20 August 2009

DonÃ¢â¬â¢t despair, not everyone is on Skid Row

GOLD COAST - The global financial crisis has not left travellers as poor as many tourism businesses believed, with many people actually benefiting financially from the downturn, one of Australia's top researchers says.

Roy Morgan Research chief executive Michele Levine told the national Tourism Futures conference this week that many businesses were under the mistaken impression that everyone had caught the global financial crisis blues.

Ms Levine said while other countries had been impacted more severely, the direct hit on Australians had been on their assets only and consumer confidence was still faring well.

While the very wealthy had lost big and had slowed their spending, young people and families with secure jobs had benefited financially from falling mortgage and fuel costs and the federal governmentÃ¢â¬â¢s stimulus package.

"You've still got people who are confident - target them," the researcher said. Ã¢â¬ÅâœThe global financial crisis is just like the flu, and I mean by that, some people get sick and some people don't.Ã¢â¬~

She said businesses needed to be mindful not to consider everyone to be down and out when marketing their product.

"There's no point trying to sell flu capsules to someone who's not sick, just like there's no point trying to give a free cruise to somebody who's really ill with the flu," she said.

Source: Gold Coast Bulletin