The Great Debate: Tourism under the microscope
The great and the good will be queuing to get into the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra on Monday week (November 15) for a conference flagged as the 2010 Australian Tourism Directions Conference.
Direction is want Australia tourism needs most at the moment with domestic tourism languishing, outbound soaring and inbound going nowhere as a strong Australian dollar makes the country more expensive for overseas visitors.
Organisers Tourism Australia and the Department of Resources Energy and Tourism say the conference “will deliver national and international research and insights on Australia’s tourism performance and potential” to define “a long-term vision for the Australian tourism industry”.
Taleb Rifai, secretary-general of the World Tourism Organisation, has already had his say.
He told the recent Tourism Futures conference that tourism leaders in Australia had to step out of the comfort zone.
He said Australia needs to ditch the “island mentality” that bred complacency and a misplaced belief that international holidaymakers would beat a path to its door.
“Australia has lived for a long time . . . happy with its isolation,” Dr Rifai said. “That’s not going to work any more.”
Ian Jarrett
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