facilitate tourism and
hospitality operators to overcome staffing shortages.
4. Establish a
comprehensive national tourism scorecard with targets and key
performance indicators (KPIs) for economic impact, social impact and
product quality. The Committee recommends
that the industry urgently establish a set of KPIs to measure its
progress against articulated benchmarks. It is also recommended that
state and territory governments need to collaborate in the
development of a scorecard and actively support any on-going data
collection. From a Queensland perspective, the need
to development economic, social and environmental indicators for the
tourism industry was identified as part of the Queensland Tourism
Strategy (QTS: 5.1.1). Tourism Queensland has taken a lead role
in this project and has been supported by QTIC.
5. Improve the
case for tourism investment through developing integrated
destination development plans and creating a national visitation
priorities list. The Committee
recognises the need to commit greater resources to ‘high potential
destinations' and key customer segments. These
priority areas will be identified from submissions by the industry,
by state, territory and local government and through independent
research. The Committee has determined that the national
visitation priorities identified will not be a static list.
6. Incorporate
a stronger recognition of tourism in government planning and
approval processes, taxation and infrastructure
planning. The Steering Committee
recommends that COAG undertake an urgent systematic review of
planning and regulatory regimes and the Henry tax review take
account of issues that impact tourism investment. The
Committee proposes that many of the regulatory regimes administered
by government act as a deterrent for growth in the tourism
industry. With this in mind, the Committee has called on
government to review of its planning and regulatory regimes to take
account of issues which impact on tourism investment.
From a Queensland perspective, QTIC has
recently lobbied the State Government to provide greater support for
small business by reviewing their current regulations and planning
provisions. QTIC has, in particular, called for a review of
both the payroll and land taxation systems and has urged the
Government to lobby for the industry in light of the forthcoming
award modernisation scheme.
7. Renew and
rebuild Australia's competitiveness by
developing and maintain long-term product strategies for
Australia.
The report recommends that a major key to Australia's long term
tourism future is through capitalisation on our major tourism
assets, including our indigenous culture, our natural landscapes and
our reputation for diverse and friendly people. The Committee
proposes that this will best be achieved through greater
collaboration with (and between) STOs, RTOs and other industry and
non-industry stakeholders..
8. The Prime
Minister to establish a federal ministerial taskforce to
periodically review tourism issues and opportunities that are shared
with key non-tourism products. The
‘Jackson Report' outlines the need for more coordination and focus
across government and industry to support greater tourism
development. This recommendation reflects the request outlined
by QTIC in its recent election submission to the Queensland
Government. In response to QTIC's submission, the Government
has agreed to convene a ministerial forum to meet twice a year to
discuss tourism issues of significance. This forum will be
chaired by the Premier and will involve high level ministers across
a number of related portfolios.
9. Industry
Associations to lead industry participants to work with the
government to make these recommendations
successful. The Steering Committee
acknowledges the critical role that industry associations can play
in ensuring the recommendations outlined above are implemented
effectively. With this in mind, the Committee promotes the
development of stronger linkages between government and industry
players at a Commonwealth, state and local level.
10. Restructure
Tourism Australia to enable it to
implement these changes. The
Steering Committee recommends that Tourism Australia be given
additional responsibilities and incorporate a greater
industry development function. The Committee has concluded
that Tourism Australia is best placed to assume the industry
development role as these functions are ‘best carried out in a
commercially focused environment at a distance from
government'. For this recommendation to be effective, Tourism
Australia will require a
substantial operations shift so that it can effectively coordinate
both the demand and supply sides of the tourism agenda.
QTIC will consider providing comment on
these recommendations to the government as appropriate and will
continue to keep you informed of any developments.
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