Tourism Australia backs chairman in Qantas row
Tourism Australia has backed its chairman, Geoff Dixon, in a spat with Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce.
Qantas announced on Wednesday it was suspending funding for Tourism Australia unless Dixon – a former Qantas CEO – stepped down as chairman of the tourism body or dissociated himself from a rebel investor group which is calling for change in the strategic direction of the airline.
The rebel group has questioned the benefits to Qantas of the proposed alliance with Emirates.
"It is a clear conflict that needs to be resolved," Joyce said at a National Aviation Press Club lunch in Sydney.
Joyce said Dixon was ”very much out there briefing against the company”, and he had no choice but to suspend the airline’s relationship with Tourism Australia.
Although Qantas says it will now direct funding to state tourism organisations, the loss of the airline’s support for the national tourism body is a major blow.
When Qantas and Tourism Australia first announced a three year AUD44 million partnership to market Australia internationally as a tourist destination, TA managing director, Andrew McEvoy said,
"No other airline in the world puts Australia at the heart of everything it does and that’s why the partnership with Qantas is critical to the future tourism growth."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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